I ate some cockerel last night. It was greeted at the table with unbridled joy amongst the assembled diners. Once an uncastrated rooster was fairly standard fare here but even in Italy, the capon (the castrated cockerel) is now more common. This old bird came from a local farm where it had been scratching around and generally ruling the roost for a couple of years. I don't know how much the kind hosts paid for it, but probably a premium. We had half of the fowl boiled and served with a parsley and garlic sauce and the other half roasted. It was quite delicious and surprisingly tender. They had probably cooked it for about three days. Going for seconds I was served the Parson's Nose which took some getting down I can tell you. All washed down with bottles and bottles of Barbera and Dolcetto.
Although as your correspondent is doing January yet again, I stayed on fizzy water. How many years is it now Mr Unmitigated? The January on-the-wagon thing does seem to be awfully popular now doesn't it? The only slight upside is that I felt like a spring chicken this morning.
4 comments:
Ron, you have had January off for more years than I can count. In our London days I would always deliberately drink more, just to wind you up.
You can't find a spring chicken in January, even if you did feel like having one.
I generally don't like my food to look me in the eye!
I dream of getting my hands on a capon. I once had several older cocks which had become too much for my friend and which ended up on my table. They were quite marvellous, vaguely gamey if I remember.
I wonder if food is getting the same obsession with youth culture as the people who eat it. I've been trying to source some mutton for years but no luck so far.
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