View Full Version : Time to become Vegetarian?
Cruella DeVilla
03-04-2008, 14:57
Well I nearly became a vegetarian yesterday!!
Silly story really but here goes as things are kinda quiet.
I like to make soup and normally buy a ham hock to flavour it against using cubes, more flavoursome. Well I had bought a couple of fresh ones (in a packet) from the buchers department at the local German supermarket. I used one at the time, and froze the other for later.
So a couple of days ago I decided the freezer was too full for my shopping so I took the second hock out to clear space so yesterday thought right it is defrosted so I' ll make that soup now.
Well I looked at the hock and thought that looks a funny shape, turned it over and it had a row of funny looking white things and I thought no it's not teeth as they were too perfect and uniform and really white but what then heck is it?
I couldn't bare to prod it, but it looked like the length of a full human tooth, you know what you also have under the gum. Then hock was way fleshy too and horrid and not bony like the first one and I thought not sure I want to use this "thing".
I am not usually squeemish and butchery doesn't worry me and I love cookings but I put it down and thought, hey is that round bit the bottom of the trotter and then I looked again and realisation dawned, blinken heck it is half a snout, turned it over again and right at the very back were teeth, actuall bl**dy teeth, I touched them to check, so when I turned it back over again yes it was obvious now it was one half of a pigs head with the eye part and top of the head/ears missing but everything inside intact!
Well I had seen enough by that stage and ditched it but it was giving me nightmares last night but I am too "pig headed" to become a vegetarian just yet!! (Although I did open a Covent Garden potato and leek carton of soup instead)
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/cruella devilla/2007816171527_others-115.gif
eugh you are very brave touching it i wouldn't have that's for sure [msneek]
We used to go to a local market in Lincolnshire and buy 'bath chap' which was pig's cheek. It looks just like best ham and very tasty too!
Have you never had pig's trotters? Or brawn?
Cruella DeVilla
03-04-2008, 16:16
I've had trotters before complete with hairy toes and did think about the cheek being nice (I saw that once on one of those Andrew Zimmerman programms) but this thing was really just too big and ugly to deal with in its raw form.
Not tried brawn, but the thought of jellied pigs head would drive me to the carrotts and seeds I think!!:D
I shall certainly be on my guard next time I try to buy a hock and must learn the German for "not a pigs head complete with teeth please" as it's not a phrase I have needed in the last 20 years or so...lol!
Newhomebuyer
03-04-2008, 17:36
I like tripe and black pudding and ox tongue, The latter I will cook from scratch but I would not like to cook a pigs head (half or whole) It's funny what we draw a line at isn't it. It isn't logical at all.
If i liked veg i would become a vegeterian.
Barbara
there was a little girl in my daughters primary school class who wanted to be a vegetarian, she was already a fussy/ picky eater and her mum phoned me for some advice on what alternatives we have found for my daughter Jo
i remember howling with laughter when she phoned me later that night to tell me that the going veggie was a no go, her daughter took one look at her evening meal burst into tears at the sight of all the extra veg on her plate, her mother said she had thought it meant that by being veggie you didn't have to eat any vegetables [laugh]
SunLover
03-04-2008, 18:30
Shame it didn't still have the eye in it...
It would have seen you through the week [msnwink]
OMG now I feel really [sick][sick][sick][sick] I am not totally veggie but I don't like anything that looks like its lived ie bones, skin teeth etc I only eat a small amount of chicken breast (organic free range) and a small amount of fish and very occasionally mince steak[msnwink]
You are a brave women CDV[msnwink]
I remember my grandmother buying lamb's tongues in a tin - you peeled off the top layer (the furry bit) of skin and ate the rest.
I have been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years now. Your experience would have been a nightmare for me - I cannot even begin to imagine it!! The Covent Garden soup sounds good though [msnsmile2]
Cruella DeVilla
03-04-2008, 20:20
It was the teeth still in there that really did it for me[:P]
Yukky CDV, my daughter has been a veggie since she was about 10, don't know what set her off but we can't have anything in the house that looks like it's had a face!
Think this would of put me off for life. No wonder you had nightmares. [sick]
Cruella DeVilla
04-04-2008, 12:48
I even contemplated taking a picture of it to visually explain what it looked like but I was frightened it would bite me if I took it out the kitchen bin;)
luckylady
04-04-2008, 13:38
I love vegetables, would have no problem becoming a veggy. but what to I replace the meat with?
My experince of the alternative to meat is dreadful it tastes like cardboard[msnwink]
floridadreamvilla.co.uk
04-04-2008, 13:42
That's because being a vegetarian is not about replacing meat with something that looks like meat but isn't.
Being a vegetarian is a whole different way of looking at your food and your cooking [msnsmile].
I'd hate to just have the same meal as meat eaters but without the meat as that would be horribly boring and is enough to put people off. Thankfully there are tons of ways of making being a vegetarian very interesting and rewarding.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by luckylady
I love vegetables, would have no problem becoming a veggy. but what to I replace the meat with?
My experince of the alternative to meat is dreadful it tastes like cardboard[msnwink]
[/quote]
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by floridadreamvilla.co.uk
That's because being a vegetarian is not about replacing meat with something that looks like meat but isn't.
Being a vegetarian is a whole different way of looking at your food and your cooking [msnsmile].
I'd hate to just have the same meal as meat eaters but without the meat as that would be horribly boring and is enough to put people off. Thankfully there are tons of ways of making being a vegetarian very interesting and rewarding.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by luckylady
I love vegetables, would have no problem becoming a veggy. but what to I replace the meat with?
My experince of the alternative to meat is dreadful it tastes like cardboard[msnwink]
[/quote]
[/quote]
I so agree with you John, although I am not a veggie I eat virtually no meat or poultry and very little fish, but I just don't think about it because I don't like the taste or the texture, with so many other lovely foods I find it a real treat to find new foods to eat[msnsmile2]
Yuk Jacqueline I would have had a fit, I went mad on Tuesday, we have the plumbers in and although I made them a sarnie on Mon I jokingly said it was there turn on Tues and they called at the bakery on way here and it they came with the bread and a foil package, I asked what was in it and was told it was saddle and the very best all roasted, well I had never heard of this as I am not big on meat, turns out it was venison that he had shot himself, OMG that was it I was nearly sick, he was ever so hurt that I wouldn't try it, I told him Rob would and he said it was just like tender beef, well all day they kept on at me about Bambi etc, I got Rob to put the rest in the bin, it was awful it had the ribs in etc - now I know why I don't like meat [sick][sick][sick][sick][sick]