Last Night's Badminton Dinner

I was almost run over this morning by Raja, our wine steward and his jet black wine cart. I was intending to check the condition of the Old Library after last night’s Badminton dinner when Raja, shiny cart and all, came flying through the service door at high speed! This in itself is not an abnormal occurrence, however this morning the wine bottles were still full.

I'm not saying that our Badminton Club members did not enjoy a glass of wine at their dinner last night, I'm sure they most likely did. What was different today was finding bottles left over.
I've put this admirable show of restraint down to the physical demands of their sport, which when played at a high level, requires great aerobic stamina, agility, strength, speed and precision.
For those of you who don't know, Badminton began in mid-19th century British India when British military officers, stationed there, added a net to the traditional English game of Battledore and Shuttlecock. The British upper classes quickly grew fond of the game and originally preferred to use balls of wool in place of the shuttlecock. Eventually retired officers brought the game back to England where it developed into the game we know today.
In 2009, badminton became an Olympic sport with five events: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles, in which each pair consists of a man and a woman.

Tuesday's badminton dinner therefore owes it heritage to India, ansesterial home of the red pepper used in last night's starter (an interesting transition?).

The much loved, and vegetarian friendly, red pepper and mozzarella tart, was served along side mixed leaves and sun-blushed tomato dressing.

For a main course, our badmintonians chose to have roasted fillet of beef sous vide, with caramalised red cabbage and Dauphinoise potatoes. (vegetarians were served a cauliflower and spinach bake.)

To finish the fine meal we served vanilla creme brulee with strawberry and pistachio cake.

I'll finish today's blog entry with the following badminton joke.

A badminton player and a tennis player get into a car accident, and it's a bad one. Both cars are totally demolished, but amazingly neither of them is hurt.After they crawl out of their cars, the badminton player spots the other's tennis gear and says, "So you're a tennis player, that's interesting. I'm a badminton player... Gosh! Just look at our cars, there's nothing left, but fortunately we are unhurt. This must be a sign from God that we should meet and be friends and live together in peace for the rest of our days."

The tennis player replied: "I agree with you completely; this must be a sign from God!"

The badminton player continued, "And look at this - here's another miracle. My car is completely demolished but this bottle of whisky didn't break. Surely God wants us to drink this and celebrate our good fortune."

Then he hands the bottle to the tennis player. The tennis layer nods his head in agreement, opens it and takes a few big gulps from the bottle, then hands it back to the badminton player.

The badminton player takes the bottle, immediately puts the cap back on, and hands it back to the tennis player. The tennis player asks, "Aren't you having any?"

The badminton player replies, "No. I think I will just wait for the police to turn up..."