Noffal means Not Offal, which is a term I coined when I was shopping today. I posted last about losing my offal mojo, but trying to not make a big deal out of it. Some people were concerned that I was abandoning my project and had hunkered down to steakdom. Don’t worry. Let me alay your fears. I’m still not eating regular meat – but am probably now an ethical pescatarian (?) – what I mean by that is I will eat fish, but only ones classed as 1,2 or 3 on the Marine Conservation list. Tuna is out. Cod is out. Tilapia is IN LIKE FLYNN. I am also dipping my toe into tofu and its philosophy.
Tofucianism has been a concern of mine since I heard a BBC Radio 4 food programme that discussed the impact of soya on the world. It was bad. I had tofu guilt. Basically soya is produced in a lot of developing countries who cut down their natural resources (like rainforest) to make room for the soya. Most of the soya, however, does not go to Alpro (who say they use sustainable soya) but to make cheap animal feed – particularly for cattle. This concerns me because basically I don’t want to be the wanker at the farmer’s market asking producers if they feed their cattle soya. Minefield. But a very thought provoking programme, which you can still listen to here.
So, what was in my shopping basket today? (One Sunday paper always used to have a feature where they judged the celebrity by their shopping basket – so judge me? Or informed opinions on what else I could be doing please)
I also bought some anchovies in oil. What keeps striking me in my use of the sustainable fish list is how you have to be really sure of the geographical area of where your fish come from. With anchovies, you should only have them from the Bay of Biscay, not from the Portugese coast or the north-east atlantic. Equally, the fishing method is important. If you search for salmon – sea caught salmon is a no-no, but organic open net farmed is a 1. (I am still learning about farmed fish, and understand that there are a lot of concerns, but bear with me as I am a beginner.)
Sausages are allowed. An initial straw poll asked the question and the answer was a majority YES, because of course traditionally sausages were where all the BITS were used up.
The other thing that has been inspiring my Noffaltarian flight of fancy is my weekly veg box. I may do one of those ‘look at my veg box posts’ in a bit, but at the moment, suffice to say, I like it. I always have veg now. No excuse.
So what other vegitarian/fruitarian/raw/vegan treats am I missing out on?
offallygood 
I’m not keen on tofu and don’t do quorn, which makes my two days a week of no meat or fish interesting. I eat a lot of eggs! Frittata makes for a great main meal and the leftovers are amazing for breakfast/lunch. Also beans, you can mash them and make ‘burgers’, I have a quinoa/chickpea burger thing that’s really good. So you could try that. I had a foodie penpal who gave me a recipe for fried, spiced tempah that was ok, but I couldn’t get around the texture! There was a thing in the Guardian this week about native oysters and how we need to buy them to keep them going, so you could try some of those!!
Vege boxes are ace, aren’t they!
Oysters could be good – I’ve not had one since I was 9. I wasn’t really into it then but maybe I would be now! I’ve seen a few vege burger recipes to try. The issue with eggs is that my partner got told he had really high cholesterol, so that’s part of the cutting down reason 😦 Tonight it is mushroom barley risotto with roasted squash. I do feel the call for some offal later in the week though!