25 February 2008: Reasons

Jason asks how clotted cream tastes. Answer: try it! If indeed they have it in Michigan (do they?)

We found that Central Market is only a Texas thing. We went back there as not only is it the only place to get clotted cream, fresh lamb and Wiltshire cheese (no, you don't eat all three of those together) but it's also probably the best place to get really good, fresh fruit here in north-central Texas. We got some peaches - imported from Chile - last time we went and they were amazing: fragrant, dewy-juicy, perfectly ripe and tasting as good as anything that comes out of southern Georgia in the summer. And it wasn't just the peaches: apples, tangelos, even the lettuce was delicious.

We wondered if it was just that the peaches came from Chile. At Wal-Mart last weekend we saw peaches from Chile, and bought five. All five were dry, tasteless and essentially inedible. And they weren't that much cheaper than the ones at Central Market. So, in the interests of trying to keep with with the five-a-day thing, back we went.

Of course, while we were there we also had to stop at the in-store Gelateria for some genuine Italian ice-cream, as well as nosing round the various sections and buying a half-leg of lamb for a pretty extortionate price. And then through the bread section, and then on to the cheese section where (as readers who get beyond the first paragraph of these blogs will remember) the Clotted Cream basket sits. As we approached, we noticed two of the shop workers having a discussion there. Being the rude person I am, I interrupted them.

"Does this stuff sell well?" I asked, holding up a jar of Clotted Cream.
"Oh yeah," the older man responded. "Yeah, that's real popular."
Pause.
"Why is it in the cheese section?"

*This* was the key question, I felt. Did they actually think it was cheese?

"That's a good question," he replied. I know it's a good question, I thought.
"It may be because the dairy section is over-full, they've no room over there. But I think it's because you don't think about the clotted cream when you go through dairy, but then people come to the bread section, pick up their scones and then think 'well I need some clotted cream', so it's here."

People think *that*? They think about scones and clotted cream?

There followed an interesting discussion about the differences between double cream and clotted, and the processes involved with making the two. The employees came out of it with having learned about Jersey milk, and I came out of it feeling much happier that people in this country, at least *some* of them, understand about scones.

Now, having determined where all this stuff is in Texas, it's a little ironic that we're going to end up in Indiana, and have to start the process all over again.