Wednesday 11 July 2012

1 minute 20 seconds

It's Veg again! Our guests had an important visitor to their town today. It was the Queen and so they didn't go to lunch at school.

I can reveal that the best lunch for crabs is......Venison! You were right more crabs went to the bacon but they fell. The crabs on the venison hugged it with all their legs and stayed on. My brother caught the biggest crab so we will have to go back.


Bacon-1
Venison-13 + a fish

Dad had to say a lot of 'colders' and 'warmers' before I found where this dinner came from.


It is from the Republic of Maldives (1 minute 20s) which I found in the sea near India. There are lots of islands in the Maldives. Laura sent in the photo and said,

'Here's a picture of school lunch that some of my students have to eat
(I'm a teacher) in the Maldives. It's not strictly their lunch, but an
afternoon snack. There's too many children for our classrooms, so the
older children come in between 6.45am until 12.30pm, then the younger
children come in from 1pm until 5.20pm.

The noodles are the same as what you have in the UK (my home
country!), the triangle is called a bajiyaa and the ball is a gula,
both are a mixture of tuna, rice and coconut, but they taste very
different to each other. Mothers prepare them fresh everyday and then
bring them to school at breaktime.'

I like noodles but I am not sure about the gulas. I can't imagine how they taste but they look crunchy. Maybe I should try and make them for my lunch. It sounds like a really busy school. There are nearly 2000 children at the school in Malawi I am going to visit. That is a lot.

We had some visitors this week from the radio. They had some soup I made for lunch but I forgot to ask them to rate it. The programme will be on this weekend. The weather is good so Dad says tomorrow we will shear the sheep!

VEG

24 comments:

  1. Hi folks. Just thought I'd share where the blogs going and where the gaps in the calendar are!

    16th July- Texas
    23rd July-
    30th July- Australia
    6th August- Brazil
    13th August-
    20th August- Finland
    27th August-
    3rd September-
    10th September- Japanese School Tokyo
    17th September- United Nations International School, New York
    24th Sept-
    1st Oct- Malawi

    It's not easy to organise so any help and ideas much appreciated from adults and kids!

    VEG's Dad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have to say I admire how well you are managing everything considering the many people and factors at play with Veg's blog. Most everyone is tolerant and eager to enjoy and learn. Bravo! Having said that I might suggest, as most schools are on their holidays (Canada & the U.S. - I don't know anything about the schedules of the rest of the world) you might consider accepting individual children's meal pictures and critiques of mom/dad/grandparent's home meals. Probably a nightmare to schedule if a different child each day. Perhaps taking them ad hoc as they came in. Could provide some good playfulness between parents and children as well as an education/chuckle for the rest of us. No need to get too serious. As a former "teacher" I found people learn better while having fun instead of in conflict.
      I enjoyed my vegetarian pizza for lunch today and the many colours of tomato, green peppers, red onion, green olives, cheeses, sauces and other goodies would have made a great pic, however, my 6-year-old granddaughter was not to be found to share it with so I have not sent a photo from her. Cheers everyone! Rock on dragon hunters et al!
      Bill in Nova Scotia

      Delete
    2. There seem to be a group of regular posters emerging - will need a Neverseconds fan club soon!!?!??

      Delete
    3. Last week I met some high schoolers who skipped school to come to summer camp in the US. They are from Korea, Singapore and India. So maybe some schools in Asia are not on holiday, and can guestblog? Also I'm guessing the southern hemisphere is not on holiday right now.

      Delete
  2. Bajiyaa and the gula look amazing! What an interesting mixture of flavours. I am very very tempted to try some.

    I should have guessed venison! I know how much trouble crabs have holding onto anything. One fell off my bait once, and started skittering around the peer. Dad had to be very brave and capture him with a net!

    If VEG's Dad wants any help coordinating the blog, I'm an English graduate who is currently working in various forms of Social Media, so I'd love to help!

    Looking forward to Japanese lunches. I made some Ramen today in preparation, but I don't think I got the mix quite right...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just read an article in the Globe and Mail about your blog so thought I would check it out. I wanted to let you know that I think it's fantastic!!! Keep up the great work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Maldives, guess I was about 2507 miles out as the crow flies :)

    You will be busy shearing the sheep, making gula and trying to catch a bigger crab than your Brothers!

    Looking forward to listening to the radio show.

    ReplyDelete
  5. VEG: Are you coming back to blogging your school dinners after the summer holidays? I have just read a news article from June 22nd saying that you don't want to.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Questions VEG - What does the crab taste like from where your from? Also How do you go about preparing a full crab?
    They look a lot different than our Canadian Crabs!
    -Anna
    Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

    ReplyDelete
  7. What radio station is broadcasting the program and when? Is it BBC Radio Scotland?

    ReplyDelete
  8. If any of you find a recipe for the gula posted in this entry, please share it here. I have been able to find only a recipe for gula maleka, a dessert.

    Veg, I would have never guessed the venison! What a strange bunch of crabs:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jen - recipe for savoury Gula here
      http://recipe.badhige.com/?p=18

      I haven't tried it though!

      Delete
  9. I can find you a recipe for gula. http://dhivehirecipes.blogspot.co.uk/2005/08/gulha.html

    I am a Maldivian living in the UK. I was really surprised to find this picture on your blog. Great work I must say. They both are really yummy afternoon tea snacks. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good luck on the shearing! My dad sheared sheep for 60 years--so I know a bit about it! Have fun!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Why don't you do a food bloggers week? Get some UK food bloggers to make a nutritionally balanced, interesting meal that their child would eat and share that? I'd certainly take part and probably could get a few others to do so too? We could do one day each?

    ReplyDelete
  12. We used to go on holiday to a sheep farm in Devon when I was young and my brother and I used to help the farmer and his 2 boys with rounding up the sheep and dipping them. It was great fun!

    I'd like to try the bajiyaa and the gula. The bajiyaa looks like a samosa but it sounds very different. My wife is a member of a spice club (thespicery.com) and she gets a different pack of spices with recipe cards each month so I have been trying spicy food from all over the world.

    What is the strangest food you have ever eaten? I had crispy duck bills, ant egg salad, snail soup and deep fried frogs legs in a restaurant in Bangkok. Considering I am normally vegetarian it was very different!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I remember going crabbing over the edge of Whitby harbour with my school when I was 10. We spent hours trying to get limpets off rocks in order to hook them onto the crabbing lines. Several of us had puncture wounds by the end of the day, but it was brilliant fun.

    Hope you had a wonderful time shearing!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi folks!

    I'm the Laura who sent this picture in :)

    This is my favourite snack, but none of the children were eating it when I took the photo http://thepotsandpansblog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/bis-keemiya.html

    There's a recipe for the bajiyaa here: http://thepotsandpansblog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/bajiya.html

    and there's a couple of gulha recipes above. Have fun making them! I'm back in the UK and missing my Maldivian afternoon tea!

    They are usually family recipes that are passed down through the women, so the gula in the recipe is probably a little different to the gula in the picture :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Laura. I look forward to trying it!

      Delete
  15. I've also just realised that I said that they both contain rice! Not sure why I wrote that, because they don't! Sorry :(

    ReplyDelete
  16. I learn so much from your blog everyday!
    I was so sure the lunch was from India - it looks like somasas (the triangle) and kachoris. But the Indian dishes are made of vegetables and not tuna/rice. How interesting that in a neighbouring country there are similar dishes with different ingredients!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Martha,
    I'm a french journalist, working for a newspaper dedicated to the world of children (not for children but for parents, sorry !). It is about fashion, culture and society and is called "Doolittle" (an english name !). Your can check the website here : http://www.doolittle.fr/
    I enjoy your blog and your posts are very interesting for many reasons. I would like to send you some questions and your answers would be published in the newspaper I am working for. Would you be ok ? And your dad of course ?
    My name is Eleonore Thery, you can also check my profile on facebook here : http://www.facebook.com/hi.ti2
    You would save my life if you could answer quickly, I have to send my article very soon :)
    "Bravo" again for your blog !

    Eléonore

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Eleonore,

      neverseconds@gmail.com

      Thanks,

      Veg's Dad

      Delete
  18. Many thanks ! I will send you my questions this afternoon !
    Eléonore

    ReplyDelete