Thread 15 - TalkLair: “I Can't Lie To You About Your Chances, But... You Have My Sympathies.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 14).

Autumn seems to have gone straight into winter. It's cold, wet and windy. In the TalkLair, 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). The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics.

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

Calling it canola is a US thing, using it in cooking and food products is not.

The name canola probably originated in North America (I have no evidence for this, apart from the fact that "canola" is what they call it!) - possibly out of prissiness about calling it "rapeseed" and a reflection of the fact that a lot of it is produced in Canada. It became A Thing here (called rapeseed oil) when supplies of sunflower oil were limited by the war in Ukraine. Furtively mixing it with sunflower oil, without labelling it, is really fucking annoying!

I thought canola was American for rapeseed oil but I’m not sure. We have rapeseed oil in the UK don’t we?

AFAIK canola is indeed rapeseed. And I concur with seeing it mixed into other oils in recent years. Very annoying if you have an allergy!

Interesting recipe. I can't remember the last time I saw quantities like '1/4 teaspoon of cumin seeds' and 'pinch of asafoetida'. The 1970s maybe? Greatly increase the quantities and it looks pretty good.

I got banned from school trips when I was seven, over oilseed rape. One of the kids asked what it was and the teacher said mustard

I explained that it was rape and that only a few farms in Essex and Suffolk grew mustard and none locally. She insisted it was mustard, I insisted that she was wrong, back and forth till she told me to shut up

The perils of having an agronomist for a dad, who told me, "It doesn't matter if you're right, don't argue with teachers."

I didn't know it was a contraction of Canadian oil, however.

canola is rapeseed

I think we all know that.

Sorry Duc (and everyone) I didn't notice there was a page 12.

I think most vegetable oil sold in the UK is rapeseed oil as well. I'm lucky because I'm fine with rapeseed oil and finding out - because I was too much of a halfwit to look at the ingredients - that vegetable oil is usually rapeseed oil but cheaper was interesting. I'm a twat though because I still have a bottle of "posh" rapeseed oil in my cupboard.

There's interesting.

I bought a bottle of cold-pressed rapeseed oil years ago, back when it was hip for a brief moment. There's a reason olive oil is so popular.

That's what I have!

All this talk of rapeseed oil (which admittedly I started) is making me itch and feel a strong urge to sit on the loo for the rest of the evening. Okay to sell it, 99.9%+ of people are fine with it, but just do not adulterate other oils with it or at least Bloody Well Label It if you do! And maybe highlight it in the ingredients of pre-prepared foods, the way they do with mustard.

Incidentally, I had a fabulous lunch at The Cook's Tale in Canterbury today, so if anyone is interviewing for the vacant Archbish position I strongly recommend it. (It's very close to the bus station, assuming the CofE doesn't cover your transport costs.) And the very first thing the waiter said, as he handed us the menus, was "Do either of you have any food allergies?" As I'd already phoned them yesterday and been assured they didn't use the stuff, I simply told him that. 8 hours on I seem fine ... if still rather full!

It seems to be quite a standard question these days, particularly in the UK, and when I was there recently I had a chat with a waiter at a pub I went to for lunch, and she said they are very particular in their kitchen about keeping separate 'clean' uncontaminated areas for allergies, even if (as with my oysters and mussels allergies) no such ingredients are in the dish being ordered.

I think it's been a standard restaurant (table-service type of place only) question for at least several months, maybe longer. I vaguely recall there was a change in the law?

In some places, they just make a note of it. In others, they've brought out a whole folder with laminated pages of ingredients lists!

We have got quite used to it, with DD having her cashew/pistachio allergy.

I think it was a response to this awful case: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-61480546.amp

I have had some big news this morning; my recently-acquired (legally) daughter-in-law in pregnant! This is a big shock and unexpected and unplanned. This has knocked me for six a bit. My DS too, I think! They have been together about twenty years!

Well, have they been trying?

No, not at all.

Well that’s big news indeed @duc748 - how do they feel about it? I have some friends who married after close to 20 years together and had a daughter a couple of years later. As far as I remember that was planned though so a surprise to the rest of us but not to the couple.

Of course they only married recently, @artant , but that is pure coincidence. And they've had time to get used to the idea I suppose; you don't tell people the moment you discover you're pregnant after all.

Wow, that must have been a big surprise all round. Are you looking forward to being a grandparent, duc?

I am, but it seems one big worry! Well, it always is, but it would be less of a worry if it had happened ten years ago.

I assume she's in her forties, @duc748 ? You might like to refer her to this current mumsnet thread www.mumsnet.com/talk/pregnancy/5095887-pregnant-at-48?page=3&reply=139821521

Only just. I don't think I dare refer her to any MN thread! 😃It's hardly my place. I'll leave that to her husband.