Byline: John Water
LAST week, I wrote that the best present I ever bought myself was my Internet radio, which picks up 25,000 stations worldwide, including dylanradio.com, the one I'd choose if someone sought to weld the dial in place. This week, I have to report a possible competitor. I've just bought myself a Kelly Kettle, which, if you haven't heard of it already, may well be the greatest invention you've never heard of.
It's a device for boiling water and cooking outdoors. It works on something like the opposite of the principle of a flask and has a similar shape, except bigger. there's a kind of a chimney up the middle, in which to light a small fire on a base-pan underneath, using sticks and newspaper. this boils the water, which makes the most exquisite tea. You can also cook sausages or whatnot, either on top of the kettle or on the cinders that collect in the basepan.
It's an Irish thing, being made here by the Kelly Kettle Company, Ballina (www.kellykettle.com). Apparently they've been producing them since the early 1900s, although they went out of fashion for a while, what with Primus stoves and all those modern gizmos.
I've got the full kit: pot, pan, and even a stand to put on top to make a small 'range' on which you can cook while the water's boiling.
So I'm off now to play the father in The Swiss Family Robinson. Over the weekend, I hope to head up the back of Ben Bulben, surviving on my wits and ingenuity, in an inhospitable wilderness stalked by predators and foes but determined to make it to the frontier. If it's too hot for tea, I plan to hunt down some wild rabbits and fry up some steaks on this here stove o' mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment