A water bison is what yer wash yer face in Roger McGough
This year's Taste The World was the usual voyage of discovery; new friends, new music, new food.
When a Canadian band requested bison meat I was a bit stumped, there doesn't seem to be enough room to raise bison in the UK but we discovered a bison-owning lady near Sedgefield who will post bison meat to you should you ever need some. Bison meat is very lean, the Canadian boys' secret for BB perfection was to add beer to the bison burger mix - it was excellent.
Occasionally an artist has the sort of agent that will say 'oh yes my musician loves cooking he'd love to cook on stage,' I am sent a popular regional recipe and the musician has no idea what he has been signed up to. The Poulet Directeur General recipe was one of those; a very handsome Blick Bassey arrived at the kitchen stage on Sunday morning, told the audience that, as he has 7 sisters at home and no men are allowed anywhere near the kitchen, he had no idea how to make this dish. Therefore I must cook and Blick must play his guitar.
That turned out surprisingly well and there were lots of great moments during the event. The highlight of the weekend was a band called Nuba Nour, they belong to a tribe of Nubian people who lost their land to the Aswan Dam project and are effectively permanently homeless. There's a better video of them here They cooked a fantastic lamb and okra recipe full of secret ingredients but gum mastic was essential to getting the texture right, during the cooking there was a lot of dancing going on, I managed to get this little clip.
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