“To sit late in a restaurant (especially when one has to pay the bill) or over a long meal after a cocktail party is particularly productive of Angst, which does not affect us after snacks taken in an armchair with a book. The business lunch is another meal from which we would prefer to be driven away in a coffin.”
– Cyril Connolly writing as ‘Palinurus’ in The Unquiet Grave (1945)
“There was in Tsukushi a certain man, a constable of the peace it would seem, who for many years had eaten two broiled radishes each morning under the impression that radishes were a sovereign remedy for all ailments. Once some enemy forces attacked and surrounded his constabulary, choosing a moment when the place was deserted. Just then, two soldiers rushed out of the building, and engaged the enemy, fighting with no thought for their lives until they drove away all the enemy troops. The constable, greatly astonished, asked the two soldiers, ‘You have fought most gallantly, gentlemen, considering I have never seen you here before. Might I ask who you are?’ ‘We are the radishes you have faithfully eaten every morning for so many years,’ they answered, and with these words they disappeared. So deep was his faith in radishes that even such a miracle could occur.”
– No. 68 in Essays in Idleness (circa 1330) by Kenko
“What would become of the wilderness without flapjacks? They are the beginning and the end of all things; they are the game by which we live and move and have our being. He who has experienced the joys of flapjacks and maple sirup, has not lived in vain. The two combined are enough to put one in a good humor without original sin. Suppose we do eat everything off the same plate, suppose we are reduced to two-pronged forks, and our blouses for a napkin, what matters it, if we are happy? And we are happy. The recollection of those flapjacks endures until the next meal, when we renew our attentions with the ardor of a lover whose inamorata is good enough to eat!”
–Kate Field “In and Out of the Woods” a piece about her time in the Adirondacks, in The Atlantic Almanac for 1870
Kate Field (1838-1896) was a journalist, travel writer, lecturer, singer, actress, playwright, woman of business, publisher of a weekly newspaper, and social reformer. In addition to writing for newspapers such as the Boston Post, Chicago Tribune and the New York Tribune, she championed many causes, including the preservation of John Brown’s farm and burial place, greater rights for women, temperance (as opposed to prohibition), a memorial theater for Shakespeare in Stratford, England, and the exposure of the Mormon church’s disregard for U.S. law and authority in Utah. Her friends and admirers included Charles Dickens, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, Alexander Graham Bell, and Henry James, who used her as a model for Henrietta Stackpole in The Portrait of a Lady (1881).
This painting of Kate Field is by Francis Davis Millet (1846-1912), first shown at the 1881 exhibition of the National Academy of Design in New York, and today in the collection of the Boston Public Library. Millet, a friend of Ms. Field, died at the sinking of the Titanic.
1924
1932
1940
1950
New additions to the collection of Laurie Winship with thanks to Brian Philippi.
One of my favorite illustrators, Franklin Booth, and a box of chocolates — what could be better?
Images from a Ball Brothers “Blue Book” guide to canning, with recipes.
Fascinated by this label, I learned that one can still find a soft drink made from dandelion and burdock, apparently a variation on an ancient “hedgerow mead” recipe, by Fentimans, a botanical brewery based in Hexham, Northumberland, England. In its praise, they write:
“Full-strength infusions of Dandelion leaves and Burdock root, sweetened with pear juice and spiced with a touch of ginger and anise all intermingle for this traditional English soda favourite. Exquisite. Today, every Fentimans Beverage is still made in the time-honoured tradition by brewing and fermenting herbs and milled roots over seven days. (This compares to hours production time for typical soft drinks.) Under the watchful eyes of Thomas Fentiman’s faithful prize Alsatian, Fearless, who still adorns the labels, our trademark recipes contain the unfiltered goodness of their natural ingredients. So upending the bottle before enjoying is always in order for a fuller, more invigorating taste that is ‘once tasted, never forgotten’.”
One story of the drink’s origin credits St. Thomas Aquinas, who, after a night of praying for inspiration, walked into the countryside and, “trusting in God to provide,” made a drink from the first plants he encountered. This drink aided his concentration as he sought to formulate his theological arguments that ultimately led to his Summa Theologica. (written between 1265 and 1274). And there you have it.
From the April 1926 issue of The American Magazine
And while I’m obsessing about Nara, here’s the cover of a dinner menu from a Japanese ocean liner circa 1934, picturing the five-story pagoda seen across Sarusawa Pond, the original pagoda built in 730 AD, the present one a replica built in 1429 AD. And here are two more views of the pagoda:
My thanks to Anuschka Rees and her “IntoMind” blog for the food landscapes of Carl Warner.
