Various stuff

[vilakins]

I suppose it's about time I made a post. So here's a mixture of stuff.

Sebastian is getting on really well with the girls. I've seen him curled up next to both of them (separately) and grooming them and being groomed. He loves them, and I think they like him a lot more than they do each other these days. I'd noticed they had little to do with each other since Vic died, so Sebastian has fitted in really well as a playmate and friend to them. And he now knows how to use the cat door. We had it held partially open with string but that was letting cold winter air in and I got tough and decided he needed to figure it out and took the string off; it only took him a day. Yay!

All the same, one of the three peed in the bath yesterday. And that's with the cat door and some litter available (which I'm removing soon). Sigh.

And yes, there will be photos at some point. When I get round to GIMPing them. My unwillingness to tackle a huge number of the bastards also explains why I haven't yet posted any of the gorgeous ones I took on my last holiday.

A new local supermarket opened yesterday, near my beloved Farro gourmet supermarket, and I went to check it out; it'll be great having a New World that near. It's all bright and new and full of the usual things except that as I went past the meats (with no intention of buying) I couldn't help but notice the selection in some chilled cabinets: crocodile, kangaroo, goat, quail, hare, rabbit, braaainsss... I've never seen most of those in a supermarket before (not that I'll be getting any), but it's nice that they cater for zombies.

Um, what else? Oh yeah, strangest spelling mistake seen last Friday while processing surveys done by council workers: "thoughs" for "those". Why go the hard route?

Comments

[kindkit]

I've never eaten brains and probably never will--I like eating unusual things, but that's somewhat beyond my adventurousness level. I've heard they're tasty, though, and I do like to think that if an animal's going to be killed for food, all the edible bits will actually be eaten instead of thrown away. One of the many bad things about modern western industrial meat production is its wastefulness.

[vilakins]

I stick to fish, vegetarian things like chickpeas and beans etc, and occasionally chicken. I did once eat crocodile though and it was like fishy chicken.

I'll never eat brains. I avoid offal; meat is hard enough for me to deal with. Like my mother, I wear gloves so I don't have to touch the stuff. She was vegetarian till she married (which she didn't tell me till I left home) and I'm becoming more so all the time. I'm adventurous about other things--exotic fruits and veges--but not meats. I do eat whitebait though (in fritters): the whole things including their heads.

[kindkit]

I've eaten alligator and liked it (although it was in a sausage, so it pretty much tasted like sausage); crocodile sounds like maybe it tastes similar to frogs' legs, which could also be described as fishy chicken.

Aaaaaand I will stop talking about meat now lest I gross you out even more.

I'd love to do more with unusual fruits and vegetables; all too often I'll see something at the farmers' market or the internetional grocery store and have no idea how to cook it.

[vilakins]

I don't mind cooked meat anywhere near as much--I have some pastrami in the fridge--it's the raw stuff I can't stand to touch. I'm extremely picky though so I rarely eat it unless I've cooked it or I know all the skin/gristle/fat has been removed.

[kerravonsen]

Can Greg cook?

[vilakins]

Simple meals, but I don't trust him to remove all the yucky bits since he nowhere near as fussy about meat as I am. He doesn't have my easily-triggered gag reflex. He's good at cooking steak and he always does the fry-up breakfasts when we have them: eggs, tomatoes, and a vegetarian bacon substitute; very tasty.

[kerravonsen]

Cat pictures, yes please.

I suppose in a country that grows its own venison, having other game meats isn't so strange. I had crocodile once; it tasted like a cross between fish and chicken. As for kangaroo, I rather like it, though I like beef better. I haven't had the others.

[vilakins]

I've only ever seen hare in other supermarkets. I think it's good to offer so many options even though I won't take them up on it. :-)

Aaaugh, I have so many photos to process, all taken when I didn't have a PC to download them to. I also miss PSE's easy colour balance options. But I will post at least some of them soon, in easy instalments.

[watervole]

Why not eat them? I eat rabbit quite often - low fat, good flavour, environmentally friendly, lead a better life than most farm animals, etc.

I'd eat kangaroo for the same reasons if I lived in Australia.

[vilakins]

I'm just not fond of meat. I have no objections to others eating them.

[toft]

Brains! In a supermarket! Amazing!

[vilakins]

I'm taking my camera next time!

[elmey.livejournal.com]

I love that Sebastian picture you use for your icon. I can't wait to see what he looks like now.

My brother and his wife go for experimental meats. I'm extremely careful when they're grilling.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Much the same BUT BIGGER! I'll have to make another icon of him.

Yeah, I like to know what I'm eating. It's so much easier just to go vegetarian on courses because of the ubiquity of pork and ham which I never eat.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear Sebastian's doing well!

I remember kangaroo being very tasty, the one time I had it. But I am very glad my supermarket does not carry brains. I think that would put me off the meat aisle entirely. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I imagine it's a bit like venison which is too common here to be with the unusual stuff which is in two big glass-fronted cabinets. I can avoid it in future. I saw the Brains sign but didn't look too closely at what was behind it. I dunno, I'd try quail, but it's probably really picky to eat, all those little bones (but not as bad as the sparrows they sold for eating in Paris). I've had crocodile so I don't need to give that another go.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wasn't that fond of crocodile the one time I tried it, either.

[muscadinegirl.livejournal.com]

My folks tried to get me to eat Pork Brains when I was a kid. I flat out wouldn't.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Good for you! Those things are dangerous. There's a good reason many people don't eat pork.

[muscadinegirl.livejournal.com]

Besides, it's the ultimate high cholesterol food.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Then I actually have a healthy eating habit (surprise, surprise)! No pork, ham, or shellfish for me.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I've eaten quail before and it's quite nice. :)

There is no way though I would eat brains. *cries*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

What did it taste like? I just don't think I could be bothered with all the little bones.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I thought it tasted like a spicier version of chicken. I ate the quail at a restaurant and they had de-boned it. :D

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

That wouldn't be so bad then!

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Good and lovely news! So now you have one worry minus with Seabstian using the cat door:-) Well, there are always also unpleasant surprises from our darlings:-) Still, you have a happy cats´ company at home and i look forward for your lovely pictures.
Such an assortment of meats...well, I only ate ostrich once. I think kangaroo meat can be get here too - actually everything can be get here - if you have a suitable salary. Ha ha.
Brains. Hee hee, spare parts? bad joke, I know...I did eat pig brains, fried with onion and eggs - very tasty and you really won´t recognise what exactly you are eating:-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't care what it tastes like, there's no way I'd eat brains, and I don't eat any parts of pigs anyway.

What is ostrich like? They may have had some there; I didn't notice because once I saw the brains I didn't look further.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Ostrich is possibly like kangaroo: dark lean meat, tastes a bit like venison...
Sorry, I shouldn´t write about our strange tastes, I forgot...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Really! I imagined kangaroo to be like venison or goat: strong-flavoured and nicely lean. I thought ostrich would be more like chicken or duck. Huh! Anyway I'll stick with chicken.

[sheenaghpugh]

I guess peeing in the bath is actually meant to be helpful in a way... coulda been the floor! Glad they are all getting on.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Up till now it's usually been the spare bathroom handbasin, so I suspect it's a different cat who chose the bath. Perhaps it's some sort of instinct? I've heard of other cats using handbasin, bath, or shower. Or maybe they associate it with us using the toilet and try to find their own: white, shiny, and similar. Still, whoever it was should have gone outside.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Tabitha has done it in the bath occasionally, but it's usually when she's cross about something, so I think she knows it annoys me. She has quite a good understanding of rules (unlike Rosie, unless it's just that Rosie chooses to ignore them).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They all seem happy so I don't know what it was. I know Ashley used to pee in the handbasin when Vic was sleeping on the mat in front of the cat door (a habit he had) and she couldn't get out, but this is a puzzle. It's probably not her since it's a different location.

[sheenaghpugh]

One of ours actually used our loo, perching on the egde, when a kitten. We discouraged him in case he fell in, but thought him very clever! Maybe we should have got him a child seat...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

People go to lots of trouble to train cats to do that! But yes, maybe they're doing that because they can't use the loo (both being in separate rooms always closed, and we leave the lid down anyway just in case they fall in).

[sheenaghpugh]

One of ours actually used our loo, perching on the edge, when a kitten. We discouraged him in case he fell in, but thought him very clever! Maybe we should have got him a child seat...

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Being on the carnivorous side of omnivorous I have eaten and enjoyed goat and rabbit and Gran loved brains but it's not something I would enjoy. I think I would enjoy shopping in that supermarket.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I've eaten goat too: very nice kebabs and curries! I just don't fancy some of the other stuff, and I'm not a great meat-eater anyway.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, strangest spelling mistake seen last Friday while processing surveys done by council workers: "thoughs" for "those". Why go the hard route?

As I get older, I find myself occasionally typing in a homophone for the word that I'd intended. But since "thoughs" isn't a genuine word, I suspect that I wouldn't have made that particular mistake.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I sometimes do too but that's such an odd one. Some I've seen make a certain amount of sense like "who's" for "whose" (the mistake is actually more logical) but "those" is spelled the way it's said and isn't a word I thought anyone would get wrong.

[gair.livejournal.com]

There is actually a word for 'going the hard route', but I can't remember what it is! It's like when people say 'that's between he and I' because they've been told that 'me and Sally went to the shops' was wrong, and they internalize that the counterintuitive way is the 'correct' way. Similarly I expect this is someone who use to spell 'though' 'tho' and got told off, so is now... hypercorrecting? Yes! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercorrection) Hypercorrecting, that's the word.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I was going to say "hypercorrecting" but I didn't think that was the case here. You might be right about the "tho" being corrected at school. A pity English doesn't have the logical spelling of German and Italian.

The (mainly American?) habit of always using I even when it's an object ("He spoke to Ziva and I") makes me yell at the TV screen. They almost never get it right. Then there's deliberately using "me" as a subject. I have two English LJ friends who always say things like "Me and her went to the shops" and I wondered if they were dumbing down because they both have good educations (one has a doctorate). Is that a well-known thing over there?

[luinielle.livejournal.com]

I'm glad Sebastian is getting along with the girls. Is it possible one of the cats doesn't like the smell of something in the litter? My in-laws had a problem with one or more of their cats (they currently have six) peeing in the house but not in the litter - once they placed another litter box in the area, the problem stopped. The cats are similar to yours (I think?) in that they're all indoor/outdoor cats.

Buffalo meat was all the rage here a few years ago. I've never tried it, but it's apparently similar in taste to regular beef.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Both girls are used to going outside, and Sebastian is now too. Perhaps it was raining, but they all go out in the wet (then come and tell us so they get comforted and dried). I doubt the girls would even use the litter; only Sebastian has till now. I shall get rid of it today anyway because it's been undisturbed for about two weeks.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

They may be getting territorial about the litter box. The solution is usually another litter box or a change in cat litter (ours flatly refuse to use it when we tried them on clumping litter. That is, assuming it wasn't a case of two cats needing the loo at the same time.

I've tried alligator, I wasn't that impressed. I wonder if crocodile tastes the same?
I like venison, so if kangaroo meat tastes similar to it, I think I'd rather like that.


The only brains I've eaten is Mr Brain's faggots.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The girls never used the litter anyway; they're too used to going outside. Sebastian's had free access to it, but he hasn't used it either since he could go out freely which has been a few weeks. I'm going to get rid of it.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I've only had croc once; it tastes like fishy chick.

Greg and I already made jokes about the supermarket selling Mr Faggot's brains!

[theyarnproject.livejournal.com]

OOOH!!! I just LOVE kitties.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

There will be lots of photos, but in instalments as I catch up.