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The Write Way 24 January 2003 Food, Glorious Food! Greetings, Last weekend we went out to watch our son's new duo at one of those Irish pubs that are springing up all over the place like mushrooms after rain. He usually performs with his band, but a couple of the lads had a clash of gigs, so he enlisted the aid of a girl he occasionally works with to sing for this one night. (And before you start raising your eyebrows, his wife was there with us ...) They put on a great performance (a completely unbiassed opinion, of course!). They play all the popular music, not Irish folk, by the way. We decided to make a night of it and have something to eat at the pub (anything to avoid having to think of what to feed everyone and to get out of the washing up for a night!) While I was perusing the menu, I was struck by the way foods go in and out of fashion ... today's duck à l'orange is tomorrow's dead duck. The current trend here at the moment is very much towards an Asian (especially Thai) style. So we have lots of lovely warm salads, plenty of spices and noodles, and a huge variety of fresh veggies cooked quickly and still crunchy when they're served. A far cry from our Dinner Party Days ...
In the early 70s, when most of us were still struggling to pay rent and save a bit for life's little luxuries, we used to have lots of dinner parties. These were mammoth productions, worthy of Cecil B. De Mille. Preparations had to start at least a week in advance and involved hours spent poring over recipe books, scribbling and crossing out dozens of possible combinations for each course and writing shopping lists. For reasons best known to myself at the time, I started keeping a diary of all our dinner parties, listing the food and wine served, the date, people we invited and also comments about what worked, what didn't, who liked what and so on. I now have a collection of these that takes up one whole shelf in my kitchen book case. Mind you, reading through many of those earlier menus fills me with admiration for my arteries - how they coped with all that butter and cream and rich sauces I'll never know. A quick flick through some of these entries provides a glimpse of those care-free days when we didn't have to worry about calories, cholesterol or fat content ... We often started with Prawn Cocktails - served in those nifty little double dishes ... you know the ones? You filled the bottom with crushed ice and then fitted the serving dish into that ... They looked very spiffy! Coquilles St Jacques was another favourite entrée, fresh scallops poached in full-cream milk with a sauce made from lashings of butter and cream and topped with cheese. Mains included Carpetbag Steak, stuffed to bursting point with oysters; Tournedos Chasseur; Chateaubriand ... Anything you could set fire to was best! I had a flash copper chafing dish that I'd bought with the only legacy I've ever received (from a distant Scots aunt) and that got a real work-out. Dessert was often Crêpes Suzette. My classic recipe stated that the first step was to rub sugar cubes over oranges until they looked pale and wan to get the zest; there followed a complex process to get the paper-thin crêpes just right, the sauce prepared and then the flambé finale done at the table! (I told you the best dishes were those you set alight.) I also had a very flamboyant coffee to finish with. And this was a real doozy - it's called Coffee Diable and you start by peeling an orange so that the skin comes off in a long coil ... there follows some razzamatazz with strong coffee, orange liqueur, sugar and a few spices ... I seem to remember cinnamon sticks somewhere. The orange peel is skewered on the end of a long-handled fondue fork and held over the chafing dish (we got our money's worth out of that dish). You pour the coffee slowly over the top of the peel so that it trickles down into the chafing dish, then you pour over the liqueur and then you set fire to it! Don't try this at home, boys and girls - it needs trained fire-fighters standing by ... I notice as I go through the books that I occasionally took pity on our guests and served something a little lighter ... Ah here ... Strawberries Romanoff ... that's a bit better ... Uh-oh, nup here we go again ... Apple Strudel and Ice Cream. This too, was an all-day production. I have a recipe that involves making the pastry from scratch and I can vividly remember starting this early in the morning; mixing and waiting; throwing the pastry ball down on the bench top, then putting a clean cloth all over our dining-room table, sprinkling it with flour and stretching the dough ... slowly, slowly until it was hanging over the edge of the table and so thin you could read through it! Sheesh! Talk about the folly of youth ... now I just buy a nice pack of ready made fillo! While I was slaving over a hot stove all day, my husband was offering moral support and liquid refreshment to the chef. It's odd, isn't it, that while food in a business sense is usually the province of the male of the species, when it comes to the home, it's largely a matter for the distaff side? This interesting little word originally referred to "a staff that holds on its cleft end the unspun flax, wool, or tow from which thread is drawn in spinning by hand." (dictionary.com) Kel Richards, writing on the ABC Classic FM site explains how this was used, "The distaff was held under the left arm, and the fibres of the material were drawn from it through the fingers of the left hand, and twisted spirally by the forefinger and thumb of the right, with the aid of the suspended spindle, round which the thread, as it was twisted or spun, was wound. I hope that’s perfectly clear. The word distaff goes back to at least the year AD 1,000 and it comes from a combination of “staff” with an old Low German word diesse meaning “a bunch of flax”. Since it was women who did this spinning the word distaff was extended metaphorically to mean women’s work or occupation generally (by the 14th century) and then the female sex generally (by the end of the 15th century)." http://www.abc.net.au/classic/breakfast/stories/s705939.htm The word comes from two Old English words: dis meaning 'bunch of flax' and staf which means, oddly enough, 'staff.' The opposite of distaff is "datstaff" ... No, just kidding, actually, it's "spear side" ... no doubt because while women did the spinning, men carried the spears ... you know, sort of a boy-thing. Since we've been discussing food, I thought I'd pass on this diet my daughter sent to me. It's from Helen Fielding's great book, Bridget Jones's Diary. BRIDGET JONES
STRESS DIET There you go, girls, just what we've
been looking for! Since we're in a gastronomic mood this week, how about some culinary words? Match up the term with its meaning ... this will test how well you concentrate on the menus when you dine out! sauté, lard, mull, blanch, zest, marinate, vichyssoise, roux, al dente, hull 1. cooked just to a firm and chewy texture 2. to partially cook vegetables by parboiling them in highly salted water then cooling quickly in ice water 3. to remove the leafy and stem parts off fruits such as strawberries 4. to insert strips of fat into pieces of meat, helping the braised meat stays moist and juicy during cooking 5. to submerge a food in a seasoned liquid in order to tenderize and flavor it 6. to slowly heat wine, juices or cider with spices, citrus and sugar 7. roughly equal quantities of flour and oil, fat or butter, cooked and used to thicken liquids 8. to cook food quickly in a small amount of fat in a pan over regulated direct heat 9. cold soup made from a puree of the white part of leeks, potatoes, onions, chicken stock, cream and chives 10. thin outer part of the rind of citrus Now, some fascinating facts about food ... use these to fill those awkward moments at your next dinner party. You know ... during those first few minutes when people just sort of mill around ... not sure whether to sit or stand or head for the drinks tray. * Mayonnaise is said to be the invention of the French chef of the Duke de Richelieu in 1756. While the Duke was defeating the British at Port Mahon, his chef was creating a victory feast that included a sauce made of cream and eggs. When the chef realized that there was no cream in the kitchen, he improvised, substituting olive oil for the cream. A new culinary masterpiece was born, and the chef named it "Mahonnaise" in honor of the Duke's victory. * The world's deadliest mushroom is the Amanita phalloides, the Death Cap. The five different poisons contained by the mushroom cause diarrhea and vomiting within 6 to 12 hours of ingestion. This is followed by damage to the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system - and, in the majority of cases, coma and death. Mushies on toast, anyone? Find out more about deadly mushrooms here: http://www.bluewillowpages.com/mushroomexpert/deadly.html * The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter. You'll find more than you ever wanted to know about what's in the food you eat here: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_99/21cfrv2_99.html Here's a little of what the FDA says about allowable fats in margarine: "(1) Edible fats and/or oils, or mixtures of these, whose origin is vegetable or rendered animal carcass fats, or any form of oil from a marine species that has been affirmed as GRAS or listed as a food additive for this use, any or all of which may have been subjected to an accepted process of physico-chemical modification. They may contain small amounts of other lipids, such as phosphatides or unsaponifiable constituents, and of free fatty acids naturally present in the fat or oil." (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=21&PART=166&SECTION=110&YEAR=1999&TYPE=TEXT ) Mmmmm .... Fancy some rendered animal carcass fats on your toast this morning, Reginald? Last week's quiz: Match each word with its definition:
Got a question about grammar, punctuation or any other language matter? Here's the place to go: http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?usernum=3170114826 Then add a flag and message to the Map of the World: http://pub37.bravenet.com/guestmap/view.php?usernum=3170114826 You can read the previous 99 messages by clicking on the List button at the top of the page. A Little Something Extra FREE Report: How to Write a Book ... Click for your copy: http://www.write101.com/letters/writeabook.htm "One hallmark of great writing is that it creates an intimate relationship between writer and reader. Your aim isn't just to tell the reader a story, but to share it with her, draw her in, allow her to use her own imagination as well as yours. By helping your reader co-create her experience you hook her and keep her turning pages." Read the rest of Susan Letham's article on how to work with your reader here: http://www.write101.com/latham.htm And here are some editing tips that Erick sent me - all the way from Guatemala: Rules for Editing1. Verbs HAS to agree
with their subjects. 31. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. Word of the week: Cibophobia (n) fear of food. This word comes from the Latin cibus - food. I hope you don't suffer from this ... You see, I'm planning a little dinner party for next weekend and I wondered ... Oxymoron of the week: To continue with the food theme, here's a collection of some of my favourite food oxymorons .. or oxymora if you want to get flash: airline food gourmet pizza fast-food restaurant diet ice-cream evaporated milk And last, but not least: fast waiter! And to finish with ... a neato Latin phrase to use when the ankle-biters won't eat their spinach: Aud id devorabis amabisque, aut cras prandebis! (You'll eat it and like it, or you'll have it for breakfast tomorrow!) Regards, Jennifer P.S. Want to donate to the upkeep of this newsletter? Here's how: 1. Pay by PayPal:
2. Click here to subscribe for a full year OR 3. Use your credit card on my secure order form: http://www.write101.com/fund.htm (You can also access the PayPal subscription link from this page if the link above didn't work for you. With PayPal, you can use your credit card, PayPal account or pay online using your own cheque account.) OR 4. Send a cheque: http://www.write101.com/fund.htm Click here to subscribe for the next year: To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: mailto:WritingTips-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to the web site, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WritingTips This menu will also let you change your subscription between digest and normal mode. |
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