When kiwis were exotic

In the early days of Krimo’s at Seaton Carew, the late eighties didn’t offer much choice when it came to the variety of fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs. On rare occasions, Heckels and Hunter, our Fruit and Vegetables supplier, of Bertha Street would call to inform me that they had come across a type of fruit or vegetable that was out of the ordinary. This could be for example a funny-looking fruit called kiwi. One day, I stopped by at the warehouse after doing my weekly shopping at Linfood, in Whitby Street South. One of the partners, Mr Heckels was very excited about showing me a “brand-new” vegetable. 

“I think it’s called Mangy Towt.” 

Yes, you’ve guessed it. He fished out a box of green, crisp mange-touts, a vegetable I hadn’t seen since leaving Algeria in 1976. I was so grateful that I didn’t dare correct his pronunciation and he went on calling them Mangy Towts right until he retired.  

Another fortuitous find was foreign strawberries in winter. They were so expensive that I only served them on New Year’s Eve. The fact that they felt and tasted like cucumbers wasn’t a concern. What mattered was that most of the desserts were decorated with a fanned strawberry. Customers marvelled at the sight of such fruit at the height of winter. 

Nowadays, supermarkets are laden with all the produce I only dreamed of serving in the early years of the business. 

D

on’t you hate it when you come across unpronounceable words on restaurant menus!

Yet, there are a few things that are near-impossible to translate. 

One day, I really felt sorry for a young people who couldn’t get their heads round one of our bestsellers. 

“What’s this Tagline?”

With no wish to embarrass the young man, I tried my best to correct his pronunciation subtly. 

 -Actually, sir, it is tagine pronounced: Ta Jean… This reminded me of the hilarious games of charades the family often play after the Christmas dinner. 

Lightly pinching my right ear lobe, I said: “Sounds like Hygiene…Ta…Jean…” 

 “So, what is it then?”

-It is a terracotta dish in which food is cooked slowly over charcoal…

“So, you cook on charcoal in here?”

-No, sir, we use a gas cooker but we serve the tagines in dishes we call tagines. 

In North Africa, the dish is cooked inside the terracotta tagine itself. Just like casseroles, you know; the French word for pan is casserole. But you have all sorts of casseroles. Same as tagines. On our menu we have chicken, lamb and fish tagine.

“Right, ok, I understand.” I had a feeling that he was bored with my explanation and just wanted something to eat.

-Which one would you prefer?

“Can we have chicken and one lamb? Do they come with chips?”