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The fondue flashback
Fleur’s Belgian friend, Thomas, returned last night from his family Christmas in Gent to cook dinner for us, a fondue. Clearly he has gone to a great deal of trouble, bringing back with him his family’s fondue set, along with carefully prepared ingredients: cubes of chicken, turkey, and pork, minced meat balls of various varieties, and little sausages wrapped in bacon. Best of all, he has brought back a 1.5 litre bottle of 1995 Chateau Labegorce Lede Margaux which he has chosen from his 88-year-old grandfather’s wine cellar. What a thoughtful young man, we say, stealing from his grandfather to impress us.
But back to the fondue, we tell Thomas that fondue was very big in New Zealand in the 1970s and is customarily the entree to the main course of wife swapping. For a moment, he looks at us in sheer panic, but then retorts that the Belgian custom is that whoever loses their meat off the fondue fork into the oil has to wash the dishes. A narrow escape, and the meal is finished off with a nice Central Otago Pinot Noir we have brought from New Zealand.