Losing touch with the 21st century

Yes, I know that my hobbies are a bit unusual.

No, I don’t expect people to always know what I’m talking about.

 

But having said that, have I completely lost touch?

 

I am readying myself for Christmas dinner. This time around, I have decided to do up a traditional English dinner. No – nothing 13^th century, but old nonetheless. I plan on doing roast veggies, goose, dressing, etc. And for dessert, a traditional plum pudding. Now, for those of you out there who have never had a traditional plum pudding, it is one of those crazy misnomers. While it tastes like plum, there are actually no plums in the dish. However, it does contain beef suet. Oh, those wacky English! Yet, my annual challenge has become FINDING beef suet. Well, more specifically, the challenge isn’t in finding it – it is finding a meat-cutter that understands what it is.

 

Usually, the conversation goes as follows:

 

Butcher: Hello?

Me: Hello. I’d like to put in an order for some suet.

Butcher: (Pause) Um… some what?

Me: Suet.

Butcher: What?

Me: Beef suet.

Butcher: Beef bruet?

Me: No. SUET. S-u-e-t.

Butcher: (Pause) I don’t know if we have that.

 

I don’t know what’s worse – the fact that a meat-cutter DOES have suet (since it is most likely thrown out by the meat cutter on a regular basis), or the fact that a meat-cutter doesn’t know the term for one of the things that can be yielded from his cuts. One year, and one year only, I chatted with a meat-cutter who told me, “I’m not sure if I can get a hold of some good kidney leaf-lard on time, but I can probably get you some regular beef suet”. Oh BABY! THAT was a man who knew what he was doing! But alas, that store closed, and I’m back to square-one trying to get the skinny on some very important fat.

 

Le Sigh….