Bitch With a Whisk

The other day I was reading news online and stumbled across these headlines: “Saucy Sausage Ad Condemed” and ”ASA Rules Mattesons Sausage Ad unsuitable for Children.” My curiosity peaked, I asked myself what in the world could an innocent sausage have done to cause so much controversy and clicked on the links. Turns out that Mattesons marketed their sausage using a radio ad with  innuendos deemed sexual and  inappropriate  by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority). Apparently 21 listeners got offended and were afraid their children might hear the ads. I couldn’t help but laugh. Marketingmagazine.co.uk stated: “The ads for Mattesons smoked sausages, broadcast on Forth One, Clyde Radio and Real Radio, featured a male voice, which stated “Mmm, Mattesons smoked pork sausage … “.  It continued with lines such as: “Think about all the things you can stick this tasty, extraordinarily large sausage in.  Mmm.  Pizza, pasta, stir fry. You have any ideas?  Give me a call and tell me where you like to stick it.  Ladies, Im waiting for your call … Mmm, Mattesons smoked pork sausage.  You want it”.

I admit it, I snickered and giggled to myself. I went to the links that had the radio ads and listened for myself. After all sex sells right? Mattesons definitely knew what they were doing and I am all for making food more exciting to the masses. The ad got my attention after all!

In a nutshell, what ended up happening were that these ads were not allowed to be broadcast at times or around programs where children could hear them. Below is a link to one of the radio ads for your listening pleasure.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/audio/2009/jul/22/mattesons-sausages-asa

Ahhhh, Banana Sauce. I first heard the term when looking researching a Filipino recipe for pork BBQ.  It sure didn’t sound good to me. After all, I do not like Bananas! But alas, the recipe called for it, and I was darn sure going to go find it. This story though has to begin with the background of WHY I was cooking a Filipino recipe anyways. Well I take Taekwondo and there I met a good friend and his family, who are Filipino. As the friendship grew, of course there were dinner invitations and barbeques, and at one particular meal, my husband and I were served these fabulous BBQ skewers. Being the cook that I am, I wanted the recipe immediately. “It is a secret”, my friend said. I hoped that maybe one day he would tell me. At first I was disappointed, but then realized I had a supplier of these yummy morsels, so I was happy. Then one day he divulged they were from the local Filipino store. Now, cooking Asian food has never been one of my stronger points, so therefore I don’t spend a lot of time in Asian food stores. If I want Chinese or Thai, I normally leave it to the professionals and go for carry out. My desire though to have these skewers more than once every so often prompted me to look up a recipe for them. I found a recipe on http://www.filipino-food-lovers.com/ and took the plunge. The ingredients were unusual to say the least and not things I would normally put together to marinade pork. But you can’t learn unless you try. So I set off to the Filipino store one Saturday. I had been in there before for the pancit which is a Filipino noodle and also the Sisig. But I had never bought any ingredients there. I found the banana sauce right away. The banana sauce, I found out by looking it up on google, is a popular Filipino condiment made from mashed banana, sugar, vinegar, and spices. It is often colored red to resemble tomato ketchup. I bought the banana sauce, bid the check out lady “Salamat”, and headed off for home. So, excited by the prospect of cooking something exotic and new, I got to the door and the bag with the banana sauce in it slipped right out of my hand and fell to the ground, breaking immediately. There were little red splotches all over my front porch which made it look like a crime scene. I knew I was heading back to the store that very minute. Those skewers take one to two days to marinade and I was hell bent on having them. I took the dog and drove back to the store. Sheepishly I walked in and the check out lady gave me a questioning look. “It was the banana sauce,” I said, “I dropped it right at my front door.” She laughed and asked me what I was making. I explained it was for BBQ skewers. When I got back, I quickly headed to the kitchen to start. I was expecting my husband and his friend home shortly and was going to be preparing a dinner as well, so having no time to clean up the red splatter, I put a barricade around it. To this day, we still get a chuckle from the banana sauce accident because when they arrived, they thought I had cut myself badly and had bled all over the porch. I ended up making the skewers which were phenomenal. The only thing I did not add to the marinade was the MSG and I do not feel it affected the taste. I have yet to give a sample to my Filipino friends but I cannot wait to hear their opinion. You can find this recipe as well as other tasty Filipino recipes here: http://www.filipino-food-lovers.com/?p=81 

The jar that didn't break

I didn’t intend to start out my blog with a post on bananas, it just happened that way. And here I am! I didn’t expect blogging to be so complicated but I am learning about coding and doing things I have not done snce I was a consultant in college. So bear with me as I set off on this new journey of writing and creating this journal of sorts. I hope you enjoy the recipes, stories, and resources that I will provide and find any other comments posted by others posted useful.  Although maybe beginning a blog with a  banana story is weird, it sort of encompasses what is part of cooking: Learning new things, keeping a sense of humor when the unexpected or a failure happens, and success! Almost kind of like life!

Bon Appetit!