Oysters are Off

I am really enjoying Australian Masterchef.  It seems to be a Special that is showing at the moment, with previous winners competing. The standard is so high.  They have very interesting challenges, and they all support each other. 

A photograph of food, a recent cake I made for example,  would be appropriate to head this blog. But Captain B does not photograph food, and nor do I. And even if I tried to, all I would get would be a lot of photos of me looking especially gormless while saying: "How do you work this thing?"

Yes. My Smartphone is still smarter than I am.  

The Great British Menu is also on.  Which I am enjoying.  ("What's for supper?" "Er, baked beans on toast. I've been too busy watching Masterchef and The Great British Menu to cook anything.")

I would never dare cook fish anyway after watching them. Apparently a millisecond over will ruin the fish.

The theme for this year's Great British Menu is the Best of British Animation and Illustration. Which is very inspiring. As I have always loved the Alice books, and their illustrations, I have already worked out my own theme for the fish course, and here it is:

Oysters a la The Walrus and the Carpenter  It would consist of a plate of seafood, with not an oyster in sight.  And it would be served with an apologetic little card saying: Oysters are off. The Walrus and the Carpenter have eaten every one."

If I only had the necessary cooking skills, I reckon that is a course that would make it to the banquet.

So the photograph at the top is one of Col's from his diving days - and of a rather splendid oyster.  Or it will be if he makes it safely back from his day's metal detecting, and can forward the one I have chosen from his blogsite gallery. The older I get, the more I worry about him, and I would keep him safely at home in a box of cotton wool if I could.  

Oysters are now considered food of course, poor creatures - and how cruelly the Walrus and the Carpenter tricked them! - but in the paradise earth, surely they won't be? Will they even produce pearls then, given that (if I am understanding it right) a pearl is created by an immune system response to a painful bit of grit or dirt?

I don't know. But, once again, I hope we are there to find out.  All we can be sure about is that it will be more full of happiness than we can now imagine.