AN NHS worker was left in stitches when she went to check on her Sunday lunch and saw the apparent face of E.T. staring back at her.
Karen Eade was preparing the traditional lamb shank for her family’s meal last week when she opened the oven door to check its progress.
The 63-year-old couldn’t believe the face she found staring back at her – which bore a striking resemblance to the titular character from Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
An image shows the half leg of lamb cooking away in the oven with sprigs of rosemary stuffed into the meat and a bone protruding from the front.
The bone serves as an eye socket, and wrinkles across the skin of the lamb make for a slab of meat that looks uncanny to the stranded alien.
A slice in the meat resembles a gaping smile, and the heat of the oven has the meat becoming tender to bear a resemblance to the extra-terrestrial’s prune-like skin.
NHS administrator Karen was left in hysterics, immediately recognising the alien face looking back at her, and soon snapped a picture to share online.
Sharing the image to social media on Sunday, Karen wrote: “My Sunday lunch, what do you see?”
The picture received over 370 likes with more than 990 comments and dozens of shares from amused social media users
Unsurprisingly users were quick to spot the resemblance, comparing the piece of meat to the much-loved bike-riding alien.
Abbie Davis said: “If E.T. hadn’t gone home.”
Sharon Tait Jessop said: “E.T. phone home.”
Timo Koivisto said: “E.T. didn’t go home after all.”
Speaking today, Karen said: “I was cooking a half leg of lamb and I took the foil off halfway through cooking.
“I noticed the face and so I put it on social media but never thought I would have such a response.
“The whole lamb looks like E.T., some of the comments are so funny.
“It’s a good job that I’ve got thick skin as some of the comments are rude about my cooking but I do realise it’s mostly tongue-in-cheek.
“The lamb was delicious to be honest.”
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was a box office smash, raking in over £650m worldwide following the release of the movie in 1982.
Bizzarely, E.T. is also present in the Star Wars universe, with three members of his species making a cameo appearance in the background of a scene in 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
The aliens were placed there by director George Lucas as a nod to friend Speilberg, who had previously made frequent references to Star Wars in his own movies – including E.T. and Indiana Jones.
