annanotbob2's Diaryland
Diary
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More about goat
Yesterday I did a writing workshop where we were invited to write quickly about the same thing from different angles. I found the result really interesting, both mine and those the others read out. So I'm sharing it, with the instructions in bold. The truth wobbles about a bit.
Straightforward: write about a meal you cooked recently. Last night we had goat stew. As I was coming home from sea swimming there was a parking spot by the international grocery so I rushed in and grabbed a kilo of mixed goat meat. It was full of bones and fat which make for great flavor but poor eating so I did it in the slow cooker for hours and hours. The house smelt amazing. I left it overnight then picked out the bones and pieces of fat, added some beans and there it was, chiva en salsa. It makes me think of abroad, of South America and Spain. And the Caribbean, though I’ve never been there, but I’ve made curry goat a few times, in memory of my friend Kim.
Values you can see in that piece: swimming/healthy life; homecooking; flavor; international; travel
Write it again, in the present tense, starting with the words ‘at first’. At first I’m not sure about cooking goat and I don’t know why I’m drawn to that international grocers, though it is very clean. I buy a kilo of mixed goat meat and then spend hours on google searching for a recipe. In the end I decide to just go for it. I’ve eaten goat on holiday enough times that I can remember what’s in it. Sometimes it’s been tough though, so I decide to use the slow cooker. I leave it on for hours, in fact I forget about it and have to get up out of bed to turn it off. It smells like abroad. I love it, rich and tomato-y with chorizo, orange zest and wine.
Write it again, in the third person. She was hungry when she got out of the sea, her body glowing red with cold, so she was already thinking of food as she came up to the international grocers and there was a parking spot, calling her in. She wasn’t sure what she wanted but as she passed the butcher’s counter she saw a big handwritten sign ‘Mixed Goat £5 a kilo’ and just went for it. Goat was delicious, like mutton but even tastier. As she drove home she thought of all the different ways she might cook it
Back to first person but start with the word ‘while’ followed by an –ing verb. While chopping the onions I remembered staying at Maggie’s in Venezuela and going to the café across the road for breakfast where chiva en salsa was often on the menu – goat stew! For breakfast! We thought it was amazing though we usually ordered egg and chips. While the onions were slowly turning golden in the olive oil, I prepared the other ingredients – a pot of home made stock from the freezer, into a pan to melt, chorizo skinned and cut into rounds, orange zest, carefully shredded.
Carry on but start the next paragraph with the words ‘in those days’. In those days, back in Venezuela we were young and foolish, Maggie and I, with no sense of the world as it is, finding the unfamiliar weird rather than interesting. Into the pot go the chorizo, the red peppers, the garlic. I stir it around as I try to remember the name of the guy who owned the café. A big splosh of red wine, quickly bubbling up in the heat, a tin of chopped tomatoes, the stock. I remember Maggie and I and our Venezuelan husbands – all so exited
Make a final, fictional piece. She wanted to make a goat stew. It reminded her of long ago times in another world when she’d been young and beautiful and in love with a handsome stranger. The goat would be tough if it wasn’t cooked long and slow so she decided to use the slow cookpot. She found the old Ruben Blades CD and listened while she prepared the vegetables, her hips swaying as she peeled and chopped onions, garlic, mushrooms. Soon the house was full of the scents and sounds of abroad. She sealed the bony chunks of goat meat in hot oil and piled them onto the terracotta plate, the one surviving piece from those far away times. As she added more ingredients to the pot she wished her now adult children lived closer – she’d like to invite them round to share this food that came from the ‘other’ side of their heritage
1:29 p.m. - 07.10.22
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