Wigan Canapes

[andy_wrx]

I'm amused how black pudding, a working class staple from Up North, now features as an exotic (and expensive) delicacy on poncy Southern restaurant menus...


Wigan people are known as 'Pie Eaters' because you can get practically anything in a pie.

The women are bit like amazons : we went a few years ago and a friend said he was practically raped by one in an alley behind the nightclub.

 

[TimDanaher]

Delicacies down Buenos Aires way that I've had the pleasure (?) of sampling:

Mollejas -- Ox sweetbread sprinkled with so much salt it looks like a relief map of the Alps, and:

Biscochos -- not nearly as nice as they sound: think bar of soap crossed with a ship's biscuit, but with bits of roasted lard in them, and:

Ubre - roasted udder -- not nearly as bad as it sounds, and:

Orejas Yes! Ears!! Mmmm...crunchy, and:

Chinchulines - It's not quite possible in words to describe the sheer horror that is chinchulines: unwashed, grilled lamb's intestines. Yes, I said unwashed. I bit into them, and this rather savoury green paste came squirting out. Hmmm...wonder what that can be, then?

Finally, there was Vacio, an utterly unidentifiable cut of meat, of which I ate a lot (it was very cheap). The name (it means 'empty') doesn't give you any clues...on my last night there I asked the owner of the local Parilla : 'Raúl, tell me, what exactly is Vacio?

He smiled, pointed to his midriff and announced with glee: 'Diafragma"!!!

 

[Unkraut]

I'm amused how black pudding, a working class staple from Up North, now features as an exotic (and expensive) delicacy on poncy Southern restaurant menus...

I hope you realise the Government are setting up a "re-education camp" in Surrey to cure persons of having gravy with one's French fries and other culinary incorrect combinations.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

I'm amused how black pudding, a working class staple from Up North, now features as an exotic (and expensive) delicacy on poncy Southern restaurant menus...

Much the same thing happened with polenta, a semolina like stodge from Eastern Europe. I couldn't understand critics raving over this tasteless gut filler just because they were getting it in a London restaurant rather than the bus station caff in Budapest.

 

[Andy in Sig]

The German version of black pudding is called (perhaps more honestly) Blutwurst = blood sausage. It's slightly different to but just as delicious as, the noble Lancashire original. It too gets served up in poncy restaurants as a hyper delicacy. That sort of thing doesn't bother me though. In the UK I just regard it as a sort of humble expression of admiration for Lancs on the part of southern ponces.

 

[monnet]

Vacio's delicious in a sandwich. Diafragma is a bit misleading - it's actually flank.
I lived out there for a year and have to say the food was great, including the tripe stew, apart from the chinchulines. I never could get the hang of them.

 

[Unkraut]

The German version of black pudding is called (perhaps more honestly) Blutwurst = blood sausage. It's slightly different to but just as delicious as, the noble Lancashire original. It too gets served up in poncy restaurants as a hyper delicacy. That sort of thing doesn't bother me though. In the UK I just regard it as a sort of humble expression of admiration for Lancs on the part of southern ponces.

Yes, and it's the Wurst thing on the menu, too.

Southern ponces indeed .....

 

[TimDanaher]

Vacio's delicious in a sandwich. Diafragma is a bit misleading - it's actually flank.
I lived out there for a year and have to say the food was great, including the tripe stew, apart from the chinchulines. I never could get the hang of them.

Really? Odd thing was, I saw a whole one grilling the following lunchtime...it looked like a dustbin lid o' beef.

We are talking about the same thing? Looks like a aeroplane wing in section, with two inedible bands of tissue top & bottom?

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Delicacies down Buenos Aires way that I've had the pleasure (?) of sampling:

Mollejas -- Ox sweetbread sprinkled with so much salt it looks like a relief map of the Alps, and:

Biscochos -- not nearly as nice as they sound: think bar of soap crossed with a ship's biscuit, but with bits of roasted lard in them, and:

Ubre - roasted udder -- not nearly as bad as it sounds, and:

Orejas Yes! Ears!! Mmmm...crunchy, and:

Chinchulines - It's not quite possible in words to describe the sheer horror that is chinchulines: unwashed, grilled lamb's intestines. Yes, I said unwashed. I bit into them, and this rather savoury green paste came squirting out. Hmmm...wonder what that can be, then?

Finally, there was Vacio, an utterly unidentifiable cut of meat, of which I ate a lot (it was very cheap). The name (it means 'empty') doesn't give you any clues...on my last night there I asked the owner of the local Parilla : 'Raúl, tell me, what exactly is Vacio?

He smiled, pointed to his midriff and announced with glee: 'Diafragma"!!!

Blimey! I bet all the local pet owners are nervous with you around.

 

[andy_wrx]

But Tim, why are you eating all this stuff ?

We went to Patagonia a couple of years ago and were impressed with just how much meat you could stuff down in an Asador Parilla for only a few quid.
Seemed like the meat was a loss-leader and they made their money on the beer, which was pretty cheap as well.

My wife's veggie and doesn't really drink, so she didn't fare too well (awwww !)

 

[TimDanaher]

Well,

Primarily a spirit of advenrure...

But when I was there ('93-94) the Peso was pegged 1:1 to the dollar...things weren't as cheap then as they are now...

 

[bugslop]

I was on a train passing through Wigan North Western last week and there on the opposite platform was a rather rotund gentleman slapping a pie into a roll and tucking in. I was most amused. Incidentally, I am from Bury, the home of the black pudding. The white bits are lumps of animal fat. I don't eat them. They give me wind...

You can't beat black pudding from Bury market, and what about the dustbin lid sized barm cakes, tremendous!
BUTTER PIE! sliced spuds and butter in a pie.

 

[piedwagtail91]

they do a good butter pie,with mushy peas and gravy, in the marina cafe on preston docks.
very reasonably priced as well, if you don't mind mixing it with a load of sailor types.

 

[monnet]

Vacio's delicious in a sandwich. Diafragma is a bit misleading - it's actually flank.
I lived out there for a year and have to say the food was great, including the tripe stew, apart from the chinchulines. I never could get the hang of them.

Really? Odd thing was, I saw a whole one grilling the following lunchtime...it looked like a dustbin lid o' beef.

We are talking about the same thing? Looks like a aeroplane wing in section, with two inedible bands of tissue top & bottom?[/QUOTE]

Possibly not then. Vacio is definitely flank, very tasty if a little fatty at times and I never remember it having tissue. I'm sure they eat stuff like that - if it's cow it's edible but are you sure you've got the name right? I've lived there and in Spain and vacio has always been served as flank.

The thing I always remember was when I started playing for the local football team and tehy had the annual barbeque. Bloody hell. They seemed to be paying a bit more than I thought for the food but then it was all explained to me. First we had to get a bit of salad, potatoes and the like. Then we all needed a few chorizos and morcilla (black pud) and then the beef. Now, bear in mind you've got salad, sausages, black pud, potatoes and bread to keep you going, I was informed that they work on the basis that the average man will eat 800grams. 800grams!! I've got a big appetite but jesus I struggled with that!

Andy, the reason it's so cheap is that the government subsidise beef as it is regarded as an essential food stuff, like bread.

 

[TimDanaher]

Monnet --

It wouldn't surprise me if Raúl was passing off diaphragm as flank, the chiselling bastard...but what I was eating was a great, tasty, very cheap cut of meat...but it was always accompanied by slatherings of chimichurri. The parilla itself was a real hole-in-the wall type place, very porteño, called the Kimsas -- Gerónimo Salguero y Corrientes.

And no, I don't recall ordering it anywhere else other than there...

Your tale reminds me of the Irish Embassy barbecue that they do once a year for the irish community (I got in 'cos of my name ;0). I don't think I've ever been so drunk and simultaneously so fed at the same time. I met some real gauchos there. Blimey. Tough boys.

Of course, we could also go into the abomination that is the Argentinian Pizza...thanks, if I wanted a roasted pillow slathered in tomato ketchup, I'd have ordered one.

BTW, Caballito -- Ambrosetti y Rivadavia -- where were you?