Food History

Today is strangely sybaritic. I’m eating the most beautiful chicken pate (apart from my family’s) that I have ever tasted in Australia. The pate guy at the market gave me some. He makes two pork-free pates and one pork-free rillette. And yes, the pate has gone directly to my brain and completely blocked eloquent speech. It’s that good.

It makes me look at a bag of carrots and see many hues, not just orange. Oh, there are multiple colours of carrot in that bag. That’s right. The vegetable guy took one look at me and said there was a bunch waiting for me which had more purple carrots than the other bunch. I can show my students four colours of carrots on Thursday. And I didn’t even have to ask.

Elizabeth and Michael made sure there was just enough lamb of exactly the right sort so dinner tonight is saltbush lamb. My friend and I shared a quarter of a lamb and it was exactly enough. Which reminds me, Michael says Elizabeth needs a good historical recipe for leg of lamb and of course I just happen to have one. This is a giant relief, because everyone has been so kind to me this morning that I feel a bit guilty.

I told the teenager serving coffee the history of the beans she was serving today and suddenly I realised how everyone knows me. It’s good, though, to know that there will be duck pate reserved for me to buy every fortnight just as the cheese lady always goes straight to my favourite Milawa chevre. What’s also good is that I compared all this luxury food with the amount I spent in the supermarket on way inferior stuff and I found that I come out even. I’m healthier, happier and can talk to the producers and be given special treats, and it costs me the same (overall) as supermarket shopping!

Let me assuage my guilt with Alison’s question. Everyone else who has questions says I apparently have already answered them – this means the rest of you miss out and might have to find your own questions. Email me and ask anytime. I was afraid there would be a mad rush: my other blog sometimes gets a mad rush when I open the door to questions, but quite a few role playing gamers and re-enactment folk and writers who use historical backdrops who visit me there.

Alison, I don’t know the exact history of your Easter dish, but I can lay bets that it arose in the joy of leaving Lent behind. Lots of Catholic regions have special dishes to celebrate the end of Lent and they usually include foodstuffs that are forbidden during Lent. One day I might have to do a post on that whole food sequence, from before Lent to after it – it has produced some fascinating foodways.

I now return to gloating over my market goodies.