Bonzer Words!: 'Flu Food
...Can any food be more delicious than poached eggs on buttery toast?...
Elaine Lutton reveals the temptations to her taste buds on recovering from a bout of 'flu.
Elaine writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please do visit www.bonzer.org.au
Yes, it is possible to succumb to the 'flu even in the sunny mild winters we have in Queensland. Having lingered at Death's Door for two or three days I gradually began to believe I might make it back to health with the aid of a little sustenance. What did I fancy?
In such circumstances back in England the first thing I would be offered by my mother would be a beaten-up raw egg with a generous amount of sweet sherry. I can never remember being considered too young for this tipple so I guess I have been imbibing since an infant. It might sound less than inviting but I loved it and felt far more privileged than many of my contemporaries who would be offered nothing more exciting than warm bread and milk. I might add that alcohol was strictly off limits unless one was feeling 'poorly'.
Another benefit of not being well was to be given a tablespoonful of a strange treacle-like substance that I think was called Virol. I have been known to help myself to this nectar, washing the spoon afterwards to hide the evidence. But to return to the present. Soup sounds kind and comforting to a constitution making a comeback. Not the chicken soup of my Jewish friends but the good hearty tomato soup that comes in a can. In the UK I am told one can still obtain Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup but here in Oz I must make do with Big Red. This can be spiced up with ground black pepper and small cubes of strong cheddar cheese that melt in the heat of the soup. This must of course be served in a mug so one can alternately slurp and stir. Those long tendrils of melted elastic cheese deliver such unctuous joy!
Finally on the road to recovery comes the moment when I feel actual hunger for solid food. Only one thing will do. Can any food be more delicious than poached eggs on buttery toast? There is a ritual that must be observed when partaking of this food of the Gods. Two eggs, white just set but yolks runny, must be placed on two toasted and generously buttered thick slices of bread. Accompanying these, two further slices of buttered toast are required. Salt and ground black pepper are sprinkled over the eggs. The white of the eggs is eaten first with some of the 'spare' toast making sure the butter is truly appreciated. Sucking is encouraged. This is followed by the final crowning moment. The yolk of both eggs is pierced and the golden flow of lava covers the toast which is waiting to receive its anointing. Now, and only now, will I allow myself the orgasmic moment of consuming toast, butter and yellow yolk melded together in this triumph of gastronomy.
Total bliss! And before you suggest that I should get out more try a little of what I'm having. It is definitely worth a few trifling days of indisposition with the 'flu.
© Elaine Lutton
