Life is too short not to......

"Oh no, no no no no. I cant have that! There's rabbit in it! That's sooo cruel!"

I had been trying to persuade a young woman and her young chap to try the pie, which does indeed have rabbit in it. It is so good, as Bugs Bunny himself put it, "Mmm, rabbits. That sounds delicious. [Does a double-take.] Rabbits!"

wittle cute wabbit.....
....mmmmmm wabbit

But my attempts to convince them of the meaty delicious goodness of the pie were falling on deaf and sentimental ears. Where I trying to conjure up an image of earthy Autumnal food they were seeing the cast of Watership Down being slaughtered and butchered by manic chefs wielding shiny cleavers covered in blood. I was on to a loser and I knew it. Probably didn't help my case when she started getting all dewy eyed about "wittle wabbit noses".....

"The noses? Oh yes chef uses them for the sauce. It smells great."

"The noses? The wittle wabbit noses?" OH OH OH THAT'S JUST HORRIBLE!"

It took me a few minutes to calm her down and assure her that chef did not indeed use the wittle wabbit noses for the sauce. He wears them on a string round his neck. Hehehehehehehe. In the end they both had the chicken. Poor chicken, if only they were cute and had little cute noses.

Their reaction is quite typical. Some people get rather hypocritical about such things, they'll eat cows and fish and chickens with no thought what so ever to the animal itself but if it's something deemed cute it wont be touched and we are all bastards for even suggesting it. Good grief fish sales dropped off something silly after Finding Nemo came out. Idiots.

But I felt like it was my quest, my mission, my crusade this weekend to try and convince some of my guests to try something new. I have a lot of regulars and they are creatures of habit, hence them being regulars. They drink the same wine, they order the same food, the make the same jokes. In many ways it's comforting but I see it as my duty to open their minds and their palates to new things, new tastes, new experiences. Hell if I couldn't get them to try a rabbit pie I'd at the very least get them to try some pot.

Rabbit pie was the way to go but I knew it would be a tough call for some people so I reasoned that just getting some of the regulars to try something, anything, new would be a success. Neither man nor woman can live on steak alone. But that argument wasn't washing with one of my regular four tops. They are the very definition of regular, same time, same table, same day every week. And without question the same food every time - three well done steaks and chicken with no sauce. They love it, they really do. But over the many years they have been dining with us they had never changed that routine. Specials get recited out of courtesy rather than hope. There's no deviation, ever.

I launched in with a a bit of friendly banter in an attempt to lower defenses and gain some trust (it's quite akin to hostage negotiation) - football, weather, the collapsing economy etc and then brought the conversation round to the rabbit pie. Not the easiest segue I can assure you. Again there were muted screams of horror but one of the chaps seemed ever so slightly intrigued. Well he didn't baulk at my suggestion. I had exposed a chink in his armour.

"So how many shall I put you down for?" I asked doing a mean impression of a door to door salesman.

"Oh go one I'll have one" replied one of the men. The rest ordered their usual. I felt a bit bad, maybe I had pressured him a bit into ordering the pie but was totally confident he would enjoy it.

And enjoy it he did. Actually at one point there were four forks in the pie dish as everybody tried a bit. And that's exactly what I had hoped for. Life's too short not to try something new, not all the time obviously. I mean it's not possible to actually live everyday like it's your last and I'm sure nobody has ever been lying on their deathbed lamenting the fact that they never tasted the gamey goodness of a rabbit pie.

I serve punters everyday who screw up their noses at the mere thought of rabbit pie or rare steak. They get confused and angry with the thought of jus, they want their sauce on the side and the pink peppercorns removed. Come on now people, embrace the strange!

I shifted a few more before the night was out including one to one of my more challenging guests, Blue Steak Man. As his name suggest he eats steak, blue steak to be precise. Nothing else. And every week he has a comment to make about the meat, normally it's overcooked. I mean the moment it's taken out of the fridge it's too well done for him. But after a bit of cajoling and money back guarantees he relented and ordered the rabbit pie. I was delighted.

It all went fucking tits up though didn't it. I never served the pie, waiter chum number two had brought it to the table. I strode confidently to the table a moment later to check on him and more importantly bathe in the kudos that was undoubtably coming my way. It wouldn't be under stating it to say he was glum, he was glum and sullen. His pie top was burnt, it was black, it was fucking awful.

I stormed back to the kitchen with my metaphorical tail between my legs (as opposed to what? your actual tail -LMM) and let fly a host of obscenities. The good thing about a blue steak is that it takes less than 30 seconds to cook.

So the lesson is if you do try something new get a guarantee first. I couldn't get the theme tune to Watership Down out of my head after that,

"Bright eyes, burning with fire......"

Right over the top of the pie too!

What say you?
Are you an adventurous eater?
Or is ketchup still your favourite sauce?