Monday, 19 April 2004
I Really Don't Want to Know What Kind of Vegetable It Came From
I sometimes wax poetic about the frozen dinners that I eat (or don't). Far from the stereotypical TV dinner that comes to mind, or the pizza 'n' fried chicken selection available in the U.S., these are pretty tasty and made from fresh, decent ingredients. Mmm-mmm goodness in single-serving portions? Sign me up.
Tonight, for example, was papillote d'aiguillettes de poulet à la forestière. En anglais, this is thin strips of chicken in a "woodsy style" (take that as you will). "Papillote" roughly translates to the rather unrefined word "package," with an undertone of "easy to make."
Easily prepared, tender grilled chicken, a bunch of different types of mushroom (tender and varied, none of which I - as a non-mushroom hunter - could translate with any justice). Add a nice garlicky sauce, and deenair ees serve-ed.
If it hadn't been for the accompanying broccoli, steeped in the same delicious garlic sauce, I'd probably have steamed a bowl of vegetables to complement the set. Like, for example, the petits pois, pois croquants et épinards that I had last night.
Yummy peas. Crunchy snap peas (or at least, crispy peas in pods - lest my translation be less than correct). Tender spinach in easy-to-spear balls. Tiny feathers.
Um, waitaminnit - "tiny feathers"? Well, yes. "Feather," to be exact, since there was only one. Still, one (1) is one more (+1) than zero (0) - which is precisely the number of tiny feathers that I'd typically expect in my bowl of steamed vegetables.
Be they cute or not, I'd really prefer a world that has fewer tiny feathers steeped in vegetable juice. Being the man of the people that I am, my election platform would be "A chicken in every pot, not in steamed vegetables."
Sadly, some apocryphal kid in Africa went hungry last night as the last couple of mouthfuls of my veggies slid into the trash, jauntily wearing a feather in their cap.
Comments
Hmmm, feathered veggies, where does that leave us vegetarians?