Port and Blue Stilton

The dog was in the middle, of the road lying flat, the dog in the road. The shamble leg man saw many dogs lying flat in the middle of the road; some with caramel fur others with ecru or light brown fur, strays. Oxcarts, some beneath oxcarts, others pressed up into the wheel wells of cars like ham sandwiches. He saw them all, the dogs, strays. Lapdogs and collies, short-haired and dappled, small long dogs, all and every sort and breed of dog. Dogs live outside the world of humans; the dog-world is a world of sniffing and scratching, bones and rawhide toys. The man in the hat had a Florentine recipe for dog-meat: one Spanish onion finely diced, three carrots, two cloves of garlic, pressed, a cube of Oyo and 27 ½ cups of ox-broth. The meat was marinated overnight in the ox-broth and Oyo, then stir-fried at a low simmer for 27 ½ hours; the carrots and Spanish onion were added just before presentation, giving the dish a shimmering, pinkish hue. He served it with wild rice and asparagus, three baguettes and a 27 ½ year-old Port, Portuguese, Camembert, smoked Gouda and Blue Stilton on lightly toasted Melba. He cleaned his teeth with chicken bones, meniscus, wish or splay-toe.