appearances, twice at Tallaght and then at the " Monaghan Harvest
Blues Festival ".
I had decided to have a go at selling food at Markets around this
time last year and like the Gobshite that I am thought that all I'd
need was a bit oul' canvas and a gas-ring covered with a lump of
metal for frying upon, as long as I was mindful of the Health Reg-
ulations, which I am, having been in the food business all my
working life.
The newest Health laws are called H.A.C.C.P.( Hazard Analysis
Critical Crisis Point )and are mostly a very commonsense
approach to food handling,and traceability is a real biggy
with them.Since that big food-poisoning in Scotland a few
years ago,( Pork Pies, I think it was ) a food-vender is
obliged to keep scrupulous records of food purchased,
including delivery dates, origin of product and the
Temperature of the food at time of delivery, and it's
condition. Really it's just to cover their own Arses, but as
I was saying it's all common sense and in all honesty it's
almost impossible to give somebody food-poisoning accidently
anymore, you'd practically have to do it on purpose.
Incidently, did you know that H.A.C.C.P. is yet another
by-product of the N.A.S.A. Space Programme, along with Velcro,
upside-down writing biros and the other cool stuff we now
use in everyday life, being designed to keep food safe aboard
the Space-Lab., not a lot of people know that.
Our Jerk Chicken served on a Wholewheat Bap with Lettuce and Tomato
The Authentic ChickenShack appearing live at the " Monaghan
Harvest Blues Festival " Sept. 4th.- 6th. 2009.
Having to start somewhere, I decided the first thing I needed was a
Gazebo, simple enough you might think, and so did I.I bid and "won"
a pop-up 3m x 4 1/2 m Gazebo on e-bay last Autumn for £210 and it
arrived a week later........ and so did the wind.The fuckin' thing
wasn't up 2 hours when a hurricane of wind, well a force 8 anyway
came calling and made absolute shite of it. Between the torn canvas
and the twisted and warped metal, it was like something you'd see
on the left-Bank after an Israeli " retaliation".
I bought another one in Woody's a week before we started, having
decided the original was beyond salvation, and it's fine and
reasonably strong, only problem is that it has to be screwed to-
gether every time we use it and that takes nearly an hour to erect
while the other Traders erect their pop-up Professional Gazebos in
minutes.Still, we've no choice but to persevere with our present
tent until the oul' financials improve.
See_______ You'd think it grew there.
Next we needed some kind of hygene solution and something on which
to cook.With space and weight at a premium we quickly decided against
a sink unit and decided to go for an insulated hand-washing unit that
needs no power,keeps water hot for up to 5 hours with one fill
providing about 10 hand rinses.It's a mickey-mouse piece of plastic
that a child could design but it looks the part and covers us with
the Health Board.
By this stage I had brought my oul' mate, Zac,on board.Zac and I
go back a long way and believe me there is a book waiting to be
written about our exploits, albeit an x-rated one. Luckily for
all concerned we can't remember most of the details,
but you'd never know..........
To be continued.
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