What's on your mind?

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Don't forget hoagie, sub, and grinder!

I haven't found this to be the case. Plenty of small bakeries near everywhere I've lived do savory pastries. Hipstered-out places do croissants stuffed with named meat and fancy cheese, local fruit pie bakers make chicken and beef pot pies - I mean, NYC is full of Spanish food and Caribbean places that make meat pastelitos and Jamaican beef patties. True we don't have many places doing actual British-style meat pies. There was this place in Boston that made Cornish pasties though, that was tasty food.

Yeah you're right, in out of the way places or even in the inner cities I'm sure things can be quite different than what I'm used to. I guess I just live a sheltered life out here in the rural suburbs. To me a 'bakery' is a bakery where you go to get a Black Forrest Cake or some Napoleons. But just because I've never been in a hipstered-out bakery that had savory food on offer doesn't mean these places don't exist. It's just not the norm anywhere I've ever lived in the states when you see a sign that says bakery. And sure even I've had Jamaican meat pies and empanadas and pupusa and stuff, I've been in plenty of bodegas and Spanish places to get hot food I just wouldn't characterize any of those places as bakeries.

I do know that when my wife asked me if we could find her some NZ/AUS/UK style meat pies I searched and searched and came up empty. Got one result in Brooklyn,  somewhere over by Prospect Park there was supposedly an Australian guy who made meat pies, but when I swung by there to investigate it had closed. One of her cancer doctors was married to a Brit and she told her about a little market in the city downtown somewhere, SoHo maybe, that carried a whole range of British specialty foods but we never made it over there. With so many English and Irish people living in NYC you'd think that kind of stuff would be easier to find.

I know about hoagies, heros and subs, but where is it again where they call them grinders?

[FatherAlabaster]

24 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I know about hoagies, heros and subs, but where is it again where they call them grinders?

It's a New England thing. Apparently some people say hot subs are "grinders" and cold subs are "subs" but I've heard it all used interchangeably. The one I don't think I've seen up here is "hoagie".

[GoatmasterGeneral]

A quick Google search tells me hoagie is used in Philly and parts of Western PA. Makes sense, seems like people from the Pittsburgh area have different names for a lot of things.

[AlSymerz]

Australia's love affair with meat pies is more about being seen with a pie than actually wanting to eat one I'm sure. The idea of grabbing a 'dog's eye and some dead horse' at the footy on a cold winters day used to be okay. They were convenient, one handed meals that stayed together until the last bite and it was a bit of a skill learning to eat a pie and drive a road ranger gear box while keeping a truck straight on the road without spilling the hot mix in your lap.

But pies these days are not what they used to be. Even the rumours that they are anything from horse meat to dog meat mixed with ground up bones and offal isn't a reason for their change. Small bakeries are definitely where it's at if you want a real pie though. Anything from a single serve, one handed thing to one big enough to feed the whole family. The problem these days is too many bakeries aren't real bakeries and they buy their pies bulk from cold store and just reheat them.

[Thatguy]

37 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

But pies these days are not what they used to be

As ever, yes and no. Even a mass produced pie at the footie has its charm (although I haven't had a pie at the footie for a long time as I used to go with my son and he is a vegetarian and I couldn't politely eat a pie sitting next to him and he is now in Europe) but there are good pies available at markets - hipster, yep artisanal 😉pies - and in some bakeries.

[AlSymerz]

I still think the 'charm' of eating a pie at the footy is more about the activity, not about enjoying the meat sack. Kind of like going to the stadium urinal and sharing it with 10 other blokes all pissing on their boots and trying to remain vertical while they don't spill their watered down beer.

I'm not entirely sure what a hipster pie is but there is still some bakeries in country towns, like Bruthen, Ouyen, Jamestown, Merriden  to name a few where a good meat pie can still be bought for a reasonable price.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

35 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

Australia's love affair with meat pies is more about being seen with a pie than actually wanting to eat one I'm sure. The idea of grabbing a 'dog's eye and some dead horse' at the footy on a cold winters day used to be okay. They were convenient, one handed meals that stayed together until the last bite and it was a bit of a skill learning to eat a pie and drive a road ranger gear box while keeping a truck straight on the road without spilling the hot mix in your lap.

But pies these days are not what they used to be. Even the rumours that they are anything from horse meat to dog meat mixed with ground up bones and offal isn't a reason for their change. Small bakeries are definitely where it's at if you want a real pie though. Anything from a single serve, one handed thing to one big enough to feed the whole family. The problem these days is too many bakeries aren't real bakeries and they buy their pies bulk from cold store and just reheat them.

C'mon man, harden the fuck up, a wee bit of ground up bones and offal and some tasty chopped up bug parts won't hurt you. It'll put hair on your chest as my grandfather used to say.

When I drove a truck I was the king of spilling shit in my lap. And all down my shirt too for that matter. Nothing better than than driving 10 hours with a wet crotch.

You Ockers really are a silly bunch of rhyming fools. Dog's eye and dead horse. I figured dog's eye meant meat pie, but of course in (most of) the states horse doesn't rhyme with sauce so I had to Google it to be sure.

I'll pass on the pies, the two I've had in NZ put me off them for good. I got the steak & onions (and I think possibly cheese?) the first time but I didn't really like the flavor and they said "Silly Yank, you should have gone with the mince." So the 2nd time we found ourselvs in a bakery I requested the mince pie but it wasn't much better.

I don't normally eat random shit during the day like that but my F-i-L is a big burly 300 pound ex RNZN man who starts eating the minute he gets up in the early morning hours, and he needs to eat every few hours throughout the day to keep his belly full or he gets hangry. So wherever we went as they showed me around beautiful Aotearoa he was always steering us toward food establsihments. "I know this little cafe just around the corner up here..."

Now my M-i-L in Sydney doesn't like to cook, so we took many of our meals in the food courts at local suburban shopping malls as she and my wife just wanted to shop the whole time, while I trailed behind them with the toddler in the push chair. Different shopping mall (or two) every day, from Ashfield to Parramatta all the way up to Carstle Hill. Who the fuck eats their main meal of the day at a Westfield mall food court? You can get quite a few various different kinds of food there, but it's all shit!

She did cook for us a few times over those 5 weeks but that wasn't very good either. Many nights there was no dinner planned at all, she'd just nibble on a litte snack because she'd already eaten her big meal at the mall. But fortunately there was a whole string of restaurants and takeaway places across the street from the train station which was right around the corner 2 minutes walk from her luxury high rise, so I didn't starve. I can cook but I wasn't gonna let her off the hook, we were her guests goddammit, so I intended to make the bitch do some work. Just like I cooked for her most nights when she came over to visit us.

1 hour ago, Thatguy said:

As ever, yes and no. Even a mass produced pie at the footie has its charm (although I haven't had a pie at the footie for a long time as I used to go with my son and he is a vegetarian and I couldn't politely eat a pie sitting next to him and he is now in Europe) but there are good pies available at markets - hipster, yep artisanal 😉pies - and in some bakeries.

Carlos took me to the cricket match when I was down there in January '17 (wrong time of year for footy) and we had some of your strange Aussie beetroot burgers there. They were edible but nothing special.

But what I really want to know is why did you feel that it'd be rude of you to eat a pie in front of your vegetarian son? He chose to be vegetarian of his on free will, so it's not like he wanted one for himself.  Everyone else needs to starve themselves if they're gonna hang around with vegetarians? 

[Dead1]

1 hour ago, AlSymerz said:

 

But pies these days are not what they used to be. Even the rumours that they are anything from horse meat to dog meat mixed with ground up bones and offal isn't a reason for their change. Small bakeries are definitely where it's at if you want a real pie though. Anything from a single serve, one handed thing to one big enough to feed the whole family. The problem these days is too many bakeries aren't real bakeries and they buy their pies bulk from cold store and just reheat them.

My butcher does awesome meat pies with actual steak in them.  They also do awesome beef wellingtons and sausages and their mince and steak are awesome.  Just thinking of that place gets my mouth watering.

 

https://thesausageshop.com.au/?fbclid=IwAR2lbxydcRtezg9UCfhERWkTUZHBN9pVd3LxOxM_G0LqicEOEwqVEiI9YdY

 

But I am happy to have pies and sausage rolls as well as as odd pasty from any old bakery even if they're just reheated up.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

16 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

My butcher does ...awesome beef wellingtons

I have desperately wanted to try one of these Beef Wellingtons since the first time I ever saw Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen on tv. But I wouldn't have the slightest idea where to get one of them over here.

 

[Dead1]

16 hours ago, AlSymerz said:

I agree that fish and chip prices have gone up, cost us $55 to feed 4 adults last weekend, but I don't see them dying. Even in country towns fish and chip shops have car parks full of cars at around 6pm every night of the week. Many of them also open for lunch to get workers and a lot of country towns have multiple fish and chip shops. Even sit down restaurants are booming these days. Our nearest major town (26,000 people) has 9 fish and chip shops

Many of our local takeaway/fish n chip shops have closed down.  Even when you google them, most of the results are proper restaurants.

There's a proliferation of nasty looking Asian eateries.  I say nasty looking because most look like a hospital cafeteria with ancient furniture and poorer hygiene standards (clearing tables and sweeping tables apparently not a thing they are into).

Also interesting that with proliferation of Uber Eats, the local food court has totally died in the arse.  It is now mainly empty and has lost all its diversity - you can now only get Chinese, Indian and Thai whereas before there was also Italian, Australian, Lebanese, hot baked potatoes and a dessert joint.

 

Actually as a whole eating out in Launceston has become shit.  Food's expensive but often not very good and the quality of the wait staff a real mixed bag even in supposed luxury restaurants (eg spilling drink on your table and not cleaning it up).

Oh and the menus are dire and predictable.  

For a state that prides itself as a food place, it's pretty woeful. 

There's literally 3 restaurants left in Launceston I am still willing to go to for dinner (one Thai run by actual Thais and not Chinese who seem to run most Thai and 2 more western style eating).

According to a mate of mine who is a chef but works on car ferry, no-ones wants to work in restaurants anymore especially when it comes to cooks and chef.  Shit hours, shit pay, shit conditions, no family time.    

Hence you only get people who would probably be rather doing something else or are immigrants without much choice (in some restaurants where you can see the cooking staff, there are no Aussies left).

8 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I have desperately wanted to try one of these Beef Wellingtons since the first time I ever saw Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen on tv. But I wouldn't have the slightest idea where to get one of them over here.

 

You're just going to have learn to make it yourself!

[GoatmasterGeneral]

13 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

You're just going to have learn to make it yourself!

Only if you and your butcher fly over and teach me how to do it the Aussie way. We'll play some Zeke and some 90's death metal for ya, it'll be fun.

[Thatguy]

50 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

But what I really want to know is why did you feel that it'd be rude of you to eat a pie in front of your vegetarian son?

I didn't feel I had to and he wouldn't care. I don't eat much meat anyway and I just felt happier following him.

[Serpentboi1992]

56 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I have desperately wanted to try one of these Beef Wellingtons since the first time I ever saw Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen on tv. But I wouldn't have the slightest idea where to get one of them over here.

 

beef wellingtons to me seem like a food parents punish their children with. you have them think they're about to bite into a sweet, creamy pastry for dessert and then have them be disappointed once they take a bite and then you whisper to them "that's what you get for punching your sister, you little punk!" 

[Thatguy]

That is totally amazing art, but probably in the wrong thread.

[Dead1]

51 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Only if you and your butcher fly over and teach me how to do it the Aussie way. We'll play some Zeke and some 90's death metal for ya, it'll be fun.

Don't think my butcher would be up for the Zeke and 90s death metal!

[FatherAlabaster]

Maybe that goat with the knife there can do it the Austrian way, hardly different, right?

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, Dead1 said:

Don't think my butcher would be up for the Zeke and 90's death metal!

So you're saying this dude's not your butcher then? Cuz he seems like he'd be down for at least some Teutonic thrash.

1 hour ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Maybe that goat with the knife there can do it the Austrian way, hardly different, right?

We can ask him if he does Wellies, but I suspect his speciallty might be Austrian neckties. Which is very much like a Colombian necktie, just with a lot more yodeling.

[AlSymerz]

I can yodel at the moment. It happens involuntarily every time I try to move. I shovelled 3.5 tonnes of crushed recycled concrete today to make a path along the side of the house and garage. Path looks better than I thought it was going to but I'm going to pay for this for a fucking week!

 

[navybsn]

Everything hurts when I get out of bed pretty much every day. I pulled down some old lights and put up new ones along with a shade on the patio this weekend. Maybe 2 hours worth of work. Still feel like I did a heavy lift day at the gym 3 days later. The heat is a factor this time of year in my area, but I still shouldn't feel like this. Way too out of shape these days.

[AlSymerz]

Kind of glad I didn't get around to doing this path last summer when I first thought about it. It's the last month of winter, overnight temps were down to 2 degrees but the day was brilliant, 20 degrees and full sunshine all day. Movement is still limited this morning but I don't moan as loudly with each movement.

[MacabreEternal]

Funeral for my uncle tomorrow and dickhead me realised tonight I had no suit - one dash over to the retail park later and I am sorted.  Although tomorrow the game of realising the waist size I think I am versus the reality of not being able to breath or move whilst in the new pants I bought without trying them on first will be as thrilling as always I am sure.

[AlSymerz]

Never worn a full suit, haven't worn anything close to a suit in more than 20 years. Can't see that changing in the future.

[MacabreEternal]

This is the irony, I have suits for work, lots of them.  However, I only ever have one black suit for a black tie dinner we host for clients once a year and I threw it out earlier this year thinking I wouldn't need to get a new one for a while.  

[AlSymerz]

I threw out my only dinner jacket earlier this year. It had been hanging in the cupboard for 25 years (since we were married) and it had absolutely no hope of fitting me now. Other than the wedding I think I wore it twice.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

24 minutes ago, MacabreEternal said:

This is the irony, I have suits for work, lots of them.  However, I only ever have one black suit for a black tie dinner we host for clients once a year and I threw it out earlier this year thinking I wouldn't need to get a new one for a while.  

Not trying to be a smart ass and I mean no disrespect to your uncle. Please accept my condolences for your loss.

But is there an unwrritten rule for men that black suits must be worn to funerals? Must it be a suit, and must it be black? Wouldn't a blue or brown suit be almost as good as long as it was dark and not a bright color? Or maybe just a nice black shirt with buttons and a pair of black pants/trousers? I don't go to funerals so I really don't understand funeral etiquette. I've been dragged to a couple as a child and even once or twice as a teenager, but was never made to wear a black suit, I guess kids get a pass.

I did attend my wife's funeral in New Zealand 6 years ago because I was in country staying at her dad's apartment and I couldn't come up with any polite way to decline. (I'm not big on rituals and ceremonies like funerals and weddings, or even holidays for that matter, religious or otherwise) But I just borrowed a black sport coat from my F-i-L that was too small for him but a little large on me. Think I must have borrowed a pair of shoes from him too. Don't remember what I wore on the bottom, I'm guessing probably jeans because that's all I have besides shorts. All dad's pants would have been way too big for me. But I might have popped out to the Warehouse (New Zealands version of Wal-Mart) for a cheapo pair of black dress pants, I really can't remember. Just seems silly to spend hundreds on a suit just to wear it for a couple of hours. Unless you know you're going to be in the market for a black one at some point anyway.