One night over the summer we had the pleasure of having Ramadanman and a few local dubstep DJ's over for some late night tea. We talked extensively about what constitutes a proper cup of tea, and throughout our chat it became apparent that Ramadanman knew his way around a kitchen. It occurred to me much later that he also has a pretty killer tune called 'Offal.'
RAMADANMAN - I'm a big fan of cooking, especially traditional French.
ENT - Traditional French cuisine uses a fair bit of offal - I'm thinking of pâté specifically. Are there any French dishes you cook frequently or specifically enjoy?
RAMADANMAN - I do like pâté in fact, and I did get to try some foie gras at Christmas time in France - at a school meal of all places. By French cookery I'm thinking more French techniques of cooking rather than particular dishes - although all the famous French classics are wicked.
ENT - Do you cook regularly, and are there any offal dishes that pop up in your kitchen?
RAMADANMAN - I cook quite often, mainly simple stuff such as pasta, but generally once a week cook something a bit more special. I've cooked some pork belly before, although I wouldn't really class that as offal. All about slow roasting it for a few hours.
ENT - How did you come up with 'Offal' as a title for one of your tunes?
RAMADANMAN - Think I called the tune that cause it was kinda murky and a bit dark! Then again I might just not have eaten decent offal.
ENT - It's neat that you describe the song as dark and murky like offal. Is it purely that offal are generally organs, and that there's something a little sinister about eating those parts of the animal?
RAMADANMAN - I think innards and organs are generally quite sorta...well almost taboo in our society. Maybe some people find it weird eating a part of an animal that had a particular function. Whereas if you're just eating a regular say steak, it was just a bit of flesh, rather than an animal's tongue, which did something specific. I think abbatoirs and butchers can be quite dark places - a lot of references to that in films and novels.
Thanks again to Ramadanman for taking the time to give us his thoughts about offal, cooking and food in general. We hope to hear more about his culinary exploits in the future.