Blast from the Past: Meat Night

So eight years ago at this time, life was quite different for me. Instead of working 60 hours a week and running around looking for a place to get married next year, I was living in the Czech Republic, having moved there after college to decide whether I even wanted to go to graduate school. I was living with Scott, one of my best friends and seriously dating a Czech girl named Pavla, who was a student in Scott's English class. I was 23, working barely ten hours a week, filling my time with drinking huge amounts of fantastic Czech beer, reading a lot of classics and working out at the gym around the corner. Looking back at this time has certainly shown me how much I have changed, if nothing else ...

It is of particular note that at this point in my life, I was not as careful about my diet as I am now ...

One night in February, Scooter, myself and our friend Jeff (who is now the driving force behind Prague 360), revived a tradition I began in Israel, thanks to my discovery of a unique contraption and Scotts discovery of a great market. Because I have been insane for the last few years and not eating meat in the states (this kosher thing - again, like the veganism, I do not kow what was wrong with me). Since I have been back here I have been eating tremendous quantities of all kinds of meat. And its fabulous. So now a little history ...

Last weekend me, Jeff, Scott and Christina went to Karlstejn and spent the day exploring a beautiful castle. This was great, but unfortunatly it cost more than we had intended and Scott and I were running very low on money. After lunch near the castle I was broke until I got paid on Wednesday. This was Sunday - and we had no food in the house. No worries says Jeff, I have a chicken at my house. A deal was struck, Jeff would provide the chicken and I would provide the cooking and vegetables. Thus meat night began. I cooked a phat bird (the chicken was about 1 kilo), in chili powder with potatoes and onions, yum. But it took 3 hours to cook because Jeffs oven is communist and we could not figure out the timer. In any case, by the time the chicken came out we were starving - we got it on the table and stripped it to the bones in 7 minutes. WE forgot about utensils and just ripped the flesh of the bones. There was point in the meal where all you could here was slurping sounds. It was fabulous.

So this week, in order to continue the tradition, we decided to have meat night at our house. Early in the week I discovered a rotating spit in our pantry (like a sideways gyro thing) and with this in mind we went out and bought a 2.2 kilogram goose. We also had a 1.2 kilo chicken, that Jeff brought before he knew we had the goose. We covered the chicken with curry and butter and filled it will chopped onions and potatoes and stuck it in our less communist oven (but our oven turns off spontaneously, which presents some difficulties). Then we basted the goose with garlic, butter and onions, stuck it on the spit with some whole onions inside and let 'er rip.

At first we were all sitting in the living room while the birds cooked, but then we smelled them and had to return to the kitchen. I have never watched a goose rotate before, seeing the fat and butter drip around the animal. It was better than TV. We caught all the fat in a pan to use for gravy later.

The chicken finished before the goose and we took it out and were going to hold off, but then Chay started eating and the poor thing was bones in 4 minutes. Four people, two knives, eight hands, four mouths = chicken bones. And the chicken was just the appetizer - but it filled us enough to hold off the goose and make gravy. Unfortunately we added to much flour to the gravy and it became oatmeal like, but stickier and thicker. You could stand a fork up in the gravy - but damn it was fabulous. Once we got the gravy ready we sat down to the goose. It started okay, Scott carved off the first breast in orderly fashion, but I coud not hold off and I reach over and tore the bird in half and started chewing on the other breast. 20 minutes later there wasonly skeleton and four men cover with grease, gravy, bread crumbs and potato bits. I wore an apron and my clothes were still filthy. I was unable to hold on to my glass, my hands were so greasy. Wow - what a meal.

We decided that girls could never come to meat night unless they were topless - an expedient designed to keep them away (honestly, I would not even notice the toplessness at a meal like this). After the meal we all went into food comma on the couch and watched Con Air in Czech. A good evening altogether. Next week we are deciding between a Turducken (Turkey stuffed with a duck that has been stuffed with a chicken) or ribs. But you cannot cook those on the spit so I am actually pulling for a 4 kilo leg of lamb I saw in the market. Life is good, eat well.

The total cost of the meal was nine dollars. God, I love this country.

See, 8 years ... quite a difference ....