This occasion was the first introduction of TIBF to the "Full-Set". First impressions were that he was smart, clearly proven later in the evening to be an understatement.
As an example he spends his spare time correcting the English in the latest QI book,.... I swear I would never have spotted the misused apostrophe it's indeed! Stephen how could you let the side down so badly by allowing your name to be connected to such badly constructed English book!. Being apparently so smart, is totally congruent with him being the (Ex) Italian boy friend of TBA. The evening progressed onto food which of course, for TEIBF was surely the main trap, as being Italian (did I mention that?), and bound inexorably to the stereotypical model us Brits have of the Italian Male, he had to uphold his Mother's cooking at all costs.
The trap was neatly executed by TGSWAES, (who for my reader is TBA's mum) as she had cunningly decided to serve "Lasagne". What she was actually serving was the traditional 14th Century English dish Loseyns (pronounced Lasan). which in turn is likely to have originated from the Scandinavian "Langkake", popular from the Viking ages, a multi-layered dish consisting of flatbread, meat sauce and cheese.. (I wonder if TBA has already found Archaeological proof of all this.)
Any how.. back to the neatly executed trap, TEIBF shewn earlier to be not short of a braincell or two, had spotted the trap and on being asked (a little too blatantly for my taste in traps) by TGSWAES "How does it compare to your mother's Lasagne?". He replied with a perfectly executed and very simple "It's different!".
The tone held enough to clearly convey that his Mother's culinary dominance had not been assailed, certainly not equalled, and the very thought of it having been surpassed, not even a remote possibility!. To have the grasp of English tone to execute in 2.5 simple words so much, had me in awe. The effect on the table was quite interesting, as the various parties bound to support the slighted one. At this point TEIBF executed another blinding verbal pirouette by helping us understand that the execution of most foreign cooking by the English was "different", "take for example" Indian food in England. We all pictured in our minds eye the Chicken Tikka Masala dish that we had come to understand had never been cooked in India, until arriving English tourists demanded it! As TEIBF had said "diferrent"!It is so easy after the fact to see how simply he lead us all neatly away from discussing the true origins of Lasagne. Clever really how we never really got to prove that Lasagne was English, before it was Italian!.
The latter part of the evening involved playing a most interesting Parlour Games, called variously Mafia or WereWolf. The rules we played can be found here, originating from Russia it is one of the most recently invented parlour games. For its history and other rules check the Wikipedia entry
HWWGTA was the Narrator, and he had the challenge of selecting a Detective, a member of the Mafioso. He had to make it difficult to guess, but how? So his selection made the game began... The individual playing the Mafia moved in quick and took out the three eldest Males of the village , assisted by the villagers in their lynching selection. His second strike took out the Detective, who had correctly identified him just before his demise. He spoke little but when he did it always resulted in a shift of blame and his survival.
One by one the innocent villagers fell to the power of the "Mafia", the game came to its inevitable conclusion. I will never forget the spine tingling comment of TIBF on our departure. Paraphrased his comment simply recognised that the result was not unexpected given the experience of the person that HWWGTA had selected to be Mafia. I was still numb from the fact that HWWGTA had chosen to double bluff and select TEIBF, after all who would suspect he would choose an Italian. So when TEIBF shared the inevitability of the result, I of course shivered! I just hope he reads this and then smiles benignly! If this blog comes to an abrupt end, you will know he didn't!
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