Teetotal Vegetarianism - Day 19 May 23nd 2009

'Welcome to the Church of the Holy Cabbage. Lettuce Pray' - Moorish Proverb


3 weeks in and I needed a night on the town. Douglas, capital city of the Isle of Man, is not a place for the sober on a Saturday night. Like something Hunter S. Thompson would have described. Hideous people in various states of drunkenness. Normally I’m one of the masses but on this rare occasion I saw the other side of the beast. After a few Colas I headed to a charity concert to see the Island’s premier blues musician Mr Riff.

Whilst at said charity gig a conversation was struck with a musician who wanted to break into the world of anti-folk music. What’s anti-folk you ask? He reckoned it’s like normal folk that doesn’t take itself very seriously but also takes itself very seriously. Confused? So was I. Wikipedia describes it as;

‘The music sub-genre known as anti-folk (or antifolk) takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s music and subverts it. The defining characteristics of this sub-genre are hard to pin down, as they vary from one artist to the next. Nonetheless, most would accept that the music tends to sound raw or experimental; it also generally mocks the seriousness and pretension of the established mainstream music scene in addition to mocking itself’

Still none the wiser! I’m sure if I was drunk I would have been quite impressed by anti-folk but with all my wits about me it just had to nod politely.

After a spot of midnight tea with Mr Riff I took a leap of faith and headed off to the local nightclub. All I can say is that it stunk of vomit and sweat.

But what’s the best thing about going to a club sober? Drunken girls buy drinks for you! Normally if both parties are drunk then chivalry kicks in and the inebriated male demands he pays should the female raise a notion to use her hard earned cash. But when the male is sober and the female is drunk then it’s like taking candy from a baby (which I also did, stupid drunken baby couldn’t even fight back). To quote one girl ‘I’m buying you a drink because you have kind eyes’ If only you knew baby! (The only shame was the drink had to be non-alcoholic, a triple cheeky Vimto would have gone down well though that would have brought about the usual situation of me paying! Catch 22 indeed)

Vegetarian Dish of the Day:

Branston Pickle

As I was out on town the only food I could obtain was a cheese and Branston pickle baguette from a convenience store. Since we have already looked at cheese that leaves us with Branston Pickle!

‘Branston Pickle is made from a variety of diced vegetables, including swede, carrots, onions, cauliflower and gherkins pickled in a sauce made from vinegar, tomato, apple and dates with spices such as mustard, coriander, garlic, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cayenne pepper with sugar. In recent years the sugar has been replaced with high fructose corn syrup.’

However it almost ended;

‘At 1:45am on 27 October 2004 a massive fire almost destroyed the entire Bury St Edmunds factory and cut the stocks of Branston Pickle in half, thus reducing the supply of the product and in some instances increasing the price. The factory is now back in production and has recently launched Branston Tomato Ketchup and Brown Sauce along with a range of relishes and Baked Beans’ (Wikipedia)

I also like the varieties of burger relish that the Branston Brand produces. They got me through the Linda McCartney burger. I recommend the Hot Chilli and Jalapeño one!