ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades An English Breakfast

Speaking of Monty Python:

And now for something completely different...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ve37gVwxw

I see now. Funny, without the right translation I'm still not able to understand, tho I get the essence and I understand every word...

Hard language.

(Why Hungarian?)

[This message has been edited by Gloria (edited 08-22-2006).]

Yes, it's official. Black pudding is addictive.

I love all food and will eat anything EXCEPT TRIPE. Tripe is crumbed cattle stomach lining pieces, and I've noticed its not for sale in NZ anymore.

This may be getting a little off topic here but Trumpy raised an interesting point about stress. I think the average electrical worker is subject to a lot more stress than any other trade or profession.

Electrical workers have much more responsibility and the consequences of their mistakes are far worse than any other trade. Yet here in NZ we're paid the same as plumbers and bricklayers. If a plumber makes a mistake, a laundry may get flooded. If an Electrician makes a mistake, the whole building may catch fire or someone may get electrocuted.

Add to this the fact that there is a gross shortage of electrical workers in NZ and most of us are working well over 50 hours a week to cope with the workload and you have a very stressfull occupation.

I believe the same situation is true for Nurses here in NZ. But at least they are able to strike for more money and less hours. Electricians can't.

Gidday Kiwi,
Good Lord am I hearing you loud and clear there, mate!.
We were given tripe as kids, I hated it then and I still hate it now, although I haven't seen it since I left home.
Don't expect me to shed any tears because you can't get it here anymore.

Like Kiwi, I will eat most things, I draw the line at tripe and parsnips, they are the only vegetable I won't eat, even if you paid me!.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 09-09-2006).]

Cork had some pretty horrendous foods in the past made from tripe! Drisheen (tripe saussages!!) being the most gross. Many of those dishes go back to poorer times when many people couldn't afford prime cuts of meat. Most of this city survived on tripe & onions for the 1800s!

Good call there Dave.
It seems funny how we never seem to learn from past experience.

@kiwi: don't plumbers do gas work in NZ? If they do the risk to blow up os just the same as with electricians!
Even though late 19th century Vienna houses tend to survive gas explosions they usually don't look pretty afterwards - most of the non-load bearing interior brick walls near the explosion collapse, sometimes the ceilings collapse on several floors... I'd hate to be in there!

One thing to mention though before the gas paranoia gets on again... of the two major gas explosions that happened in vienna during the last few years one was caused by an idiot who tried to DIY disconnect his gas stove (pipe wrench was found in the ruins), while the other one was caused by an equally stupid person messing around with a propane bottle in his kitchen (even though they were able to question him afterwards it never came out what exactly happened). So the conclusion is: as long as you don't mess around with it, gas won't explode.

Oh yeah, the most terrible explosion about 5 years ago (took down an entire 1960s apartment block) was caused by two EXTREMELY ignorant plumbers.

I like tripes a la francaise - the dish appears regularly in small cafés here as a 'special'. And when it does, you can't get a seat at the trough.

Mind you, with 'British style' cooking a la awful 'Mrs Beeton', [ that woman boiled her carrots for 6 hours. ], who can blame those who hated tripe as a kid?
Her recipe? Boil 3" chunks of tripe for 2 hours in milk with onion and then thicken the mess with flour. Groooo! Sounds appetising, don't it? Looks like lumpy wallpaper paste!
Then her dreadful 'French' version, laughingly entitled "a la Lyonnaise"- Cold boiled tripe, fried with onion till brown then swamped in chopped parsley and vinegar. Ooo-eck!

French recipe; washed thin slices of tripes sautéed with shallots in butter, then loads of fresh ripe tomatoes, sweet peppers, zuccini, aubergines, black pepper, salt, olive oil, red wine and a huge 'bouquet garni' the size of your boot, plus some veal heels for that smooth gelatinous finish - simmered and reduced for 4 hours. And if you can't quite come to terms with eating cow's stomach, leave it on the plate and just enjoy the soup with some chunks of baguette, a nice glass of bordeaux and the sparkling conversation:
"How is your corn doing, M. Léfevre?"
"Ah, bon. {sluuuuurppp!")

It's all in the mind, you know. It's only beef protein after all - the French stuff their faces with true relish on these esoteric dishes while the rest of us let the processed food factories secretly stuff it in their meat pies and patties.

You are still eating it!

Alan

I think I`m also changing from traditional hungarian food to eastern, ours is good, in winter, it`s so full of calory, taht I could not move if I`d ate that for lunch.

Usually I eat fish, fish fingers with frost fried vegs (Findus thai mix)
or tune on bread with butter and purple onion. Otherwise I eat pizza too, but it`s still too expensive. for ex pizza hut here costs around 10 EUR.

I have to agree there Alan,
I just can't get over the fact that it is a cow's stomach.
Maybe it is just an in-built thing that I've grown up with and of course, the fact that any dish of tripe that I've tried to eat has been, at best, totally bland in taste and always overcooked, which makes it not unlike trying to chew on a rubber inner tube out of a tyre.
BTW Alan,
One thing the french would love if they were down here, is the Mutton-bird.
I've only tried them once and good lord were they awful, an acquired taste as they say.
Even cooking them stinks the house out, you have to boil them to get all the fat and salt out of them, before you roast them.
Never again, eh!.