Monday, January 5, 2009

Dutch Style

Wednesday 3rd December 2008
Carolyn spent most of the day doing Christmassy sorts of things today, first she went shopping, then rushed home to wrap it, before sending it to various destinations in the UK.
The last day for posting to the UK is 5th December which is probably about the same date as in the UK, if you’re in the UK and you want to be reasonably sure your mail will reach somebody else in the UK before Christmas, allowing 3 weeks is normally fairly safe. Any other time during the year and it’s best to allow a lot longer as they are not under as much pressure.
After posting all the UK Guff, Carolyn decided that she enjoyed the experience so much that she would do it all again, so she went shopping again, always a martyr to the cause trying to reboot the economy single handed.
This evening we had Sheek Kebab, the Busselton version. We bought the Uncooked Kebabs from DBC the local butcher and the Pitta Bread from Coles Supermarket, what this country needs is to import a few more Greek Bakers, the Kebab Meat wasn’t bad but the Pitta Bread is nothing like Greek Pitta Bread.
We took great care in warming up the Pitta Bread, not too much, not too little, and the bloody thing still fell apart as soon as you looked at it.
Trying to put some meat in the Pitta followed by a bit of salad and then taking it from the Grill to the Table was about as easy as carrying a pint of water from here to the end of the road in a funnel, they just fell apart, the cats thought it was Christmas all that meat all over the floor, and the hadn’t even had to catch it first.
We would hasten to add that we do not wish Coles Supermarket to take this personally, since we have been here we have bought Pitta Bread from all over the place and they all fall apart, perhaps where we are going wrong is that we take them out of the packet, after all if we didn’t take them out of the packet they wouldn’t fall apart on the floor and the digestive system could get rid of the packet for you another time.
Since we have been in Oz we have encountered quite a few things which if you are a regular reader you will know by now, we do not feel are up to a reasonable standard, and the worst of it is, they promote these crap products with pride. Made in Australia, Made in WA, support your local Pitta Bread Maker, support him, they should send him back to college to finish his apprenticeship because he is no good at his job.
Now if I wanted to promote my products I would hope to have them tested against the real thing, if only to make sure that they are similar in texture and taste, but no not over here, the Baker or Farmer or whoever it is you are dealing with is presumed to know what he is talking about so we must support him, it is absolute tosh. One of the worst examples of this that we have come across is Edam Dutch Style Cheese, the only thing that is Dutch Style is the Red Wax Coating.
The Cheese within the Red Wax Coating which looks remarkably Dutch Style, the Red Wax that is, is Totally Tasteless and has the Texture of a Postman’s Well Used Rubber Band, when we want Dutch Style Edam we pay a bit extra and buy the real McCoy, the Australian Dutch Style Cheese Maker can go out of business for all we care.
This evening we watched Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein with Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman, Ian had seen it when it first came out and thought that it was great.
Even Ian had to admit that peoples sense of humour must have changed over the years, the first twenty minutes or half hour was funny but after that it was quite disappointing, or was this just a case of looking back at things through Rose Tinted Glasses.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

In Brasil they have cheddar. It's what we'd call that horrible processed kraft style cheese - i.e. nothing like cheddar. They even sell it in huge blocks so you can slice it yourself. It's wrong. Rather like the edam you're describing.

Ganeida said...

Um, I don't know where you're buying your Edam but the stuff we get [for a price] is pretty good. The king Island double cream [or triple if you want to be really decadent] is pretty good too ~ & pretty expensive...& it's no good for the old waistline so I rarely indulge but just so you know. I'd point out that we have sunshine, which you don't in England, only that wouldn't be true at the moment, would it? lol. The joys of experiencing another country! All together now ~ SMILE! [heeheeehee]

Little Nut Tree said...

ahhh this made me laugh.... very very funny.

Totally with you on fake stuff though - would irritate me too!

The HoJo's said...

Hee Hee I thought you would have something to say about that Ganeida :o) but truly, the dutch style edam in the supermarkets here is dire. I think because we are loving it so much over here that when we fid something duff we are stunned! and wish it to be fixed, just living the dream ;o)

Ganeida said...

Well I loved England...only it's so dripping wet all the time. Depressing, that's what. Cornwall was the only place the sun shone for more than a minute. We loved Cornwall! :) Cornwall was warm too. Comparatively. I'd live in England [or preferably Scotland] only it's too blooming wet & cold & in winter it's too dark all the time.