Thread 11 - TalkLair: “The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles.”

[Kucinghitam]

Whoops, missed the filling up of the previous thread! (thread 10).

Although the nights are gradually drawing in, the new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey inside. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Good chip shop chips are a thing of wonder. There was a chippy on the way to the station in the town I used to work in that made splendid chips.

My local chippy became a hybrid chippy/Chinese takeaway a good few years ago and has now closed down. In its actual chippy days it was where Ian and Cindy Beale no learnt to cook chips for Eastenders.

I hope your mum improves soon, @artant .

When I lived in Brighton, in my first flat there was a chippy a few minutes from my home that was one of the best chippies in the country let alone just Brighton - it won awards. If you wanted to eat in you could bring your own booze or order from a pub across the road. I was pretty skint at the time and the owner said to me that if I ever needed help with food to just come in and he'd give me a meal for free whenever I needed it. It was/hopefully still is a wonderful place. Their whitebate was so bloody lush.

These days I'm all about cod roe and I'm craving it right now but also thinking "I'm sure I could eat that given it's just soft fish eggs with some tasty batter." Also, mushy peas. I see a trip to a chippy next week.

@Britinme you've clearly run the lottery. Two lunches out in a week?! Fancy!

I hope you enjoyed both. If you can't treat yourself a little more when it's winter and all around can be a bit on the miserable side, then when can you. I'm glad that you're able to do it and having fun. Every single on of us - on here, not sure about the whole of mumsnet - deserves a treat. I love hearing about your life in Maine. Your fish sounds lush and I'd not be too disappointed with the chips although if I hadn't had proper chippy chips for a while I'm sure I'd pine for them.

Sorry, but I hate cod roe and even worse, milt. I haven't seen either for decades.

I do like a chip shop chip.

We used to have 1 posh and 1 cheap chippy in town. The latter closed and was replaced by an in-between one that is just a little too smart for the particular delight of the one that closed - the cheesy beano. Take a medium chip box. Completely fill one side with grated cheese, the other with a scoop of sizzling hot chips directly from the fryer, then slam shut and shake well. Once the cheese has been distributed and melted, re-open the box and top with a ladle of baked beans.

@MouseMinge curious what chippy that is! Give us a clue!

I am rather drunk. I came home and air fried some chips, which were pretty good. Kasper has been lovely as always and is not judging me At All.

I tumbled in my flat to this face. I am so very lucky.

Edit: I need to hoover

Good wishes to your mum @artant, I hope she is feeling better (and less bruised) today.

And SQUEEE at Kasper's little round face @VictorianBigot 😍

I see there's yet another storm coming this weekend. Must say I am glad (albeit distressingly sweaty and shiny-faced) to be away from the bloody freezing weather.

I'm very jet lagged and sleep-deprived today. It has taken me a ridiculous amount of time to type this post.

I bloody love this freezing weather, although it took my breath away tonight.

I hope you can get some sleep @Kucinghitam. Can you have a night cap? I’m about to make a hot water bottle and climb into bed, hoping I can sleep past 8.

I don't love the freezing weather! I'm glad it's supposed to be mild next week, if wet.

I think on the whole I prefer cold weather (whether dry or snowy) to rain.

And now I really want to try a cheesy beano. That sounds like an unreasonably excellent meal!

In Canada they have a dish called Poutine which is chips topped with cheese curds and brown gravy. That doesn't appeal to me but the cheesy beans would.

Ha! When we (and later I, solo) visited my lovely younger stepson, who has lived all but the first year of his life in Montréal, I expressed an interest in trying poutine ... pronounced as though there were an "s" between the t and the i, fact fans! He said I was welcome to give it a go, but he didn't recommend it.

If you're ever in Belfast, there's a good (Canadian-run) poutine van that does a dozen or so varieties. I would recommend it - I've only tried the veggie (and these days vegan) versions but don't see why the others wouldn't work.

Oooh chip shop chips, especially good eaten at the seaside, overlooking the sea, even on a biting day at Scarborough one January with a strong East wind straight into our faces.

And what a lovely Brighton chip shop owner - free food for those in need. I've never had cod roe except in taramasalata, which makes me sound really poncy. What does it taste/feel like when deep fried?

I don't really know how to describe the taste of seafood roe. IME, regardless of the species of the origin, most roes share a particular roe-y flavour in common (in addition to the stating-the-obvious that they taste seafood-y and savoury). What I mean, explaining badly, is that I think if I was blindfolded and fed a bit of seafood roe, I'd know it was seafood roe.

I like the texture of roe. The popping, even with pressed cod roe.

I was excited to try proper caviar in a posh restaurant. I thought it was disgusting. I forced as much down as I could but still left a fair bit. I think the chef was disgusted with me.

I much preferred salmon caviar to the 'proper' stuff. Richer, and a more satisfying pop.

One of the things that makes me sad its that Lidl have stopped doing taramasalata, even during Greek week.

I'm currently pausing in my round of getting ready for the storm - filling watering cans so I can flush the loo, jugs so I have drinking water, washing all the dishes and tidying the kitchen so if I need to use the little gas stove I can do it without burning the house down. Even had a shower myself in case we have days without power. It's a long time since that happened, but also a long time since we had a weather forecast this ominous.

Wow. is this something you've done before, Elderberry? I've never done such a thing in my life. Is the storm threat greater where you are than the rest of the UK, do you think?

VictorianBigot · Today 00:53

I was excited to try proper caviar in a posh restaurant. I thought it was disgusting.

I first tried it at university, our course leader used to hold parties and he brought tome back from Russia, black and red. I disliked it, oily, salty, fishy snot balls, in my opinion. My wife forced me to try some top of the range stuff, in Kazakhstan and I was not happy; they all thought I was a real wrongmo.

Yes Duc, the regular routine. If the electricity goes out (we're on orange warning and have been advised to expect that) I'll have no water (I have an electric pump that raises it out of my well), no cooker, and no central heating since that's pumped by electricity. Hence carrying in a couple of bag of logs has been part of the preparation.

It is windier here than in most of the UK - as the wind blows I'm only about 60k from the Atlantic, even though I'm in an inland location. I suspect Scotland's going to be hammered by this, and I'm sure bint is doing some hatch-battening.

I actually enjoyed caviar when I tried it, but for my tastes it's one of those things to eat in small quantities with something like blinis and sour cream.

Hope you weather the storm okay, Elderberry!

The main prep we've done for the storm, apart from putting things away and bringing logs in, is to deflate the swimming pool bubble at work as the site is on the edge of a valley and they can get some ferocious winds there. The water will need pumping out of the bubble afterwards, of course.

Never had caviar as I can't get past the bubble-popping and fishiness, which seems to be the main thing with it. Maybe in the next life, eh.