AN "OFFALLY" GOOD DINNER

Slow Food Dinner, Saturday January 30^th 2010

Perhaps more than most other kinds of food, offal has experienced significant fluctuations in popularity over the years. In Asia, where it is an integral part of the cuisines of many countries, it has maintained a more consistent presence than in most western countries where its reputation as "poor people's food" in the late 19th Century helped lead to its decline.

In this more enlightened 21st century, offal is making quite a comeback in many western countries, largely thanks to brave restaurateurs like Fergus Henderson of St John Restaurant in London and a resurgence in traditional dishes in such countries as Italy and Spain.

Member Mary Garland has put together a menu of offal dishes in the western tradition, featuring ingredients such as sweetbreads, ox tongue and oxtail, and livers and kidneys.

“I grew up eating all sorts of offal even when it was entirely un-cool, as we got much of our meat from relatives' farms”, says Mary. “The idea of wasting anything was abhorrent to my grandmother who grew up experiencing the food shortages WW1 and also my mother who grew up with similar experiences during WW2.”

Dessert is spiced, baked apples. “Because it's the kind of dessert my grandmother used to make in late winter when the apples were getting a bit tired. It's the whole idea of waste not - want not.”

Date: Saturday 30 January

Time: 7.00 pm

Cost: $400 members, $450 non-members

Wine: BYO.

A good match might be hearty, earthy red wines, such as Italian reds (Piglian reds, Montepulciano, some of the smaller, unusual IGTs ; other Sangioveses). Spanish reds would also be good (Ribera del Duero, Rioja, other Tempranillos). White exotics from Italy or Spain might be good with the sweetbreads, and dessert wine is also welcome.