84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff is a collection of letters written between the author, a book lover in New York, and Frank Doel and several other staff members of a bookshop in London. The letters span from 1949 to 1969. Rationing, stemming from World War II, were still firmly in place in Britain for a large part of the book. Helene would send over food items to her friends, which they truly appreciated.
Quote:
Everyone was so grateful for the parcel. My little ones (girl 5, boy 4) were in Heaven – with the raisins and egg I was atucally able to make them a cake.
– Cecily Farr
I live with my great-aunt who is 75, and I think that if you had seen the look of delight on her face when I brought home the meat and the tin of tongue, you would have realized just how grateful we are.
– Bill Humpries
What did I choose?
So. Originally I was going to be adventurous and try tongue. Not tinned tongue, which seems hard to get these days, and also sounds scary, but a hunk of tongue from a cow. Also, maybe scary? I found a great recipe and with a little trepidation, trolled the internet to see where I could get such an item. One of our meat shops here in Chicago sells everything imaginable. Boy, beef tongue is expensive. And did I mention intimidating?
I remembered there was mention of a raisin cake earlier in the book (see above), so I chickened out and decided that was the easier way to go. Then I decided raisin cake is probably crap so I deleted the draft post altogether!
So, how are we here? I was in another meat shop just being nosy when I saw a beef tongue for $28. Not cheap for my family’s budget, but I figure we’ll get several meals out of it and it’s a tad more interesting that cake. It took several weeks for me to get around to it (and get the balls to make it), but I finally did. I bought the meat in Wild Fork. This is not intended as a plug per se, but it was my first purchase from there and there is just so much meat to choose from! I’m sure many independent butcher shops deserve my custom, but this place is great. Yay!
Preparation:
I found the recipe I had originally planned to use (thank you, Vered DeLeeuw) and got ready, scared and excited. Beef Tongue – WTF. I know it’s just meat. I eat meat. I am aware that I am eating part of an animal. A tongue should be no different from any other part in terms of yuck factor. But it is!
I had to be kind of stealthy. My teenage son will eat anything that’s meat. If he could, that would be all he’d eat. I knew my girls would not be into tongue. How to cook it and not be “caught”. I suppose it could be mean to “trick” my kids into eating something, but haven’t I been shoving extra veggies in their dinners for years! It took about 4 hours to cook. I was skeptical throughout. It’s very easy though – just boil and boil and boil.
My take:
Okay. This was surprisingly good. I mean – come on – tongue. Who’d have thought? The oldest had a sore throat so didn’t eat dinner at all. The youngest devoured it. Chopped it into tiny pieces (just got braces), mixed it into a big slop, and gobbled it all up. I couldn’t wait the hour or two to tell her. I blurted it out. She was not impressed! She finally admitted she loved it but would never trust me again. I didn’t lie! And of course my meat lover son ate half the bloody thing!
Lesson of the day:
I probably won’t make it again. It was very good, but if I’m spending $28 on meat I’ll choose something else. Try everything once!
eat-my-books.com 