English Food
English food has a pretty rotten reputation worldwide. This, it has often seemed to me, is rather unfair as there is a great history of cooking here with as much regional variety as anywhere else. People like Keith Floyd and Gary Rhodes have somewhat rehabilitated the cuisine of this sceptered isle latterly but the original champion was Jane Grigson. She has two seminal books, "Good Things" and "English Food". I've just treated myself to the latter to inspire me once I have some time to cook again. Whilst the relative merits of any nation's cuisine can be argued for eternity, one of the joys of English food is the names that adorn some of these wonderful old dishes. Here's a list of a few favourites culled from a brief browse.
- Murrumbidgee Cake
- Stuffed Monkey (a cake; fear not)
- Kidneys In Their Own Fat
- Finnian Haddock
- Whim-wham
- Gooseberry Fool
- Doris Grant's Loaf
- Cornish Charter Pie
- Jugged Hare
- Cockie-Leekie
- Hindle Wakes
I promise I haven't made any of them up.
scribbled hastily by Mr Atrocity at 5:53 pm
2 Comments:
I just had a wonderful conversation with a student who works with me, and who recently spent a semester in England studying, about how much we miss English tea (mind you, it's been 15 years since I had tea in England). There's just no good way to replicate it in the states.
Let me know when you make Gooseberry Fool, will you? I adore it.
Or better still, send me the recipe and come round mine...
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