ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A local shire council worker was last night left quietly pondering what people in China might be eating for breakfast.
The philosophical breakthrough came to light during a chat at the Betoota Dolphins Leagues Club, where our reporter was enjoying a quiet run on the video blackjack machines. Between soft clicks of the virtual dealer and the barmaid delivering stubbie after stubbie of Carlton Dry to the table, Trevor Stackhouse pulled up a pew and gave an unsolicited debrief of his meal.
“Had the honey chicken down at The Great Wall. You know the place, reeks of soy sauce and Glen 20. Good gear,” he began.
Stackhouse, who manages signage compliance for Betoota Shire Council, said he’d ducked in for a solo feed after knocking off late, starting strong with a few Tsingtaos before the owner-slash-waiter-slash-cook suggested something a bit different.
“He offered me a red wine and Coke. Said it was from an ancient bottle, a 1996 Poet’s Corner Merlot out of Mudgee. Think it turned sometime before the Sydney Games. Topped it with a Pepsi Max. Honestly? Not bad,” he said.
“It tasted like drinkable petrol, like it tasted like diesel but it’s not going to kill you. You know when you’re siphoning diesel out of shire heavy machinery parked on the side of the road and you get a bit in your mouth. That’s what it tasted like.”
It was mid-mouthful, somewhere between a battered capsicum chunk and a rogue bit of onion, when Stackhouse reckons the question hit him.
“I just thought, you know, do people in China have this stuff for brekkie? Like, honey chicken and a middy of that nuclear orange sauce? Is that their OJ?”
Stackhouse paused while our reporter doubled on a pair of sevens.
“Or maybe bean and black bean on toast or something. I dunno. Just reckon it’s worth thinking about,” he said.
“Might go back and ask the bloke.”
More to come.
