Glenn Beck reported this morning that a 21 pound lobster was recently caught somewhere. It is being kept alive. It was even given a name. And the owners can't even think about dropping him in a pot of boiling water and eating him. On the other hand, Glenn's side-kick Stu made a classic statement:
"I don't understand that...lobster is just a delivery vehicle for butter".
That got me thinking. There are lots of "delivery vehicles for butter". Snails come to mind. Why would anyone eat snails if it were not for the fact that they come floating in butter? My dear Kathleen likes her Shrimp Scampi floating in butter...and garlic. And Ruths Chris Steakhouse is famous, primarily because their steaks are cooked in, what else...butter. Then of course there are crabs. Most people love crab dipped in butter, but I'm weird; I prefer them straight...or with vinegar.
And Southern cookin' came to mind. People in the South don't mess around. They are serious about their butter. They even avoid the "delivery vehicle for butter" concept completely. They eat Fried Butter. They dip butter balls in batter, drop them in the fryer...blow on them a couple of times... and pop them in the mouth. Oooooh! Makes me sick just thinking about it.
The No 1 "delivery vehicle for butter" in my experience has to be bread. Think about it. How many people do you know who slather their bread with butter? IE...they like a little bread with their butter. On the other hand, as a child in Perth, Western Australia, I hated butter...I preferred my bread plain. OK...I was weird. But my Mother and my Auntie Burl tolerated that idiosyncrasy. I found out how weird I was every time we visited the Knowles family (Wegener relatives) in South Perth. Sitting around the dinner table I got serious stares and comments..."Look...Tony eats his bread plain"..."Why don't you put BUTTA on your bread?"..."Everyone puts BUTTA on their bread"..."Just eat the bloody BUTTA mate"..."You're weird". They could never quite understand how anyone could not like butter.
For the most part, I used to put up with the comments, but one day I had a bright idea. When the cousins started the taunting I said, "Look...it's real simple...I'm used to plain bread...me Mum won't let me eat BUTTA at home...it's too expensive." That was not quite the right thing to say...Mother was horrified...and it became a serious lesson in diplomacy. Now I looooove me BUTTA...and it shows.
