Today wasn’t meant to be such a foody day. Well not like I didn’t plan to eat, I am not completely insane, but I wasn’t intending to do a food piece. Today was the day of the garden and dog show. These aren’t things I normally enjoy, not least because we have a West Highland Terrier with manky skin. He is a rescue dog from the bogs of Ireland and we use him at West Berkshire Mencap as a therapy dog with the clients. He is very sweet but has what is called Westitude, a trait that means the breed stick their chins out at everything and have to win and be the champion and aren’t really scared of anything. Here is a picture of him telling another dog not to overstep the mark.
Soooooooo – we went to the dog show so that I could recruit more Westies for my mad Westie Walk. What I am planning on doing on 15th June 2013 at 11am is to get as many Westies as possible up to the Control Tower at Greenham Common (non Westies are welcome too) to see if we can break some sort of record but mostly to have one huge, gigantic ball of white fur with black dots for eyes and noses in a huge massive pile of white rotating furriness. I thought it would be funny. Then I thought he can wear his therapy shirt and we can have a bucket to collect for West Berkshire Mencap, all donations voluntary. They wont walk far because all they do is wee on leaves especially if another dog has weed on them first so if we have hundreds they will not move far, just slowly rotate but they will make a magnificent site. Check out Snowy Westie Ferguson for his Facebook page, over 1000 friends, virtually all quadrupeds.  We went to this event to hand out leaflets to Westie owners, this is going to be one seriously big event, various media are now attending!
As we walked in I noticed the food tent and heard that wonderful Gallic accent that turns my bone marrow to jelly, I had to put my head inside the tent and there was Jean Christophe Novelli doing a barbecue inside the marquee. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay for that presentation as I had to do Westie chores, also I had just seen a sign that said Greek food that was over one of the vans. Don’t you just love it when you go to places that just used to offer rubbish chips and now you can get the most amazing fast food. I had a lamb, halloumi and salad pitta with garlic mayonnaise and it was wonderful. Actually it was so wonderful I had another one an hour later. I think I am a gourmand not a gourmet but I blame my mad bugs that eat all my protein, I have to eat for my health and I am not going to eat any old shite.
This blog, and indeed my radio programme, both called Leila’s Local Larder, are not about rubbish food, they are guides to where to find good food and I am always open to suggestions from anyone so if you find a hidden treasure of food loveliness that I can publicise then please contact me.
Luckily I got back in time to hear Mr Novelli’s second presentation and he agreed to be interviewed despite the background noise of a lot of barking. He is from the the northern part of France, nearly Belgium, and loves dogs. In fact at one point he had twenty five which seemed a bit excessive. He went to pick up one but couldn’t part it from his siblings so bought all TEN which he put into his car to take home. He got stopped by the police, apparently he was a bit distracted while driving, and the police asked if he was a dog smuggler. I have to say that if I had seen a great chef with ten dogs in the car my concern would have been slightly different! He never uses salt, only seasoning, cares enormously about what we put into our bodies and runs a fantastic cookery academy. He also has a very talented daughter, Christina, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD8IY7Q_n-U who has an amazing song, Concrete Angel, link is above. I also found out this evening that she is working with my middle son Joe90 at his studio, Bossman Studios, which is a bit of a coincidence!
Mr Novelli is another very passionate man, his cookery academy is very well acclaimed and would make a wonderful present for someone you love a lot or who could cook for you in the future.
The photos aren’t up to much as I wasn’t expecting to be taking any but please see a whole mackerel wrapped in tin foil with seasoning and then steamed on the barbecue, also some boned chicken legs and belly of pork, all delicious and better than your usual sausage. Thank you Mr Novelli for giving me your time.
