Us carnivores usually deride what we call the ‘ghass phoos’ eaters, the vegetarians and vegans. How on earth can you develop enough muscle mass eating leaves and grass and seeds? You need good red meat to give you enough protein and though dals claim to be protein rich – how much of them can you have? Besides, legumes like rajma can make you sound like a backfiring Bullet! Really, it’s only lean red meat, with streaks of delicious fat that cut the mustard. Steak and sausages, bacon and ham, spare ribs and ‘backstraps’, juicy crisp pork belly, especially sizzled on wood or coal-burning barbecues – these put hair on the chest. I still remember the fizzing ‘sizzler’ I had, served on a slab of teak at Bombelli’s in Bombay aeons ago; a man needs his red meat.

There’s a serial on TV these days depicting a hunter going out to shoot and kill deer and sheep cook himself a delicious meal.…