This Space for Rent is Back Up and Running
October 5^th, 2003
10:14 A. M.

In case anyone has been wondering, no I have not forsaken my writing again. I've been trying, in fact, to get back to my posting all week. I finally got moved into my new apartment, but when I had the phone service switched over, the dial tone promptly disappeared. I haven't been able to place or receive calls here all week. So, forget about the blog...

I can tell you...it has been a long week. Lots of things have happened that I would have liked to have written about. Most of those things, however, I have forgotten.

But, I will write about my experience in a small Irish imports shop in downtown. It is a wonderful little place (emphasis on little). It carries clothing, jewelry, pottery, books, music, groceries (yes! groceries!), and all sorts of odds and ends imported from Eire itself!
From talking to the lady who runs the place (several months back), I found out that they carry blood sausage, white sausage, rashers, and bangers...quite possibly a few more things I have never heard of before.
Well, earlier this week, I got some rashers and blood sausage (don't go ewww, I find the stuff quite tasty! I highly recommend folks try it...it reminds me of something I used to get at fairs or carnivals...).
The rashers are great! I can tell you that without hesitation...it's made of things with which we all grew up (here in the U.S.A., specifically). All rashers are is back bacon...lots of meat, but relatively little fat. I like these rashers better than I do the bacon I grew up eating. (I sometimes wonder if the bacon I get here in Kentucky is edible at all...)
And then, the bangers...
Wonderful little secret you folks in Ireland and the U.K. have been keeping from us. I found them to be delightfully mild compared to the breakfast links I get here. Simply put, there is just too much fat it our links...you throw a couple of our links in a skillet, turn your back, and they're swimming in grease.
Not so for the bangers! They stayed "dry" the whole time I was cooking them.
The one thing I noticed about the bangers, blood, and whit sausage...they all had pretty much the same ingredients...the blood pudding had (of course) blood, pork, cracker meal, barley, thyme, and pimento peppers (and a few things I'm leaving out because I can't remember them); the white sausage had all these things minus the blood, and the bangers had none of the spices...
So, the main constituents of all three of these things were pork, cracker meal, and barley...
Sounds like you folks over there know how to make your meats stretch (how many people were snickering as they read this sentence, I wonder). I must say you have done a very good job of it, too. I like all three of these products (four, if you count the rashers...which are more accessible to American tastes, anyway) and, as I said earlier, would highly recommend to anyone who has never tried these things to do so. (But, try the white sausage first...I know a lot of people have trouble with the idea of eating blood.....but will not hesitate to order a rare steak--go figure).