A Delicious Feast

The family that eats together, meets together.

No, wait…the family that eats together, stays together? That doesn’t rhyme and the other one does, but I’m still trying to to figure out English idioms. In any case, our family DOES eat together, mostly out, but sometimes at home whenever we have guests. And while we’re not big on cooked food, I still think our castle-mansion needs a kitchen worthy of its grand size. You do tend to learn these things when you have a very large home: not every room needs to be used, but there are certain rooms that need to be up to scratch anyway. In our previous castle we had a conservatory that we never used- it was always a bit bright and sunny- but we made it look lovely anyway. Here in this place, we have an extremely expansive kitchen, one with commercial stoves and ovens and all sorts. Perhaps the previous owner entertained for a great many guests, which would explain the exquisite ballroom one level upwards, hence why they needed so much commercial kitchen equipment. We’re not using the kitchen OR the ballroom, but it will simply not to do allow a room in one’s home to fall into disrepair. After all, they’ll still be seen on the occasional tour. Very occasionally we WILL have guests, although they never stay for long…just for dinner. And we don’t use the kitchen for dinner.

It must be done; I will not allow our kitchen to be anything less than perfect. Perhaps once it’s properly fitted out I’ll come down to just look at in. Just ‘be’ in the room, you know? Partly because there’s something a little bit thrilling about being in a room that’s rarely used, and partly because I’ve been speaking to my contacts about really good quality commercial wok burners and they actually look quite aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps the next time we have guests over, we’ll try a stir fry. Guests and stir fry…delicious.

-Ivanov Maxim Payler-Alucard