FOOD PROPAGANDA

Foreign muck

I love cookery books, although I don't use them much, preferring to navigate by sense of smell in the kitchen. I retain the rough idea of a recipe, and occasionally dip into the book for cooking times, dosage, etc., but on the whole prefer to wing it. But I have a growing collection of cookery books, starting with a 1961 first English edition of the Larousse Gastronomique, which has pride of place in my kitchen, although I've had to do a repair job on the binding.




I was given a generous book token for my birthday and went shopping for a nice coffee-table tome. I was seduced by another Larousse publication, Le Larousse des Cuisines du Monde. Weld cuisine, like weld music, appeals to my eclectic, some might even say indiscriminate, taste. Even as a teenager back in the 1970s I was leaning towards foreign muck such as spaghetti bolognese and chips from the Turkish Cypriots in the village. My tastes in music (to be discussed next week) and food were two early indicators of the later travelista that was to become Daphne Wayne-Bough.




The first chapter starts closest to home: the British Isles! It is a revelation. First of all they give an overview of the cuisine of perfidious Albion:

"Holidays: From the simple party, which happens at the end of a working day at around 6 p.m., to the Christmas dinner, the holiday meal is the occasion, from a culinary point of view, to revive ancient customs. The "party" is a sort of cold buffet which lasts one or two hours and where sandwiches and whisky are served, or sometimes cheese and wine. A holiday dinner is obviously more consistent."

This had me turning back to the flyleaf to see when this book was first published. 1993. Present edition 2009. Hmm. I read on.

"Major Holidays :
"Christmas - turkey, Christmas pudding, mulled wine."
So far so accurate, if a little unimaginative.

"New Year - Scotland: shortbread, haggis"
Haggis, according to Larousse, is not exported, I made a note to inform Stonemanor, who stock it on a regular basis. It is, apparently, served on New Year's Day.

"Shrove Tuesday - pancakes, spread with cranberry jelly and fresh cream, piled on top of each other and cut like a cake".
We always had them with just lemon juice and sugar, but this could be a new American-inspired take on pancake day.

"St Michael's Day - 29 September. The day when leases on rented homes were often paid as well as annual farm rents. This is the date when geese grow to maturity, fattened by the harvest cuttings. Roast goose is still served on this day."
As we all know. The famous Michaelmas goose. I wondered if they had not misread a Marks & Spencer label?


"Halloween: The night before All Saints, when children scoop out Jack o'Lanterns from pumpkins. The pumpkin flesh is mixed with onions, cubes of fried bread, salt, pepper and nutmeg to make the ritual Halloween soup. In Ireland barm brack is served - a cake made with milk, dried fruit, orange and lemon peel, cinnamon and nutmeg, where a ring is hidden inside promising marriage within the year to the person who finds it."

Obviously, "Britain" being a largely Protestant country, we don't celebrate Easter. Despite their poverty, the Irish can make a cake with no flour or fat. I started to suspect the British section of this cookery book dated from around the same time as my Larousse Gastronomique, if not before. I felt I was learning about a strange new country.




Everyday living was summed up by Le Breakfast. Les Anglais (which to a Frenchman means any denizen of the British Isles from Cork to Aberdeen) start every day with bacon & eggs, cereal or porridge, or grilled kidneys, fried sausages, boiled kippers or filet of haddock fried in butter, finishing off with toast garnished with marmalade or scrambled eggs, the lot washed down with copious amounts of TEA.

The other meal we eat is dinner, also known as high tea, which we eat around 7 p.m., or if it is a high day or holiday, we might also have supper at 9 p.m. This consists of a starter, a main course, a dessert and cheese (note the order - this would make a Frenchman shudder in disgust). "A claret usually accompanies the main course, although a port would more often be served with cheese." The British, as is well known, are so uncouth they will drink red wine with fish. Barbarians!


Tea: a long paragraph on our notorious tea-drinking habit. Everyone drinks Lapsang Souchong, Orange Pekoe, or Assam. No mention of Le Ty-Phoo or Le Tetleys. Or le Nescafé, come to that.

Marmalades: what makes them (plural) special is not Seville oranges, which don't even merit a mention, but molasses, which as any fule no, forms the base of the jam. Also known as "bitter jams". Quite an education.


Cheese: "England does not have many cheeses". Well compared to France, perhaps not. "Less than ten". Now WAIT A MINUTE !!!! Only Cheshire, Stilton and Cheddar merit a mention. In that order. Cheddar is often served at breakfast. "English cheeses are served with ginger biscuits or shortbread and a glass of port".


Scottish specialities (no Welsh or Irish specialities deserve a section of their own): Only shortbread and haggis merit a mention. No smoked salmon, no Angus beef, no Irn Bru, although the section on Scotch whisky was extremely detailed and accurate, listing no less than 14 single malts by name. The gin section went on at great length about William of Orange. I started to detect a hidden agenda. Elsewhere in the "Drinks" section, they explain, helpfully, that beer is an ancestral drink made from hops. They obviously don't have it in France then. As well as mild and bitter ("an amber, reddish colour"), they talked of pale ale and stout, which as we all know are popular in today's pubs. They pointed out that the English and Irish drink their beer at room temperature. Just so you don't make a fool of yourself by asking for a cold beer in a pub. We also fond of cherry brandy and Drambuie.


The list of recipes starts with porridge, which they obviously couldn't categorize. Next came the starters:

Soupe écossaise: this involved 750g of haddock, 12 slices of toast, and a litre of milk, but no potatoes. An interesting twist on Cullen Skink.

Le Welsh Rarebit: made with Chester cheese, and lager.

Le Cocktail de langoustines: made with fresh "langoustines", not "gambas" or even "crevettes".

Le chutney de pommes et de tomates: (that's apple AND tomato chutney) "chutney is served with mutton or pork chops. English chutney resembles jam, and is quite different from chutneys made in India, from which it derives."

Mint sauce: made with fresh mint leaves, brown sugar and, er, veal stock. Right .....

Apple sauce: traditionally served with the St Michael's goose, doncha know!

Cumberland sauce: this was a new one on me. I checked the recipe - fairly accurate. According to Wikipedia, it is "ubiquitous in Cumbria". If there is anyone from Cumbria reading this, please confirm.



Then we got to the main courses.

Kedgeree. Chicken pie. Haddock à l'anglaise (cooked in milk); le curry de mouton (just 2 soupspoonfuls of non-specific curry powder, a pinch of ginger, a pinch of Cayenne pepper and a hint of saffron); St Michael's goose, accompanied by a delightful photo taken circa 1970; le Irish stew; potée de chou irlandaise (Irish cabbage stew); spiced beef; stuffed roll of pork "grillades";

Le Yorkshire pudding (when the lard is sizzling in the pan, take it out of the oven and pour in 2 soup spoons of concentrated beef stock and the batter. Cook at gas mark 7 for 30 minutes); Le gumbo végétarien - very popular in the deep south of Cornwall I believe; Stuffed cabbage leaves (stuffing includes salted peanuts and soy sauce); Broccoli quiche; vegetable cake with sunflower seeds - yes, you remember, we all used to love those! Steak and kidney pie; herrings in oatmeal - another favourite; Toad in the Hole - to be served accompanied by potatoes or peas. They specify: "In England, people eat mostly frozen peas, to which one can add a knob of butter and sometimes a little fresh mint leaf." And lastly, Le Lancashire Hotpot. Fry the meat and vegetables first, cover with water and a splash of Worcestershire sauce and cook in oven for 30 mins, add sliced potatoes, cook for a further hour and a half. Mmm.




I could hardly bring myself to go on the desserts section, but I'd started, so I'd finish. Apple crumble, apple pie (just use "pommes", doesn't matter which kind, Golden Delicious probably best), apricot blancmange (er, what?), Dundee cake, trifle, lemon meringue, and the famous Barm Brack (150g of Smyrna raisins and 150g of Corinth raisins - I always wondered how you distinguish raisins from sultanas in French, although don't ask me which is which); orange pudding; bread & butter pudding; Irish coffee; Le Christmas Pudding! avec le brandy butter, bien sur. "Christmas pudding can be cooked for days on end".




It wasn't over yet. Ginger pudding; Scotch pancakes; sponge cake; lemon curd; syllabub; green fruit salad. And lastly "La boulangerie": soda bread; "buns" - "during Lent it is traditional to add a little cinnamon and ginger to the dough. Then carve a cross into the top of the buns before putting into the oven, thus making Hot Cross Buns" (ah so they do have Catholics in Britain); muffins; scones; white soda scones (Ireland).


Good grief. No wonder the French still think British cooking is awful. They are using Robert Carrier as a reference! This propaganda must stop immediately. Have they never heard of Gary Rhodes, Heston Blumenthal, or les Motards Poilus?

I am writing a Stiff Letter to Monsieur Larousse to complain that he left out le Jelly, le Custard, la Semolina, le Kendal Mint Cake, les fish fingers, la crème de salade, le Gateau de la Foret Noire, les Alphabetti Spaghetti, le spam, le corned beef, les baked beans on toast, la Spotted Dick, les Turkey Twizzleurs, le poulet à la Coronation Street, le Heinz Tomato Soupe, le Doner Kebab, le Babycham, la "Boule de neige" - fameux cocktail à base d'advokaat et limonade, and of course le grand chef-d'oeuvre écossais, le deep-fried Mars Bar.

THE EYES FOLLOW YOU ROUND THE ROOM

I've never been a great one for mooching around museums, and the first painting that really grabbed me was Waterhouse's "The Lady of Shalott" when I was 14 - mainly because I wanted to look like her.



I then did a module on German Expressionist Art (no, really!) at university and was exposed to the work of die Bruecke and Blaue Reiter movements. I was mistakenly perceived as having a good eye for Expressionism when, during a particularly long-winded analysis of Franz Marc's "Mandrill" I muttered sotto voce (but obviously not sotto enough) "It's a big con isn't it?". The elderly lecturer was a bit deaf, and homed in on me. "What's that, Miss Harridan? A bit cold, you say? Yes, yes, I can see what you mean."

Franz Marc's cold mandrill

I was not remotely tuned in to non-figurative imagery. At the time my idea of art was an Athena poster stuck to my wall with Blu-Tac. I think I had the Vietnamese girl one. Although I might have got it from Boots Art Department. I do recall I was rather fond of Salvador Dali and Roger Dean's album covers.



Then I moved to Paris where one cannot avoid coming into contact with real art. I was a great fan of the old Jeu de Paume museum which had a reasonable-sized collection of turn of the century masterpieces over two floors, just enough, which was later absorbed by the huge Musee d'Orsay, which to this day I have never been inside, never having two hours to spare to stand in a queue. Manet, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Renoir, Gauguin, Cezanne, Delaunay, Picasso, Degas, Pissarro ..... I used to fantasize about being a midinette in turn-of-the-century Montmartre, drinking absinthe and dancing the can-can.


As I grew older my taste matured, but I still did not 'get' abstract art. I collected pictures by friends, and landscapes of places that meant something. I came to appreciate photography, film posters and vintage advertising. But Tate Modern left me cold. My father dabbled in the abstract art world for a short while, acquiring a work which turned out to have been robbed from a bonded warehouse in Germany, so his career as a patron of the arts was short-lived and he was lucky to get off with a caution. Hockney was henceforth a dirty word in the Harridan household.

Marrying Harold didn't help my appreciation of painting - he was a total Philistine when it came to art. I thought he'd had an epiphany the time I took him to the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow and left him in front of one of the only three Leonardo da Vinci paintings on public display, to find him still staring at it ten minutes later. I tentatively tried to find out what he was thinking.

"Umm, do you like it?" I ventured, hesitantly.

"Nope." he replied. "But the alarm system is bloody first rate."

Can you spot the sensors?

In the lobby of FOBiAs* European headquarters there is an exhibition of artwork for sale changed on a monthly basis, and, after walking past one particular piece several times, I stopped and looked at it properly. I thought it had enormous energy and movement. I always thought that was the sort of thing art critics said when they didn't understand a painting, but I could see straight away what it was, which was confirmed when I checked the title of the work. It's by a Dutch artist called Irene Van den Bos. Since the economic crisis my savings seem to have gone on strike and are earning diddly squat. So I decided to sink some money into something that might increase in value, as well as bringing me great pleasure and bought it as a birthday present to myself.

Have you guessed what it is yet?

*Federation of Brass Instrument Aficionados

WE'RE IN EXTRA TIME

It's a long weekend in Belgium and other parts of the Christian world. Ascension, or Assumption, or Aspersion, or something of that ilk. I know it's not Whitsun, that's on 12th-13th June this year. The calendar is all gone to pot - the weather came early, the holidays are late. How on earth is a gel supposed to keep track of her social diary?

No, I've just checked and it's Ascension, to commemorate Our Lord being taken up to Heaven. If anyone was going to be Raptured, it should have been today. Those Family Radio people should read their Bible more attentively.

On 21st May McChe and I sat there in our best clothes, he even put on his kilt for the occasion. God help anyone who was ascending after him. They'd have got a vision of Hell on their way to Heaven. I wore my pearls. Pearls look smart with anything. But six o'clock came and went. We had our tea. We waited. By the time EastEnders came on we had to conclude we were not among the Chosen. Him, I can understand, being poor in spirit he will inherit the earth and can go looting all the houses of the Raptured. But me - saint that I am! There's no justice. I am going to write a Stiff Letter.

Now it appears they got the date wrong. It's 21st October, not 21st May, when God will make his selection and destroy the rest of the world. Too bad for the looting. Apparently this was just a rehearsal. Great inconvenience. I'll have to renegotiate the mortgage, reconnect the electricity, and uncancel my subscription to Private Eye. Honestly, you'd think Christians would be more considerate.

Meanwhile, I've got time to find a suitable song to play as I'm ascending. I thought this would set the right tone.

FRAUEN ON TOP

You may be wondering if my 7-month holiday from blogging was caused by some major upheaval or trauma. Rest assured, nothing much has changed. I am still residing in the heart of Europe, fighting the good fight against the inexorable slide into Euro-English.

My lodger McChe is still in residence, despite several attempts to trick him into living somewhere else. Like mildew. After a while you just learn to live with it. I keep taking him on holiday in hopes of leaving him on the side of the road somewhere. But like an abandoned cat, he always manages to find his way home.

I'm still tinging Bert's triangle for the KNOB*, although I wonder for how much longer. Since Bert's departure, the orchestra has fallen into disarray. There has been a degree of laissez-aller, nay dare I say it, total negligence. Most un-German. The horn section has gone to pot - hence we were booted out of Euroompah!2011 in Athens, in ignominous fashion. A timely lesson that needed to be learned. My nose is clean - my ting is always pristine and punctual. But it was time for a new baton, and now we have got one. The KNOB has taken a leaf out of the IMF's book and has nominated a WOMAN leader. No, not me - it has to be someone who can read music. Our new leader is Waltraud von Klampwangler, Wally to her friends, a Rhine maiden of formidable presence who wields her baton like a rapier, and looks much better in lederhosen than any of them. I for one welcome our new overlady, and have dusted off my gay umbrella to show her I'm quite open minded. Some of the old farts don't like it of course - Dietrich made a rude noise on his euphonium the first time she stepped up to the podium, and Fritzi deliberately pretended he couldn't hear her instructions, whereupon she sent him off to have his ears syringed. She doesn't take any prisoners.

BY POPULAR DEMAND ....

Not that I'm bovvered or anyfink, but I do check site meter now and again just to see if anybody's still visiting. And I find that since I went into semi-retirement from blogging, last October, I have had 20,000 hits! That works out, per month, to more than I used to get when I WAS blogging. So clearly, I am more popular when I keep quiet.

But popularity be damned. Silence has never been my forte. Having become a Facebook diva, I feel the need once more to unlace my corsets, and a fruitbasket as big as mine needs more than 450 characters to fully express itself. The blog is truly my milieu. My own pedestal, where I stand in all my glory, and you may all come and adore me. Or not.

There is the small problem of that Anonymous person, who may indeed be responsible for a large number of the hits I have been receiving. But in the spirit of inclusion, let us open our hearts and our comments boxes, nay, even unto the poor in spirit, for they shall inhabit the interweb.

And then there is my former no.1 fan in Tripoli, who seems to be trying to get through desperately. No, Muammar, it's no good apologizing now, I remember when you had your goons running around Brussels looking to whack a woman wearing a fruit salad on her head. You had your chance and you blew it. You're on your own, kid.

I wondered whether to start a new blog, but finally decided that 120,000 hits was too good to throw away and will carry on, possibly to 200,000 and beyond. Per blogga ad astra!

I am sure a great many hits are coming from people who have heard about me too late and are dropping in, only to be disappointed when they see I walked away from it all in Berlin, with my maracas held high. This reminds me only too well of my own propensity to discover hidden gems after the fact, for example back in 1986 when I found this great band composed of good-looking suntanned young men in shorts, only to find what I had just seen was their farewell concert. Well I for one will not be likened to George Michael, in any shape or form. Although now I come to mention it, I did rather fancy the other one, whatsisname .....