Liver – still the 1970’s

There is no really funny story attached to this, albeit I’m sure that somewhere along the line the eating of a flip flop could raise a smile.

Eating out in a restaurant was rare in our family when I was a child, so meals were home cooked and my mum was an excellent cook of her time. Maman could do a consistently good roast, concocted some dishes that remain comfort food to this day such as her chicken with rice, more adventurous ‘foreign’ plates like moules mariniere ahead of her working class, housewifely time.

The liver and bacon thang, was not for me. I apologise Maman, but you already realise that I had more or less as much food on my plate at the end of a liver day as I did at the start. I understand now among my peers,  in particular those from the same sort of background as me, that liver was also an issue for them. I felt real fear when approaching the dinner table as food was not wasted in our home, there was a very tight budget.

Meals at that time had particular days attached to them; Fish on Fridays, chops on wednesdays, but Rocket told me that the food days in his household were absolute and he could reel them off….’shepherds pie– always Monday’.

Anyway, the liver, which was well done….anyone who ever eats it well done deserves a medal and will need an injection of fresh saliva afterwards in my opinion. It was covered in an onion gravy and slice of bacon. Bacon, good! Gravy, good! Liver – yukkety yuk.

In my spotty youth when myself, kisser, hugger and so on started eating out we enjoyed the delights of the Italian restaurants in Streatham. One in particular was a featured advert at the local cinema whenever you saw a film – it was ‘Il Caretto’ and along with ‘Peacocks of Balham’ always played before the Pearl and Dean music. Another of the Italian stalwarts had Elvis move in there but that is a story for another time, oh happy days….Back to the tale.

I discovered at one of these lovely evenings (not sure how but someone must have convinced me to try theirs because I’d never have ordered it) that liver lightly dusted in seasoned flour, pan fried in a sage butter with a softly pink centre is delicious.

This is a tale of scary food turning into lovely food, a bad and good memory in one!

So now I no longer fear the grey flip flop and I’m a liver lover….it’s good thing I’m not from liverpool, as I have long hair…speaking of the 70’s.