Tomato concasié (or whatever it’s called)

The famous fantasy fish style

to be continued...

Preparation for the Mexican fiesta in exactly 7 days, I awoke with the recipes for chilling con carne, salsa and sangria in hand. Scraped the bottom of the wheat bix tin ad lapped up a stove top coffee, then swaggered out to the car.

To avoid the 8 dollar fine at the Victoria market car park leave before 10am which is easy before the masses arrive.

After some mild bargaining I separated 220 dollars from my Joey pouch, and reaped up a mountain of food, cooking utensils, Xmas gifts for the littlies, and bargain Santa suit for $10.

Back home at 1pm an heading for the kitchen to prepare the fresh produce, I need to convert this box of tomatoes into a salsa douce that will be used as the basis for pasta, dip, chillie con carne.

Will also be cooking up a whole octopus to be pickled and consumed across three Christmas parties to be hosted. The tasty treat willnot last long from past experiences and at 40 dollars I will need to hide the delight in the shallow depths if one of my bar fridges.

Carrying the produce boxes to the car and negotiating the ingredients required I transcended back to my child hood when my father in hand would lead me through the bellowing grocerers requesting our undivided attention for what could be the cheapest bananas in the world and that we were fools if we overlooked such an offer, but not my dad he m ew what was good, after the intense aroma of the seafood section anything looked good to me, but this was a ritual many caterers and restauranteurs engulfed themselves in. As I finished reflecting on the past I indulged in half a dozen fresh oysters slurping them up brandishing empty shells in seconds.