I see I haven’t written anything about the goats since their seventeenth of May celebration. I don’t want to lose my goat audience; they could so easily sign up eløsewhere, like the NSG site (Norwegian Sheep and Goat). Talking of celebrations: like everyone else, goats have birthdays. Holly’s and Misty’s are only two days apart in April. Alma, my daughter, makes them all a birthday meal.
Which they might eat inside the house:
Or outside:
Or both.
And then in the goathouse:
A Bad Guide 
O lucky goats!
Yeah, I want to come back in my next life as one of your goats. Or hell, in this life. Looks like arugula, grated carrots, red leaf lettuce, sprouts and a few blosoms. Nice birthday meal! Just need a drip or two of balsamic vinegar.
Happy birthday, goats!
I hope you drink the South African tipple “Goats do Roam”.
That sounds about right. Alma used to hate arugula, so she may just have been trying to unload it on the goats. I think there were some raisins, they love raisins. Can you get balsamic in Moscow? We haven’t had it here for all that long.
Goodness, dearie. I hadn’t heard of it. I shall order some tomorrow from the local state-run liquor store, Vinmonopolet. Are you one of the Scottish, whisky-tasting deariemes, by the way?
I wouldn’t say they’re that lucky; these meals only happen on birthdays and at Christmas. On the other hand, you wouldn’t catch me debarking a spruce tree for dinner, so it’s all just a matter of taste.
Oh yes. We can get about 40 kinds of balsamic vinegar ranging in price from the merely obscene to the astronomical. Our rich oligarchs and their families read about it in glossy mags and then buy it by the barrel. You can also get about 500 kinds of olive oil pressed by 12-year-old virgins with their pinkies. And there is nothing quite like watching a couple of teens standing at the meat counter at Globus Gourmet, discussing quite knowledgeably different kinds of prosciutto that costs about $100 per 100 grams. “Let’s get the Parma.” “No, let’s get the Jamon iberico. The Parma was a bit too salty last time.”
Everyone is equally rich in Norway, so all our food is expensive.
I taste whisky only in winter: at Hogmanay and whenever we have haggis for dinner. The current open bottle is Ardbeg 10 year old. The roll-top desk in my study was a retirement present from the Talisker distillery – but not to me.
My wife and I are quite fond of Goats Do Roam ourselves (it’s a takeoff of Cotes du Rhone, if that wasn’t obvious).
dearieme: I envy you your Ardbeg! I can’t afford Islay any more.
Are the goats really eating arugula? At first sight I thought those leaves were dandelions, but I guess they have more refined tastes now. Also, half of my backyard is full of dandelions, so maybe I am inclined to see dandelions everywhere (fortunately the other half is all blue with forget-me-nots, a wonderful sight), At this time of year you can eat dandelions in salads, but I don’t. I also have a few tulips in front of the house, but not as delicate and beautiful as yours, AJP.
LH: I had seen “Goats Do Roam” somewhere and not noticed the pun! of course, for me the “s” in “Cotes” does not exist, so that makes a difference to the amount of resemblance.
How fortunate I read this thread before dinner tonight! On the menu was single malt scotch, and I realized I had never tasted one. I was a bit dubious, not being a scotch drinker and preferring a cognac like Courvousier, but on seeing all the Islay and Scapa and Taliska on the menu, I had some Cragganmore, made by Speyside. Ahh, heaven.
Jamessal has written a piece about single-malt scotches at Caviar and Codfish here. I’ve tried some of them since I read it (small bottles, sometimes very small). I bought a normal-sized bottle of the Talisker at the duty-free at Oslo airport*. I can’t get hold of his favourite, though.
*Anyone coming to Oslo should be made aware that the duty-free at Gardemoen can be utilized on arrival, saving passengers the trouble of lugging plastic bags full of bottles across oceans and probably saving jet fuel**.
**I recently discovered that “jet fuel”, which sounds so exotic and fast, is just paraffin (aka kerosene) with some additives.
Not only did I figure it out, but it led me to enquire about Châteauneuf-du-Pape on Wiki, yesterday. I think the name could be usefully discussed at LH, if it hasn’t been already.
Yes, I thought you must be one of the whisky deariemes. Since I’m very nouveau-whisky I had to look up Ardbeg, but I soon found out that:
and that:
Not only that, but then
It’s a sort of good-luck whisky, apparently.
(Islay being the Hebridean island that gives its name to, especially, those peaty whiskies that are distilled on its south coast, including Ardbeg.) I’m getting this information from Wiki.
Well, it wasn’t my idea to give them arugula, but I think Alma was just trying to get rid of it. She used not to like it.
Maybe we have similar climates, m-l. We have the lovely forget-me-nots now, and the dandelions. It’s very difficult to eat something, that you regard elsewhere as a weed, in a salad. I have a similar thing about not eating ground elder, although I know dearieme and his wife like it — I used to, before it annexed our blackcurrant bushes for its own purposes.
I had some Cragganmore, made by Speyside. Ahh, heaven.
Yes, Cragganmore is one of my favorites. Normally I prefer the more intense, peatier Islay malts, but there’s something about Cragganmore — it’s just perfectly balanced, like a certain kind of small-group jazz.
From their website: “fruitcake and toffee flavours“, but also “Why not try Cragganmore with sausages or meat pies?“.
I recently discovered that “jet fuel”, which sounds so exotic and fast, is just paraffin (aka kerosene) with some additives.
If I’m not mistaken it’s also called “A1”, like the sheet of paper on which you print your drawings.
Are the goats on diet today, after such a feast?
In England there’s a kind of sauce, that you are supposed to put on steak, called A1. It does taste of paraffin, now that you mention it.
We do have similar climates, AJP, I have noticed that before. But usually we don’t get as much snow as you do. A few years ago there was almost a metre of snow that fell in one night: the next day the whole city was paralyzed, and schools were closed for more than a week. They had to import snowplows from distant places as they were not equipped for such large amounts of snow (we are on the sea, that’s why – it would have been nothing special further inland).
Right now the city is taking on its summer look: most of the trees have young leaves. We have no spring really: in two or three weeks we go from winter to summer.
a cognac like Courvousier
You mean Courvoisier.
Given the location, the name of the place must be a translation into French from the local Provençal, a variety of Occitan. There are other places called Castelnau which means the same as French Châteauneuf. The du instead of older le confirms the naming pattern that was discussed earlier on LH. The French version of the name must have been adopted officially after the wine became famous in the whole country, not just locally.
Ah, I knew you’d know. That’s interesting to me — my secondary school in London was by the River Thames, off a very long road called Castelnau. I can’t think of an adjacent castle, though. It must be long gone.
” I can’t afford Islay any more”; nor can I, Lhat. It was a retirement present – to me, this time.
You mean Koor-va-see-ay. (Though I think the intervening decade may have scrambled my recollection of the pronunciation on the RuPaul Christmas show …)
Did Wiki tell you it is pronounced like “I-lay”, not “iz-lay”?
I would use Koor-vwahz-yeh if I was transcribing for Berlitz. I am sorry I never heard of the RuPaul show.
I’m gonna have to try that Cragganmore. As readers of Caviar and Codfish will know, I’ve just been wild for everything made by these guys. Their Flaming Heart is the tastiest scotch I’ve had, hands-down.
Yes. I found that rather hard to believe, so I’m waiting for someone else to say it first before I use it.
Shit, you’ve already linked to the post — sorry. It’s full time job, being a good commenter.
That’s alright, you can never have too many links to a good site. And don’t forget to look at the youtube link that I put on Sili’s Kat.
P.S. It’s nearer to Eye-lah than Eye-lay. Stress on the first syllable.
Thanks. Someone who knows.
A wonderful whisky that can be ordered without pronunciation challenges is Springbank.
That would be this one. Goodness, they’ve got their own blog, with whisky pictures.
Well the good news is they sell it at the Vinmonopolet, in Norway, so I can get it. The bad news is it costs 326 pounds for a 0.75 l. bottle. (Well ok, that was just one of them, I admit they have lots that are much cheaper.)
P.S. It’s nearer to Eye-lah than Eye-lay. Stress on the first syllable.
Good to know — thanks! Also, have you tried anything from Compass Box, Dearieme? (I’m curious, since Crown tells me you’re something of an expert.)
Yes, I neglected to mention stress, but maybe my using “I” rather than “eye” gave the wrong impression that stress was on the last syllable. It is as dearieme says.
Neither had I. And I know the proper pronunciation. This was a parody of a Southern Housewife who seemed to use it much as cooking sherry.
I fail at humour.
Sorry, jamessal, my expertise is pretty limited. I know Springbank because a pal used to be paid in bottles of Springbank and enjoyed sharing them. The Ardbeg was a present. Our previous bottle was Laphroaig – also delish. (Pronounced
lah-froy-g: “g” hard, stress on second syllable.)
Anyone seriously interested in single malts should read Michael Jackson’s (no, not that MJ) Complete Guide To Single Malt Scotch. (Warning: It will, over the long haul, cost you considerably more than the cover price.)
At least you know how to pronounce them. Does Michael Jackson have a pronunciation guide?
Kron, are you paying attention? This is what we cannot live without for our birthday celebration(s).
[…] enough, the bar also had both a goat and a hat, odd because the whole scotch thing came out of some comments made by Languagehat on a thread on AJP Crown’s goat blog, A Bad […]