Why not serve both?

[muckefuck]

Every Easter, it's the same debate: Lamb or ham? For each of us, it's no question: monshu is a mongrel Scot who learned to cook like an Italian; it's your paschal duty to kill and eat a baa-baa! I'm like a good boilermaker: 7/8 German beer to one part Irish whiskey; high holidays mean hog hindquarters. This year, the crazy separation between Latin and Orthodox Easter offered us an opportunity: Ham this weekend, lamb a month later. Except old habits die hard and, as monshu was doing the shopping he couldn't resist...

Although I urged him to take a picture before our guest arrived, he hesitated and all was almost lost. At least we have evidence of cuorefelice34's character: Just so y'all know, he showed no hesitation about going for the head, although he did claim that, "If there had been other people, I would've taken the butt." (Good to know, especially along with the fact that he's a two-drink drunk.)

It was a great ham with a great preparation: garlic-herb rub followed by a cider reduction glaze. It was good, cloudy, organic cider, too, which meant that it tasted far more apply than sugary. He also made curried apricot chutney and sweet potatoes with candied ginger. He really, really wanted to serve the gay vegetable, but in another heroic moment of resistance, he left it on the shelf and let me complete my end run by serving Chinese mustard greens, Spanish style (i.e. raisins and pinenuts). Desert was his mother's traditional homemade strawberry shortcake, so I told cuorefelice34 our theme was "What it wouldn't be Easter without" and he responded with the yummiest mac-n-cheese I've had in an age. The least I could do to thank him was introduce him to Kriek cherry lambic.

Comments

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

If you already know what "Kriek" means, "cherry lambic" is pleonastic. However, if you don't, then it is valuable explanatory text.

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

Ok. I considered that, but decided that you would lean more towards avoiding redundancy and less towards valuable explanatory text, and that therefore there must be something more to it that I, as a fan of lambic, might want to know. I was wrong, but have learned something despite that. (Pleonastic!)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, I'm actually making some effort to eschew obscurity. I might've been prompted by cuorefelice34's question last night, "Do you know any stupid people?" Our conversation isn't that insularly erudite, is it?

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

Struldbrug. I rest my case.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Quiet, you!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Oh, and if you want to get picky about provenance (and upscale boozehands generally do), a Kriek is specifically a dark cherry lambic from Belgium, which this was. (Now that domestic microbreweries are getting more sophisticated, it's necessary to specify.)