Italian? My arse!

  You were supposed to hear all about something Italian yesterday but as you could tell, I had to vent. However, here's what I was going to write and, you'll be happy to hear it includes more venting. Whilst strolling along, I came across the advert you can see below, proudly decorating a bus stop. 'Oh, goody!', I thought, 'they're encouraging people to cook Italian'. Not.

  Ooh, I think I'll just check out the list of ingredients. This should be interesting. Actually, it wasn't. After twenty minutes I could only find the 'creamy carbonara' version and the first ingredient after pasta was potato starch. Way down the list was smoked bacon comprising a massive 1.9%, which is almost quite a lot for a product of this type, but likely to get you a chance to go swimming with the fishes with a spiffy pair of concrete flippers if you tried to make it that way in Italy.

  I think what really ruffles my feathers is the suggestion that this is food, and Italian at that. With the phrase, 'YOU CAN MAKE ITalian', it also suggests that there is a sense of achievement to be had somewhere even though preparing this requires less skill than making a slice of toast and jam or a cup of tea.

  Why do I let myself get wound up by this? I think its very existence is bothersome as it's a reminder of what is accepted or considered normal. However, to my knowledge I've not met anyone who has eaten anything like this in the last ten years and I don't think you, dear reader, would ever consider eating one so I'm going to let it go, (for now).

  What I haven't told you is that I've slipped away for a quiet weekend on the Isle of Wight. I'll give you a glimpse of the food I've encountered when I write again tomorrow, though there's a chance it will just be a report of what I threw together as we've gone self-catering. The forecast is shite so I've not even got any biking to look forward too. It may just be windy walks along the beach followed by watching the rain trickle down the windows. Don't you love a British summer?

Kirk out

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