Joanna Lumley shouldn’t be required to curb the live animal trade
As for the relatively lower figure of calves destined for the European veal trade, where they are treated far more cruelly than in the stricter regulated British veal systems, that is just downright lazy on the part of British farmers. Veal is becoming more popular here, so why not produce it near to the dairy farms from where these pretty creatures hail?
And it is true that there are no excuses, really, for not localising the supply of meat.
If an animal is reared in Cumbria, it should travel the absolute minimum distance to slaughter or supermarket. The autumn exodus of hill country sheep from the UK passes ships with New Zealand lamb in their cargo heading to the UK, all because – apparently – the more flavoursome British, late summer lamb is not to our taste.
Nonsense – it’s better, and the cheap cuts solve the cost problem.
Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and Asda have to get to grips with the situation, because never mind the flow of an actress’s tears – and mine for that matter – we are running out of the oil that provides the fuel for this dotty trucking system. It is wrong, wrong, wrong.
The 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic highlighted the same problems, with the hideous “bonus” of trucks spreading disease across the UK. Well, the ministers responsible for animal welfare better get ready. Miss Lumley may have the eyes of a calf, but she has the Purdey-style kick of a cow – and she is used to getting her own way.
We may love the upstairs-downstairs shenanigans of Downton Abbey, where kitchen and dining room are separated by the green baize door, but a survey by Lloyds TSB insurance has shown that we prefer to eat in our kitchens. In the past decade the number of kitchen-diners has risen by 50 per cent, hailing the death of the separate dining room.
My home is one of those where the wall was torn down to expose the inner workings of the kitchen to those sitting around the table. It has benefits. Parents can watch their kids while preparing meals, and it is nice not to be one of those who beetle around, sweating over the gravy while guests have a better time next door.
Being on show is fine if you are a good-tempered confident cook; taking the blowtorch to a baked Alaska can even merit a theatrical performance. You do not, though, need witnesses when scooping the buttered carrots off the floor back into the dish – while batting away the dog – or when opening the oven to billowing smoke. If ever there was an example of a separate dining room’s advantage, however, it was a hostess closing the door on the filthy devastation left by a long Saturday night dinner. “Let’s leave it until Monday,” she whispered.
A naughty girl’s lament for St Trinian’s
Ronald Searle’s death reminds me how I love St Trinian’s, but also that schoolgirl naughtiness is dead. St Trinian’s was not unlike my own free- thinking boarding school: the letting loose of a live greasy pig on Parents’ Day (while dads ogled the seniors’ catwalk show of bikinis made in needlework); the unregulated hockey matches umpired by the art master and nighttime abseils on fire-escape pulleys. We took strike action to get revolting food removed from the menu and dabbled (incompetently) in the occult. Today, girls must behave like middle-aged taxpayers, or be labeled with a malicious behaviour disorder and expelled. I think a tiny bit of naughty teaches you how to be good. Just a tiny bit.
We don’t need ‘Baker Brothers’
Just what is the point of the Fabulous Baker Brothers, Channel 4’s new show about two handsome, well-toned young men who also happen to be bakers? A tremendous amount of kneading took place, with some squeezing, rolling and any other activity that could show the chaps’ bare biceps in action. Meanwhile, the brothers, fifth generation bakers Tom and Henry Herbert, talked a high degree of drivel. Homemade doughnuts and chocolate sauce make a filling meal, was one item of skewed, impractical wisdom.
But what can you anticipate when Tom’s last publicised exploit was making a loaf costing £21? From food snobbery to a new kind of live food porn, the boys are wasting an opportunity to make a great programme about bread.
source : telegraph.feedsportal.com
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Submited at Saturday, January 7th, 2012 at 10:00 am on Celebrity by Alina
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