Lean, mean and hankering for lamb chops and chutney
FORGET the falling rand; have you seen the price of chillies lately? “Looks like you flew this first class from India,” Sammy chirped at the guy weighing vegetables in the supermarket. At least he returned her cute smile.
At every opportunity, I remind her that almost everything is much cheaper and fresher at our beloved Bangladesh Market in Chatsworth.
Not this week I tell you. Stallholder Muna chokes that he has to buy chillies at R800 a pocket and mark at R60 a kilo.
“At this rate we going to be eating pumpkin soup rather than hot mutton curry,” my trusty companion Boya squeaked.
It is not likely that the Saturday Chatsworth habit of spicy mutton or chicken curry will pass any time soon.
It harks back to the days when tight budgets meant that it was vegetables all week and meat on a Saturday. If you were seriously waxed, it was lamb chops in tomato chutney for Sunday breakfast.
Religion also played its part in the menu, especially the strictures of Hinduism. Some folks restricted their diets to vegetables on so many days of the week that it sounded like they were permanently fasting. They may have been onto something. Social media fanatics will know that twitter has quite a following for “Meatless Mondays”.
My own preference nowadays is for “lean living”. This extends to beyond just my diet. I have given up the monster German saloons and flashy suits. Instead, I now drive a fuel-efficient car that I can park in a shoebox. Instead of a wardrobe that saw outfits worn no more than once a month, I have now taken to recycling a suit a couple of times a week.
“Aweh Henry, I hope you not doing same thing with your under things,” said Boya, crinkling his nose.
Not quite but I am toying with the idea of those cotton jobbies from Nu Shop in Chatsworth Centre rather than the designer stuff my credit card groaned under.
Serial offender
A most helpful book with my eating habits is The Dolce Diet Living Lean Cookbook which authors Brandy Roon and Mike Dolce have brought out in a second volume. I had not seen the first volume but it must have been quite a hit to publish a sequel.
Paging through the book reminds me of the weight loss programme to which I constantly return as a serial offender. The one true joy at those meetings is catching up with old friends and optimists who believe one day they will fit into the clothes they bought on sale. Lani Muelrath’s The Plant-based Journey proudly proclaims, “It’s been proven that a plant-based diet is good for your weight, health, budget, and the environment, … we have good news: you don’t have to do it alone.” I have ordered it online from a company that is a stable companion to this newspaper.
With any luck, I might become a good candidate for both lean and vegetarian. That will surely disappoint the folks at Ebrahim’s Butchery where, as a child, I used to stop over for a weekly parcel of lamb chops. For the princely sum of R10, one could get enough meat to heartily feed a family of five. These days, R10 it seems is not enough for a handful of chillies.
Henry Higgins promotes #Readingrevolution at Books@ Antiquecafe in Windermere and at the first Sunday’s Durban Book Fair at Mitchell Park.