Wednesday, March 3, 2010

...In a piece of bread

Got up before the light this morning to go and dive for Abalone. The tide was such that I could still get in a decent late morning writing session and dive - and the weather and wind look to be on their way. The Abalone in freezer quota is now full. I'm getting better at it (got my quota today without being exhausted), even though everyone seems to think I am moderately insane free-diving from the shore for them. Aqualung/hookah from a boat is the norm.
I need to work a bit more on my down-time (yes, this means something else entirely when you are referring to a skin-diving with a snorkel). Am getting a little frustrated that I haven't found the crayfish yet. Yes, everyone tells me 'it's deep. You need scuba/hookah'. They might be right. But I really really need to explore more. Also been trying to figure how to catch crabs here. Need to get a crab-hawk (a device which is not a trap, for fishing for crabs) maybe. But they only seem to have them in the US. I'm allowed a cray-pot or a bait trap. Bait trap door is 65mm... cray pot has to have 200mm high escape holes. The things I am trying to catch are bigger than 65mm, and smaller than 200mm... Oh well, I'll work something out. But I fancy some crustaceans for a change ;-)

I turned one of the despised wrasse into fish-cakes tonight. It's not going to be a world beater, but with a tomato chutney, a very acceptable tea (as they say hereabouts. Tea is not just a drink jam and bread).

I was just talking to B the other day about one of the differences we've noticed is whenever you go to a function in South Africa - they'll sell you a wors (kind of sausage -coursely minced beef and pork, with coriander seed as the principle spice - not worst, although sometimes...) roll as a fundraiser. Here - on Flinders - much the same thing... well, obviously a sausage, or a lamb chop (that's a first for us) ... in piece of white bread. Fortunately the Island Bakery is still running and does make a good fresh loaf. What would Pratchett's Dibbler do here? Is this Australia, or just Flinders?

12 comments:

  1. Hi Dave

    A sausage in a white piece of bread with tomato or bbq sauce is a staple for most of the fund raisers and as far as I know it's Australia wide. A lamb chop I haven't seen though (and don't forget the onion).

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  2. The snag in bread is a fund-raising staple. During an election most of the polling booths will have a sausage sizzle as a fund-raising for the polling booth venue. My tradition is to go vote in my local one in the morning (they serve the best breakfast snags and bacon and egg sandwiches), and the after voting, then wander around to a few others to pick up some home-made cakes and the like, and, incidentally, compare the quality of the sausages on offer. Although last election I did make the mistake of wandering into a neighbouring electrorate where they served foreign food (yiros!). How ... unnatural!

    And yes we have a state election in two or three weeks, and yes, my planned journey to sample the wares of the various polling booths is more interesting than anything any of the politicians have raised so far. Which is much the same as the last state elections (when we have stand-up comedians that are complaining that there isn't enough material in the election to make any jokes, it's about as bad as it can get).

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  3. That's what we need here in the states! Lord knows both parties suck, might as well vote for the one with the best food!
    @Dave, yeah. Wrasse suck. Edible, but waaaaay too greasy to me. Goatfish and Sandvicensis are the best, nice and light meat. Gently grilled with some olive oil/sesame oil and onions. Yum! As for crays/lobsters, any shallow reefs? Are you allowed out at night with torches/fire to walk em and collect food? Or is it just too cold/nasty with killer octopi... Look for reefs with lotsa moray eels, the crays in Hawaii would ALWAYS shack up in a moray cave, mutual symbiosis deal kinda thing. You know, Dr Coconut/Fish.
    What kind of crab are you going after? Scylla serrata? They have them there, they like muddy bottoms in brackish water along the shoreline, mangrove areas, and river mouths. Again, yum!

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  4. Ummmm. Abalone. In California you can only go after them with snorkel, no scuba allowed, as they've been badly over fished. I've lived in Texas for thirty years now, and rarely get any even when visiting on vacation.

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  5. It's usually a sausage in white bread in the parts of Australia I've lived. Must say the idea of a a lamb chop sounds interesting though.

    I'm also fascinated by the idea of traveling round different electorates on polling day to sample various foodstuffs. I usually treat voting like evacuating one's bowels, or doing one's taxes - it's gotta be done, get it over with as fast, and with as little fuss, as possible, then move on. I may have to reconsider that approach...

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  6. Tan, Why should I not forget the onion (puzzled - no onion so far)?

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  7. The idea of elections as a food fair sounds attractive to me ;-).

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  8. John, these wrasse were not particularly greasy - just rather soft-fleshed - slightly watery.
    Crabs - I have been told Scylla don't come this far south. There are some quite nice sized crab bodies on the beach - but no-one seems to catch or them - or no-one I've spoken to yet.
    No problem with lights at night - the guys go spearing flounder and netting shrimp with lights at night. Shallow reefs may be a bit more of a headache! But yeah, I just hadn't thought of going night-diving/hoop-netting for them. I have back in SA - but these are Jasus sp. and those were palinurus sp. Palinurus I think are more inshore.

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  9. dshan - the lamb chop was real surprise - a good one, and we've had it a couple of times now. So it's a local thing.

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  10. Dave
    To eat a sausage sizzle without onion is just not Australian !!!. Just you didn't mention if they offered onion with the ones you had. I like the burnt bits of onion at the bottom of the trays, they taste the best.

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  11. Nope,definitely no onion on offer, but chops are delicious, its just what to do with the bone afterwards?

    We are not allowed to vote yet, I wonder if we can still go along and sample the food, so that we know who to vote for next time?

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  12. ah, the Sausage Sizzle is a kiwi staple too ... though often on brown bread here! We baulked initially, being afraid of eating a sausage without the security of a breadroll, but once we tried it we were hooked! Such fun. There's going to be one at our school fair tomorrow and I actually can't wait. :-D And yes, gotta have the onion!

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