A classic tale from my childhood I vaguely remember from elementary school is "Miss Rumphius," which is about a lady who goes around planting lupines in order to make the world more beautiful. Sadly, Wikipedia didn't provide much information about the actual story, but here's a link to the PDF (you'll have to scroll down to it).
http://www.churchoftheroses.org/sermons/2006/2006_07_16_cushman.pdf
On another note, Thetis mentioned Scotch eggs in class Tuesday for the "ova pilleata." I grew up eating Scotch eggs (or the "scotch" part since I don't like eggs except in omlets or egg-drop soup). My mom makes a bunch on Christmas Eve, and if my dad is lucky during the World Cup when England was playing. Scotch eggs were a big hit among my dad's fellow immigrants and even their American spouses.
This is how you make Scotch eggs:
- Hardboil and shell eggs
- Dry the eggs off and roll them in flour
- Encase each egg in three ounces of Jimmy Dean sausage (the type used to make sausage patties)
- Roll the sausaged eggs in egg yolk and then bread crumbs
- Deep-fry the eggs for twelve minutes or until the sausaage is brown and cracked slightly
- Let cool, slice into fourths, and enjoy :)
Actually, I've noticed a lot of parallels between traditional British and Neronian Roman cuisine during our reading of the
Cena...which is weird since the Ruden commentary mentions Trimalchio is a Semetic (i.e. Hebrew or possibly Arabic/Arameic) name and Semetic peoples usually don't eat pork. Specifically, Trimalchio serves sausage, which is a staple of British cuisine. A traditional British breakfast features sausage, bacon, fried eggs, fried bread, toast or rolls, fried mushrooms, fried tomatoes, and baked beans. Bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) and toad in the hole (sausage in Yorkshire pudding (some sort of bread)) are traditional dinners. Sausage rolls are also good. The British LOVE blood pudding. I won't eat it (like I won't eat kidneys), but apparently it's good. The eggs with the fig peckers vaguely reminded me of the hollow chocolate eggs my grandma sends me for Easter, though luckily mine just have a tube of Smarties (like M&Ms) on the side.
The pig full of blood pudding and sausages...hm...that reminds me of the old adage "Use everything but the squeal," in reference to what parts of a pig gets consumed. ;)
1 comment:
Indeed, Lesley, many of the dishes in the Cena have British parallels-- especially the pork products. Kitty has been commenting in class on parallels from other cuisines, as have Davide, Ryan, and Scott. One connecting thread is that, unlike Americans who eat food they never prepare, raise, or have to hoard, most cultures figure out how to preserve every possible food item because food is such a precious resource. So, even someone as conspicuous in his consumption as Trimalchio is still fundamentally connected with subsistence food-- chick peas, lupines, sausages, blood pudding, whole-meal bread. Curious readers might want to take a trip down memory lane (if they were brought up with Laura Ingalls Wilder) and review the pig-slaughter chapter in "Little House on the Prairie" in which the squeal is not eaten, but the bladder is put to good purpose!
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