"Maaaa"

People generally greet each other with a 'hi' or 'hello'. In our family, we say "g'day" with a "baaa" or a "bleat". This derived from the peculiar barking noise "be be grrr" my dad used to make when imitating the miniature Schnauzer.

The "baaa" era came to be due to the residual effect my mum's Polish soup had on those (particularly within our household) who had yet to develop the barley/bean/lentil/cabbage enzymes. When dad got a wind of this, he thought the obvious way to exchange greetings and mock our ever-present flatulence issue was the same way methane-producers of the world would address each other, with a "baaa".

This salutation further matured (after all, adults making animal noises at each other both in person and on the phone is so mature) when dad discovered that Don's parents had pet sheep that looked like goats. Now, much to my mother's embarrassment and the general confusion of those within earshot, greetings in public places are randomly generated barnyard sounds interchanged with the odd "Hi there".

Having run out of back-up lamb one weekend, and not being so keen to try Massaman dog, the next obvious option was goat. We found the Railway Goat Curry in the Gourmet Traveller  Best-Ever Chefs' Recipes mag, bought a big leg of goat, whipped up some scrumptious ghee-ful pilaf and "Voilà", or rather "Maaaa".