Monday, 24 August 2015

Big Luck Gravy Soakers

I pretend to know a lot about wine. Winemakers. Estates. Fine vintages. You could say I have an educated palate. My medical condition not withstanding. I know my Cape from my South of France to the New World. I keep successive editions of the Platters and salivate over the uber connoisseur Yegas Naidoo. But that's just snobbery. I have been deceived by Odd Bins and Château de Box, even the kraaitjie papsak.  Not so with potatoes. Being a native of my beloved Chatsworth I consider myself the Britannica of the humble tuber. I know my Cape Douglas from my UTD. I know my Big Lucks, my Gravy Soakers and my Melting Moments. No mutton, live fowl or cornish curry is complete without just the right potatoes. It must be soft and soaked right through. Hard potatoes or water potatoes will perish a cook's reputation forever. Forget the harm to reputation. The fella that sold the potatoes in Bangladesh or the early morning market in town will be in for a really good hiding. It's not unlikely that the cook will carry the rest of the offending pocket back to the market and throw it right back at him. That's no mean feat carrying the pocket back to the market. Once the pockets were 15kg in a tough brown paper bag. If you were shy on wrapping paper for school books you could use the unprinted inner layer. The Chatsworth dagga merchants still use the inner for wrapping their kaitjies.  Nowadays the pockets have slinked down to 10kg and more commonly 7kg. Even so, marketing the potatoes is aggressive business with vendors shouting prices and purported qualities at the top of their voices. Interest in a pocket will likely have the vendor snappily tip the pocket into a huge plastic dish.  In a glance the buyer could gauge the quality right through and confirm that no rotten potatoes lie hidden in the bag. A "taste and buy" principle applies to most items in the market.  Not uncommon to walk past a display of grapes at a stall and pop a few in the mouth. Vendors often peel a naartjie and offer segments or slice pieces of ripe mango. Admittedly it is more difficult with raw potatoes. My friend of forty odd years Neville does his mother's weekly shopping at Bangladesh. I will have to find out the latest on potato buying techniques. One thing for sure though - like Ken's Mercedes buying habits you don't change brands midway. If it's Cape Douglas it's Cape Douglas all the way. Even a blind man can tell one cook's curry from another through the texture of the potatoes and the taste of the gravy. I have become quite partial to Sam's cornish.  I have resisted a glass of wine to go with the cornish. On account on my medical condition, you understand.



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