Paint Stripper Time (according to Peter)
I've gotten to the back pages of a new cookbook, The British Table, to the chapter on "Whisky, Cider, Beer and Wine".
So, I was inspired to finish my dinner with a "wee dram". Fortunately, a grateful client had left me a bottle of The Glenlivet, still easily at hand (my Laphroaig and other single malts are locked away and difficult for me to get to - especially when I've had a half bottle of Pinot Noir with dinner).
This book, The British Table, is far and away superior to any English cookbooks I've seen that are not written by Fuchsia Dunlop (she learned her trade in Sichuan China - her's still have a few English flaws, but not many).
This one is excellent, because it was written by a guy from Los Angeles (the one in California Republic) who had an English girlfriend - and now an English wife (I have no idea if they are one and the same).
The book is about English, Scottish and Welsh establishments re-instituting fine British cooking, from before it was destroyed by the Victorian Era. Victoria was against pleasures of any kind - except slaughtering and subjugating other cultures, and good English cuisine was flushed down that appliance recently popularized by plumber Thomas Crapper (though he didn't invent it, and the word "crap" was in use from Middle English).
Now, I don't know how much paint stripper Peter has imbibed, to enable him to make the comparison, but perhaps they have awfully good paint stripper in England?
Of course, the Scottish admit they learned to make whisky from the Irish, who had been making it for more than a half century before**. Irish whiskey is now starting to re-establish itself in North America, where it was once dominant, back when nobody had even heard of Highland Malt - never mind the sacred Isle of Islay.
Incidentally, dinner was a Thai curry of shrimp and sour bamboo, cooked in coconut milk. The bamboo was commercial, but I now have a half gallon fermenting - ready in about 5 weeks.
I could find nothing reliable on the Internet as to how much salt to use or any other details, but I found it in my Korean Kimchee book. They make it the same and use it the same (as an ingredient) as the Thais do.
And speaking of English. I've been listening through a collection of over 2500 CDs I acquired from the widow of a collector. Most of it is Medieval on into Classical, no Romantic era whatever, except a set of Beethoven symphonies, but a fair amount of 20th century. Among this, to my surprise, was a complete performance of the Benjamin Britten opera Gloriana, which was first performed at the time of Q Lizzy IIs coronation. She effectively banned it because of a too realistic portrayal of Q Lizzy I. Of course, it was performed and recorded in Wales, where perhaps they are not so much stricken with English queens.
** I remember back when "a half century" was a long time - but now I realize it is a very short time indeed - I'm nearly half way through my second one.
So, I was inspired to finish my dinner with a "wee dram". Fortunately, a grateful client had left me a bottle of The Glenlivet, still easily at hand (my Laphroaig and other single malts are locked away and difficult for me to get to - especially when I've had a half bottle of Pinot Noir with dinner).
This book, The British Table, is far and away superior to any English cookbooks I've seen that are not written by Fuchsia Dunlop (she learned her trade in Sichuan China - her's still have a few English flaws, but not many).
This one is excellent, because it was written by a guy from Los Angeles (the one in California Republic) who had an English girlfriend - and now an English wife (I have no idea if they are one and the same).
The book is about English, Scottish and Welsh establishments re-instituting fine British cooking, from before it was destroyed by the Victorian Era. Victoria was against pleasures of any kind - except slaughtering and subjugating other cultures, and good English cuisine was flushed down that appliance recently popularized by plumber Thomas Crapper (though he didn't invent it, and the word "crap" was in use from Middle English).
Now, I don't know how much paint stripper Peter has imbibed, to enable him to make the comparison, but perhaps they have awfully good paint stripper in England?
Of course, the Scottish admit they learned to make whisky from the Irish, who had been making it for more than a half century before**. Irish whiskey is now starting to re-establish itself in North America, where it was once dominant, back when nobody had even heard of Highland Malt - never mind the sacred Isle of Islay.
Incidentally, dinner was a Thai curry of shrimp and sour bamboo, cooked in coconut milk. The bamboo was commercial, but I now have a half gallon fermenting - ready in about 5 weeks.
I could find nothing reliable on the Internet as to how much salt to use or any other details, but I found it in my Korean Kimchee book. They make it the same and use it the same (as an ingredient) as the Thais do.
And speaking of English. I've been listening through a collection of over 2500 CDs I acquired from the widow of a collector. Most of it is Medieval on into Classical, no Romantic era whatever, except a set of Beethoven symphonies, but a fair amount of 20th century. Among this, to my surprise, was a complete performance of the Benjamin Britten opera Gloriana, which was first performed at the time of Q Lizzy IIs coronation. She effectively banned it because of a too realistic portrayal of Q Lizzy I. Of course, it was performed and recorded in Wales, where perhaps they are not so much stricken with English queens.
** I remember back when "a half century" was a long time - but now I realize it is a very short time indeed - I'm nearly half way through my second one.
