Your Egypt

moll · Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 7683

I just watched this programme on UK tv, it probably has equivalents in other countries. Anyway.......the formula is, 'celebrities' compete with each other to cook, they have certain challenges to meet. I'd seen bits of it before but never actually watched a whole programme, but it's down to 3 now.....

So tonight, they had to first of all cook a dinner at some posh resort in Africa in about 50C heat (I think it was Mozambique but can't remember) then they had to cook a meal for some Michelin starred chefs, as you will know they are the creme de la creme of chefs.

So I was watching it, and part of me was thinking, Oh I wish I could be THAT passionate about food, I WISH I could care that much :cry: but the other half of me was thinking, For crying out loud, there are millions of people starving, this is obscene that people are making such a big deal about foie gras :roll: and they're having hysterics because their celeriac puree hasn't turned out quite right........

Maybe the drama of it makes good TV but I don't know, programmes like this make me realise what a divided world we live in :cry:

SO, the question is, Do you live to eat or eat to live?

Harrison · Joined: 28 Jul 2004 Posts: 901

I take your point Moll about it making good TV, and I would agree with you that especially if it was Mozambique, or even some of the other African countries, it is obscene.

I definitely eat to live - but at the moment not doing a lot of that because of the heat. Mr. C has said continuously since we came to live here that he isn't hungry during the hot summer months, this is the first time it has hit me. I had some sugar smacks for breakfast, nothing since and I am having some sea bass for dinner tonight.

To think that in the UK I had a very large weight problem and tried so hard to lose the weight, here I am not even trying and it has dropped off!

moll · Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 7683

I'm the same, I never eat much when it's too hot..

Tonight's the final, there are three people: a female who used to be with a girl group, a children's TV presenter, and I don't actually know who the other one is but his name's Mark :?

I like food, I really do :P I just get a bit fed up with all the ponciness about it on these programmes sometimes...

RoughShod · Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 2109 Location: South Africa

I think that it is good to enjoy what blessings you have in your life . If it is possible for you to make and enjoy food not experianced by others in poor countries, then I would say it is a sin if you not live your life fully in what has been given to you to live. Maybe you can make a gourmet dinner to those suffering from not only dinner but other things like loss of power to become a self sustaining person. I doubt this will be much help to such a person because all this person will have is a taste of something they are missing out on.

Yet, look at yourself, what makes you fight and gain territory in what you know you need? Are you not initially disadvantaged so to speak and have to use your will into action to make things happen. These ppl that are so destitute have no will to realize they have the power to change. They are quite brain dead and perhaps lazy to use their brain to make something better out of life. They allow a corupt inefficient government to keep them where they are. They are slaves to their own mentality.

moll · Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 7683

RoughShod wrote: These ppl that are so destitute have no will to realize they have the power to change. They are quite brain dead and perhaps lazy to use their brain to make something better out of life. They allow a corupt inefficient government to keep them where they are. They are slaves to their own mentality.

Roughshod, I really do not think that's fair.

OK, maybe what you're saying about people's mentality and defeatism is true about SOME of them....but you're the one who's always saying stuff about walking a mile in somebody else's shoes, how do you know the difficulties people face (often completely out of their control)?

If you'd been brought up in some South African township with no chance of getting out, no chance of education, no hope of anything better......what would YOU have done? how would YOU have got out of it?

And people in areas of the world where they're at the mercy of droughts and other natural disasters, how are THEY supposed to make something better out of life?

If people have a defeatist attitude, circumstances must have made them that way.......don't you remember being a child and thinking that you could be a movie star or a president or a footie player, anything you wanted, that anything was possible? then you join the real world and you lower your sights a bit :cry: but supposing your real world just has no opportunities at ALL, how do you do it then, how do you stop yourself from sliding into the same hopelessness you see all around you?

I don't think it's as simple as saying they're all brain dead and lazy...

OK, now you're going to tell me I know nothing about South Africa, and that's true :thumleft: never been there in my life...

PS The girl won :wink:

Harrison · Joined: 28 Jul 2004 Posts: 901

So go on Moll, what was the winning meals. I once saw Anthony Worrall Thompson doing a beef stir fry and thought oh I will try that. It is now one of our favourites. I would never have thought of putting runny honey through the beef at the end, but it really does make it so nice.

moll · Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 7683

OK, then....I was dribbling while I was watching it

For the starter, she made scallops wrapped in pancetta with a garlic, lemon and parsley sauce, then for the main course she made Beef Wellington only the beef was sitting on the pastry instead of inside it, with mashed potatoes and can't remember what the vegetables were...can't remember now what the pudding was either, but it all looked and seemed to be cooked to perfection

And the thing is, when she started at the beginning, she was a complete novice then she just discovered that she had a natural talent for it....I think that must be so great, to find that you have a talent that you didn't even know you had...

RoughShod · Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 2109 Location: South Africa

Scallops wrapped in pancetta is a new language for me. will have to look it up. A word that caught my attention on a tv show is drizzling a sauce over food. It sounds so dribbling :)

Moll, sorry for that unrelated stuff I brought into your thread...did not want to make a new subject for it because it would make it too official whatever. But one thing I have learned eating dinner with others is that one can sometimes feel free to discuss things that perhaps are taboo. And for some reason food seems a common denominator that allows one to say things that can be arbitarily discussed without being shot down in flames.

And of course Harrison, I did much the same in your topic...but it was in 'release your frustration' :)

Moll, your comment about walking a mile in their shoes...I have never done it myself, but I have tried to help them walk in mine....and they do not seem to want to learn how. they are apathetic. They really do seem to be disadvantaged in any concept of self upliftment. (as you mentioned, onot all of them...there are some that seem to have done very well). But the ones I deal with seem to use their disadvantages as an excuse to continue in the mould they believe they are born into. For that reason I blame the government for not helping them realize their special talents(we all have some talent, whether great or small). They are rather valued as voters instead of economically producing members able to by their own talents make a contribution to the economy.

moll · Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 7683

Personally, I would love a boiled egg if somebody else cooked it for me.....maybe that's what comes after what seems like 100 years of cooking for your children, if you make something you know they like they say, Ohhh no not this AGAIN :smt015 and if you try something different, they say What's THIS? :shock: :shock: :shock: and they poke it and prod it and push it around their plates like you're trying to poison them....

RoughShod · Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 2109 Location: South Africa

A boiled egg for you Moll. With pepper and a cold processed mayonaise, Garnishing of fresh parsley perhaps and a loving touch with a bit of mustard. Enjoy.

moll · Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 7683

RoughShod wrote: A boiled egg for you Moll. With pepper and a cold processed mayonaise, Garnishing of fresh parsley perhaps and a loving touch with a bit of mustard. Enjoy.

Thank you, Roughshod :thumleft: