OK, this is going to be tricky. Unlike my wife Fiona – who is a complete foodie – I tend to view food the same way a car looks at petrol: fuel to get me through the day. Fiona tells me I’m an utter Philistine on matters nutritional, and I’m sure she’s right (she usually is). If I could simply pop a pill three times a day, I would. Chewing can be exhausting. I often forget to eat meals when I’m busy, and on such occasions it takes a hunger headache or rumbling tummy to drive me to the fridge.
Enough about me.
My protagonist in the Time, Blood and Karma series, PI David Braddock, is also somewhat careless of eating – since to eat, he would have to take the cigarette out of his mouth, and put aside the whisky bottle. As most of his adventures take place in South East Asia, when he does eat it is likely to be Thai dishes (with ‘rat shit’ peppers, as they are lovingly known by the ex pat community). The latest book in the series, A Poison Tree, is, however, set in Leicester, England. Not somewhere one would automatically associate with great cuisine. However, they do have some mean Indian restaurants and a few serviceable coffee shops – and it is there that Braddock tops up his energy levels.
One thing my anti-hero would NOT be eating, for sure, is humble pie. He’s way too self-absorbed for that.
Now where did I put those protein pills?
Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, John!
You can find John here:
My protagonist, Dr Eva Ross has had a scare; her husband has finally revealed himself to be a man of highly questionable moral judgement.
Checking in at a hotel, she gets directed to Moynagh’s, a bar on Exchange Street in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The barman indicated several taps. “Ales, from the motherland. Guinness, if that’s your thing. Several Irish whiskies. Most of this lot only drink Jameson’s. Not a lot of calls for anything else in this place. The only new drink we have introduced in the last ten years is the ‘Passion Plunge’”.
Eva could not help the grin that spread across her face at hearing the name. “Sounds perfect. What’s in it?”
“Sour mix, orange juice, ice, dash of soda and of course a double shot of Irish whiskey. I made it in honour of the charity event we always send a team to.” Several elements here are important to me. First off, I love real places, and Moynagh’s is such. Second, I love a good cocktail, and so I had fun creating this. Third, Eva has just experienced emotions that are going to severely deplete any chance of passion, and is laughing at the irony. Lastly, I love to learn things. Did you know ‘whisky’ is from Scotland and ‘whiskey’ is from Ireland?
Food (or drink) for thought…
Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Matt!
Matthew W. Harrill lives in the idyllic South-West of England, nestled snugly
in a village in the foothills of the Cotswolds. Born in 1976, he attended school in Bristol
and received a degree in Geology from Southampton University. By day he plies
his trade implementing shareplans for Xerox. By night he spends his time with his wife
and four children.
You can find Matt here:
In Edinburgh we went to the Scotch Whisky Experience, which is sort of like a tour/ride about Whisky*. And apart from the fact that I like whisky, it was just a REALLY well-designed tour/exhibition. Probably one of the best I went on**.
First you get to go on a BARREL RIDE where a ghost tells you all about how whisky is made. it is very complicated and involves squishing a lot of barley together to make a fermented mash, and then adding yeast and doing lots of distilling.
The Ghost:
And learn also about the barrels they mature the whisky in. 90% of Scotch barrels are first used in the US to make bourbon, and the other 10% are used first to make sherry. So they're all nommy and flavoury. Then sometimes they set them on fire for a little bit for a more caramelly taste, then put in the WHISKY. Because they're not airtight, the whisky breathes and matures... and evaporates. You lose 2% in 3 years, or 40% in 30 years. They say this evaporated whisky is for the angels.
Then you go and watch a video about all the different whisky regions, and a tour guide comes and talks about them all. And you get four little jars to represent the four main regions: Speyside, Islay, Highlands and Lowlands. Each jar contains some of the smells that you might find in each region's whisky. Lowlands is biscuity and vanilla-ish. Speyside is fruity, like pears. Highlands is sweet like heather and honey. Islay (which is a teeny island off the West Coast of Scotland) is smoky and peaty and by far MY FAVOURITE. So once you've picked your favourite, they pour you a glass of it and teach you how to taste it. There are five steps:
1. First you look at the colour. If it is a pale gold it was matured in a bourbon barrel. If it is darker it was a sherry barrel.
2. Then you swirl it around and look carefully to see how many teeny bubbles form and how fast the "legs" run down the sides of the glass. This indicates whether the whisky is full-bodied or light-bodied.
3. Then you nose the whiskey. This is the most important part because your nose recognises 40 different flavours, whereas your mouth only recognises 4 (actually there's some debate about whether there's a 5th but we didn't talk about that)
4. Then you put some of the whisky in your mouth, but don't swallow. This is the palate.
5. Finally you swallow it and think about the finish. The sweeter lighter whiskys have a flavour that disappears really quickly. The smokier heavier ones stay around for ages. Mine lasted over half an hour.
It all sounds very wankerish, but it was excellent fun. Then we went into this room which houses the biggest collection of whiskys in the world (this photo is only a fraction, it was impossible to photograph as it went round many corners):
This was my favourite: Inebriated Newt.
And then there was ANOTHER room with rare bottlings and wacky cases. Each one of these chess pieces is a small bottle of whisky - all together it makes up the volume of a normal sized bottle. The idea is every time you take an opponant's piece, you get to drink the contents.
And finally this is Peat, the whisky distillery cat.
We got to keep our special whisky nosing glasses, and then we were shown into the shop where we could buy the nommy whiskys for our VERY OWN.
*in case you are wondering, it's whisky if it's Scottish, and whiskey if it's Irish.
**Dear Underage Readers of this Blog: pls don't take this as encouragement to go out and get drunk. If for no other reason, a good single malt is VERY expensive and it would be a total waste of money.
Mmmm, Islay. Nom nom nom.
Which region is Orkney in? Surely this excellent ghost filled tour did not neglect my favourite (possibly biased by the cute distillery) whisky, Highland Park?