Pie & Mash in Commando

Pocket-sized war 'comic' that has been around since 1961 and is still going strong.

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Phoenix
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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by Phoenix »

steelclaw wrote:Tripe looks like that piece of fat between the meat and crackling on those pork belly slices. I love Haggis
haggis noun (pl. same) a Scottish dish consisting of a sheep's or calf's offal mixed with suet, oatmeal, and seasoning and boiled in a bag, traditionally one made from the animal's stomach. (The New Oxford Dictionary of English). I'm sure I've heard some appropriate (and very well-deserved) chants at the Reebok during the post-Allardyce apocalypse, but never aimed at the opposition. You know the sort, along the lines of You're s**t, and you know you are, you're sh** and, perhaps more pertinently, Are you tri-i-i-ipe in disguise?

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philcom55
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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by philcom55 »

Phoenix wrote:if it's not too much trouble, could you please post the relevant quotation.
You asked for it - don't blame me if it puts you off your tea! :settee:
"...The shop was a narrow, cold sort of room. On the outside of the window a few white letters, relics of ancient chocolate advertisements, were scattered like stars. Inside there was a slab upon which lay the great white folds of tripe, and the grey flocculent stuff known as 'black tripe', and the ghostly translucent feet of pigs, ready boiled. It was the ordinary 'tripe and pea' shop, and not much else was stocked except bread, cigarettes, and tinned stuff. 'Teas' were advertised in the window, but if a customer demanded a cup of tea he was usually put off with excuses. Mr Brooker, though out of work for two years, was a miner by trade, but he and his wife had been keeping shops of various kinds as a side-line all their lives. At one time they had had a pub, but they had lost their licence for allowing gambling on the premises. I doubt whether any of their businesses had ever paid; they were the kind of people who run a business chiefly in order to have something to grumble about. Mr Brooker was a dark, small- boned, sour, Irish-looking man, and astonishingly dirty. I don't think I ever once saw his hands clean. As Mrs Brooker was now an invalid he prepared most of the food, and like all people with permanently dirty hands he had a peculiarly intimate, lingering manner of handling things. If he gave you a slice of bread-and-butter there was always a black thumb-print on it. Even in the early morning when he descended into the mysterious den behind Mrs Brooker's sofa and fished out the tripe, his hands were already black. I heard dreadful stories from the other lodgers about the place where the tripe was kept. Blackbeetles were said to swarm there. I do not know how often fresh consignments of tripe were ordered, but it was at longintervals, for Mrs Brooker used to date events by it. 'Let me see now, I've had in three lots of froze (frozen tripe) since that happened,' etc. We lodgers were never given tripe to eat. At the time I imagined that this was because tripe was too expensive; I have since thought that it was merely because we knew too much about it. The Brookers never ate tripe themselves, I noticed."
- Phil Rushton

Phoenix
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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

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Thanks very much, Phil. Isn't it a real pleasure to read a passage of well-written English in which the words evoke the scene almost three-dimensionally rather than just being used to give a flat description? I get the impression that Orwell is rather less interested in the tripe itself than in Mr and Mrs Brooker, their establishment and their unusual approach to the preparation of food for their lodgers. The focus is on the tripe and the bread and butter but the reader is subtly persuaded to become aware of the wider context. I'm actually quite curious about the exact nature of their business. I don't remember any shop anywhere in the real world that took in paying guests.

steelclaw
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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by steelclaw »

Can someone cook me some 'Tripe' to try you can send it by post.
I'll make some Mushy peas to go with it.

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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by Phoenix »

Another 1000 poster, steelclaw, hard on the heels of Steve Z. With your erudition and gentle, mocking wit, somebody will surely soon be inviting you to dine at High Table. Many congratulations. :cheers: Should they serve tripe or haggis with the mushy peas?

steelclaw
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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by steelclaw »

Phoenix wrote:Another 1000 poster, steelclaw, hard on the heels of Steve Z. With your erudition and gentle, mocking wit, somebody will surely soon be inviting you to dine at High Table. Many congratulations. :cheers: Should they serve tripe or haggis with the mushy peas?
Thanks Phoenix,
Actually can I change that to Chicken Dhansak Pilau Rice & onion bhaji with a Naan bread.Image

Image

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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by Phoenix »

steelclaw wrote:Actually can I change that to Chicken Dhansak Pilau Rice & onion bhaji with a Naan bread?
Well, well, well. What am I witnessing here? A Londoner with soul, prepared to embrace cultures beyond Bow Bells? It seems about as unlikely as a Burnley fan apologising to a Blackburn supporter for duffing him up, or an Arsenal supporter getting off at Seven Sisters and going along joyfully to support the Spurs. With an order like that, steelclaw, for one of our regional dishes, I think I can put your name forward for acceptance as an honorary Merseysider. Would that be a Keema Naan?

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

Happy 1000 postings, steelclaw: being a Scot from fairly North of the central-belt, I still enjoy a good fry-up of the D C Thomson-rendered kind. Bad for me, I know, but answer me this, readers......


..............are YOU gonna live forever?

steelclaw
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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by steelclaw »

Phoenix wrote:
steelclaw wrote:Actually can I change that to Chicken Dhansak Pilau Rice & onion bhaji with a Naan bread?
Well, well, well. What am I witnessing here? A Londoner with soul, prepared to embrace cultures beyond Bow Bells? It seems about as unlikely as a Burnley fan apologising to a Blackburn supporter for duffing him up, or an Arsenal supporter getting off at Seven Sisters and going along joyfully to support the Spurs. With an order like that, steelclaw, for one of our regional dishes, I think I can put your name forward for acceptance as an honorary Merseysider. Would that be a Keema Naan?
"How very dare you the cheek of it"Image

I would have to be an Evertonian(Wait's for fallout)

That would be Peshwari Naan.

Thanks ISPYSHHHGUY, can't beat a good fry up, I could eat one everyday,Yes I'm gonna live for ever I'm an Oasis fan.

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stevezodiac
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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by stevezodiac »

Some of you may be horrified to hear that after tucking into pie, mash and liquor me and my mate would buy a carton of liquor to take away and drink it outside the shop. 'andsome. I enjoy seeing all my nieces giving their babies pie and mash once they are on solids. As for tripe and onions - there's a scene in the film Spring and Port Wine where Stratford Johns (of Z-Cars and Softly Softly fame) tucks into it, a ghastly sight. Mind you my dad used to eat whelks which was even worse. There are some things humans should not ingest - squid for one and lobster/crab for another.

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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by Phoenix »

stevezodiac wrote:As for tripe and onions - there's a scene in the film Spring and Port Wine where Stratford Johns (of Z-Cars and Softly Softly fame) tucks into it, a ghastly sight.
Stratford Johns wasn't in Spring And Port Wine. Frank Windsor was, though. He played Ned Duckworth.

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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by Phoenix »

steelclaw wrote:"How very dare you the cheek of it"
English lessons offered - verry cheep raits.
steelclaw wrote:I would have to be an Evertonian
If you can just hang on until they get their new stadium in Kirkby, you'll be able to have a turnstile all of your own.

Is that really you, steelclaw? Why didn't you post the sideways view as well, and leave the letters and numbers on? :D

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stevezodiac
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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by stevezodiac »

Captain Mianwaring voice: "I was wondering which one of you would spot that"

But yes i was thinking of Frank Windsor but wrote Stratford Johns. Good film though - Susan George in her prime. sigh!

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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

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stevezodiac wrote:There are some things humans should not ingest - squid for one and lobster/crab for another.
All in all, I've spent nearly three years of my life in Spain, mainly in Madrid. You would find plenty of things to complain about, Steve, if you lived out there. They seem to eat just about anything throughout the country, particularly as tapas. I quote from my Marling Menu-Master for Spain booklet. Tapas take the form of boiled, fried and sauced seafoods, both hot and cold, such as shrimps, clams, mussels, squid, octopus and fish, or maybe skewered meat tid-bits such as tripe, kidneys, liver, sauced, marinated, barbecued, roasted or fried. They even do tripe, see! This can hardly be considered surprising when horses killed in the bullring, and naturally the bulls themselves, are considered to be delicacies. People pay goodly sums for the grilled or fried testicles. There is bull's blood and fat in chorizo, and there is your major problem, you don't really know what ingredients are present in many meals that are on restaurant menus. You could eat a tasty stew called fabada asturiana without knowing that you are consuming pigs' feet and ears. Spaniards love the pig, they eat every part of it. Lobster is everywhere, especially in paella, so I had to be taught exactly where to snap them open and how to suck the meat out. I must admit, though, that I quite like squid, but only when it is hot. I once made the mistake of buying a squid sandwich (bocadillo de calamares) on my way to watch an Atletico Madrid match to eat later. Having let it go cold, it was like trying to bite through a Dunlop tyre. Needless to say I chucked it away.

steelclaw
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Re: Pie & Mash in Commando

Post by steelclaw »

Phoenix wrote:
steelclaw wrote:"How very dare you the cheek of it"
English lessons offered - verry cheep raits.
steelclaw wrote:I would have to be an Evertonian
If you can just hang on until they get their new stadium in Kirkby, you'll be able to have a turnstile all of your own.

Is that really you, steelclaw? Why didn't you post the sideways view as well, and leave the letters and numbers on? :D
What did I spell wrong? I don't bother with all that English Nonsense.

You mean to say you don't watch the Catherine Tate show? :o

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