It being the year ending and all, I went to Campbelltown in July to file tax returns, a ritual or tradition I follow year after year. And the outcome was as usual; thanks to my reliable and trustworthy tax agent. No surprises there. Hunger made us halt at Campbelltown Mall and my choice for lunch was Oporto Grilled chicken as opposed to my son’s choice of KFC Ultimate box. One bite of the chilli-smeared- chicken, grilled to perfection, reminded me of Charles Lamb’s essay ‘A Dissertation upon Roast Pig’:
“Of all the delicacies in the whole mundus edibilis, I will maintain it to be the most delicate—princeps obsoniorum. … There is no flavour comparable, I will contend, to that of the crisp, tawny, well-watched, not over-roasted, crackling, as it is well called—the very teeth are invited to their share of the pleasure…”
Just as “he fell to tearing up whole handfuls of the scorched skin with the flesh next it, and was cramming it down his throat in his beastly fashion” I continued to devour the chicken and did not stop till only bones were left. I do not know if it was my hunger or if was really the perfect grilling/cooking that transported me to the realms of imagination of the 17th century essayist.
A Writer's Exposé 