We ate the reindeer on Christmas Day. Well, we ate the
reindeer pâté I had bought back from Sweden. Still, the kids were shocked that
we could eat Sven - Rudolph’s temporary replacement as ‘most lovable reindeer’
(Note to those without children under 12: he is the reindeer in ‘Frozen’). It
was a very gamey venison pâté (that worked well alongside a milder and sweeter Ardennes pâté).
There is a reindeer farm in Wales, at Poundffald Farm on the
Gower (see links below). However, they are not eaten; they earn their keep as a
visitor attraction and by being hired out, for instance, to the annual Swansea
Winter Wonderland. Robert Owen, the farmer,
started the herd in 2006 to accompany his Christmas tree business (Gower Fresh
Christmas Trees). The herd is now 19 strong and includes 12 breeding cows. In a
recent Wales Online story, he describes how, in addition to grazing, he feeds
them on specially-formulated food pellets and reindeer moss (the lichen Cladonia rangiferina) imported from Sweden.
In northern Sweden reindeer are herded by Sami communities, while there is also a large elk farm. Reindeer and elk are commonly eaten in Scandinavia. You can buy
reindeer and elk burgers in the UK from the touring ‘Exotic Burgers’ business.
This often puts down in Cardiff during the ‘Cardiff International Food
Festival’. However, I encountered it last outside Tate Modern in London earlier this month.
The vendor does not eat meat himself, and says he tells the burgers apart because they all look a little different when
cooked (possibly due to different fat contents etc.). Here’s a photo of their
Christmas menu:
The menu was a bit lighter on the deer and antelope than compared to last summer in Cardiff (when I had the springbok). I had an elk burger to see me along the wintery South Bank, where
I saw ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ again on the big screen at the BFI (the film starts with our ancestors killing antelope).
There are over 100 types of deer worldwide. Many of these
are semi-domesticated in parts of their range and their meat (venison) is eaten:
different deer are eaten in different countries. There are six deer species in
the UK and venison in the UK could potentially come from five of these: Red deer, Fallow
deer, Roe deer, Sika deer and Muntjac (you are unlikely to be eating Chinese
Water Deer). Most farmed deer meat comes from the native Red deer, the largest
of the UK species, with Fallow deer being the only other species farmed
commercially. Consumption of venison in the UK is on the increase. In
the 12 months prior to June 2014, one survey found that retail sales of venison were up over 400%.
Wales’ only reindeer herd:
http://www.welsh-reindeer.co.uk/
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/they-see-one-herd-meet-8316743
We are eating more deer:
http://www.deer-management.co.uk/deer-farming-gathers-momentum-as-retail-sales-of-venison-quadruple/
In which I ponder about burger trends and “pulled” pork, but
first I eat some slow-cooked meat.
The Smoke Haus is a south Wales-based American diner. It has
locations in Swansea and Cardiff (Mary Ann St, Cardiff CF10 2EN); the latter,
and more-recent outlet, was the destination for our lunch for three.
I had the ‘Smoke Haus Pulled Pork Hoagie’, billed as a
“smoked shoulder of pork slow-roasted for 12 hours, pulled and served in a
hoagie roll with dry slaw, baby gem lettuce and apple sauce.” As with everyone
on the sandwich menu, it was served with ‘slaw and skin-on fries. My companions had
the ‘Slow cooked brisket deli sandwich’ (“served in toasted bloomer bread with
red onion, cheese, sweet mustard, pickles and Russian sauce”) and the ‘Philly
Cheese Steak’ (“pan fried wafer thin top side of beef topped with melted
Emmental cheese, sweet fried onions served in a hoagie roll”). Other US-themed
sandwich choices included the Reuben, the Elvis Po Boy and the Texas Link Po Bo. I rated
mine the best; though it was all very tasty meat. The Smoke Haus is a very welcome addition to the Cardiff food scene.
The American influence at The Smoke Haus extends to portion size. You are
likely to get served more than you can eat. The table next to us were making good
use of ‘doggy bags’. You don’t have to treat it, as their website encourages,
as “a challenge not for the fainthearted”. There are Brits we know living in
the United States who assume they are going to get fed twice when they go into a
restaurant: once at the table and again at home from the take-away left-overs (though some people apparently do feed their pets).
I did eat most of my lunch at The Smoke Haus, and just demoted my next meal to
a light supper.
The “challenge” at The Smoke Haus extends to the desserts.
If you look past the ‘Mississippi mud pie’ and ‘Chocolate oreo sundae’ on the
menu, you will see ‘The Smoke Haus Ultimate Dessert’, which comprises “a huge
bowl of Vanilla ice cream, banana ice cream, marshmallows, doughnuts, chunks of
pecan brownie, fresh banana topped with squirty cream, chocolate and toffee sauce.” We
passed on this.
And talking of donuts, The Smoke Haus has contributed to the
growing trend for pushing the burger boundary with its ‘Donut Burger’. Admittedly,
some of the buns that fast-food burgers are served in are very sweet, but the
Donut Burger (as served by The Smoke Haus, though it is also served in other burger joints) takes the burger in
a different direction in that the donuts are glazed and the cheeseburger patty
with grilled streaky bacon is served with a sweet sauce. This breakfast,
dessert or stupid burger variant, depending on how you view these things, attracted
some (not unwelcome) media attention. The thick stacks of the other The Smoke Haus
burgers come with (not always helpful) US-themed names, such as ‘New Orleans’, ‘Southern Comfort’
and ‘The Hog Father’.
Also in the news recently was the ‘Yorkshire Pudding Burger’,
served by the north of England based Rift & Co chain, described by the
Independent as just the latest in a line of “stupid burgers”. It was inspired
by the Donut Burger. I am wondering where the Welsh burger needs to go from
here. Should the lamb patty lie between bara brith or Welsh cakes? Incidentally, an indie burger outlet has opened in Scotland called ‘The Silly Burger’, though the burgers it serves are very sensible and down-to-earth.
The Smoke Haus menu features pulled pork and pulled lamb.
The term ‘pulled’ was originally restricted to pork, to describe the process
when a potentially tough cut of meat (e.g. shoulder) is slow-cooked at low
temperatures so that it becomes tender enough to be pulled or easily broken
into small shreds or pieces using, for example, a fork. This process can also
be called shredding. Its recent prevalence on menus is due to modern US-led
marketing initiatives. In addition to pork and lamb, you can now see pulled
beef (i.e. shredded beef brisket), pulled chicken and pulled duck on menus. In
fact, KFC have predicted that 2015 will become “the year of pulled chicken”. I
suspect that other critters will soon also be “pulled” (e.g. goat and rabbit
have been cooked this way for centuries). As shredded meats feature in all the
world’s cuisines, the possibilities for jumping on the pulled bandwagon appear
endless. However, as the innuendo element is lost when you pull anything other
than your pork, I think its marketing value may have climaxed.
Christopher Hooton in The Independent on "silly burgers":
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/yorkshire-pudding-burger-is-the-latest-stupid-burger-9888177.html
Felicity Cloake on KFC and pulled chicken in The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/sep/02/kfc-2015-year-of-pulled-chicken-seriously-fast-food
