So! It appears that readers have been intrigued by the dishes that Precious Ramotswe and her countrymen talk about in Alexander McCall Smith’s series about the Botswanan detective. Not one to lose an opportunity to promote herself, Ramotswe has decided to publish a cookbook. All of us who seek distinction in culinary matters (well, gustatory [...]
Archive for June, 2009
Ramotswe’s Cookbook
Posted in books, botswana, food, tagged alexander mccall smith, books, botswana, food, precious ramotswe on 29/06/2009 | Leave a Comment »
What Persia was to Rome, France is to England. Etc.
Posted in blogs, books, england, food, france, persia, poetry, tagged classics, england, food, france, language log, persia, poetry, rome on 19/06/2009 | Leave a Comment »
Mark Liberman at the Language Log has been analyzing the influence of Persia on the Hebrews, the Romans, jazz, Romani. A neat piece, from which the following extract works quite foodily. There’s a famous poem by Horace (Carmina I XXXVIII) indicating the cachet of Persian culture even in classical Rome: Persicos odi, puer, apparatus; displicent [...]
Sandwiched Deadly Sin
Posted in books, food, usa, tagged books, crime, edward delaney, food, lawrence sanders, sandwich on 18/06/2009 | Leave a Comment »
Lawrence Sanders, accountant of deadly sins, wrote that his detective, Edward X. Delaney, had two methods of eating sandwiches (The Third Deadly Sin): …Those he categorised as ‘dry’ sandwiches, such as roast beef on white or what he termed an interracial sandwich, ham on bagel, were eaten while seated at the kitchen table. The top [...]
Burma Boy Grog
Posted in books, burma, liquor, nigeria, war, tagged biyi bandele, books, burma, chindit, hallucinogen, liquor, nigeria, war on 18/06/2009 | Leave a Comment »
In Burma Boy, Biyi Bandele’s moving account of Nigerian Chindits in the Burma front during World War II, a fellow called Bloken used to swear he was protected by the amulets he had bought in his homeland before travelling to fight the Japanese. Lately, however, his faith in them has been wearing a little thin. [...]
Nordic Indian
Posted in books, food, india, norway, tagged books, crime, food, norway, pernille rygg on 15/06/2009 | Leave a Comment »
Just when I was beginning to despair of ever seeing anything foodie in a Scandinavian novel, I came across the following passage in Pernille Rygg’s The Butterfly Effect. Sure, it’s not Norwegian food, but something is better than nothing, I always think. I open a carton of coconut milk and pour it over the shiny [...]
Aussie Burger
Posted in australia, books, england, food, tagged books, burger, food, tasmania, tim heald on 14/06/2009 | 1 Comment »
In Tim Heald’s rather pedestrian novel of academic snobbery, long-smouldering revenge, and obscure Tasmanian wines, Death and the Visiting Fellow, a chesty, long-legged and lissome beauty discusses burgers with the visiting Fellow. Instead of the bijou, upmarket, expensive, one-off emporia of the salubrious oases to either side of the highway, these were chain convenience stores [...]
Ogden Nash Cocktails
Posted in liquor, poetry, usa, tagged cocktail, gin, highball, liquor, ogden nash, rye, whisky on 10/06/2009 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve already seen Ogden Nash’s plaint against the ridiculous additives in salads. Time, I think, to move onto his witty observations on sundry liqueurs. Here’s his Mint Julep: There is something about a mint julep. It is nectar imbibed in a dream, As fresh as the bud of the tulip, As cool as the bed [...]
An Earnest Bloody Mary
Posted in books, liquor, usa, tagged bloody mary, books, hemingway, liquor, vodka on 10/06/2009 | Leave a Comment »
Ernest Hemingway, famous story-teller, laconic so-and-so, four times married, a gastronome, a Francophile, a heavy drinker, a suicide, had the following recipe (complete with spelling mistakes) for a Bloody Mary. “To make a pitcher of Blood Marys (any smaller amount is worthless) take a good sized pitcher and put in it as big a lump [...]
A Champagne Bitter Spicy Shaken
Posted in books, england, liquor, travel, tagged angostura, champagne, cocktail, evelyn waugh, liquor on 09/06/2009 | Leave a Comment »
Evelyn Waugh travelled about, casting an acerbic eye at one moment, a sardonic look at another, except where alcohol was concerned, and came up with a rather peculiar exotic drink, involving, among other things, champagne and Angostura Bitters. (What the devil is an Angostura Bitter?) Here is an excerpt from When The Going Was Good: [...]
My Dear, How Ever Did You Think Up This Delicious Salad?
Posted in food, poetry, usa, tagged food, ogden nash, poetry on 09/06/2009 | 1 Comment »
Ogden Nash, poet par excellence, cast his brilliant eye on many human foibles. Food is a major foible, particularly that prepared by people who refuse to accept they will never be good cooks. Look at this: My Dear, How Ever Did You Think Up This Delicious Salad? This is a very sad ballad, Because it’s [...]
