Feast and Fast

Smart Food,

Junk Food

Food for health and well-being is not a new idea. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans believed that certain foods were natural cure-alls. Poppy juice was used to kill pain, strawberry roots to treat mad-dog bites. Crocodile blood was recommended for failing eyesight. Here are some foods that are currently thought to be good for you.

You may want these junk foods, but try to stay away!

Sugar-coated cereal Half cereal and half sugar.

FAST FOOD: QUICK TIPS IF YOU MUST

Until recently, fast-food restaurants were a nutritional nightmare. Today you can eat well if you are careful to order the right dishes.

HISTORY OF THE CLUB SANDWICH

Although eaten the world over, the club sandwich has always been closely associated with the

USA, where it was first conceived and served.

As with many such recipes, the exact origin is subject to a little speculation. However the most popular theory suggests it was first served around 1894 when Richard Canfield purchased

The Saratoga Club House, a private gentlemen only gambling club in New York.

Although there are other stories including a more elusive one about some gentleman somewhere returning from his club late one night to

find all his servants had retired. Being hungry, he just grabbed what he could from the larder and having enjoyed it so much, then began to spread the word to other club members.

Whichever is true, the name almost certainly came about due to its initial popularity at country clubs and it definitely existed in the United

States by the late 19th century.

The club sandwich was also a favourite of the former King of England, Edward VIII and his wife, Wallis Simpson and it is said that she took great pride in making it.

TRADITIONAL CLUB SANDWICH INGREDIENTS

Although today there are many variations, the original club sandwich consisted of chicken, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, mayonnaise, and not forgetting sliced bread.

HOW TO MAKE A CLUB SANDWICH

Although it’s believed that the original club sandwich was only made with two slices of bread, today it’s customary to make it with three which creates what is known (in other circumstances) as a “double-decker” sandwich.

The bread should be thinly sliced and toasted and the fillings should be relatively thinly sliced – no door-steps here please. You can vary the order of the ingredients according to your personal preferences but here’s a general guide.

1.Place some lettuce and a generous layer of mayonnaise on the first slice of toast, top with the chicken then place another slice of toast on top.

2.Place the bacon, tomato slices on the 2nd piece of toast, spread with more mayonnaise if you like, then top with the last slice of toast.

It’s traditional to secure the sandwich at the four sides by spearing through all the layers with long wooden toothpicks before cutting into quarters which helps keep the fillings in order....and in place.

WHAT FAMOUS PEOPLE SAY ABOUT FOOD

Food is a subject of conversation more spiritually refreshing even than the weather, for the number of possible remarks about the weather is limited, whereas of food you can talk on and on and on.

A. A. Milne

I do think a lot of people just don’t understand the importance of where their food comes from or what might have been done to it before they buy it. It’s good to question these things.

Why is this important? Why should you have standards when buying? Because you’re going to put this food in your mouth and swallow it and you’ll do this two or three times every single day of your life. Everything you eat contributes to you being happy, or fit, or lethargic, or full of energy, or susceptible to colds and flu, or being able to think better and hold your concentration. Your hair, your fingernails, your height, your skin, everything you are is made from the food you eat.

Jamie Oliver, a famous British chef

Dieting makes you fat.

Geoffrey Cannon, British journalist

How can this be true?

Cooking is an act of love.

Alain Chapel

Would you agree with this statement?

The best number for a dinner party is two – myself and a damn good head waiter.

Nubar Gulbenkian, American millionaire

This attitude to a meal brings to mind a very popular Russian proverb that all of us heard in our childhood. Can you remember it? (Ког-

да я ем, я глух и нем)

All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.

John Gunther, American journalist

What healthy rules, do you think, are behind this idea?

Food is a dangerous article. Too much food makes you fat, too little food makes you dead.

Mike Harding, British comedian

Are there any other dangers that food can contain?

All’s well that ends with a good meal.

Arnold Lobel, American writer

This one may serve as the last sentence in a short story.

No man is lonely while eating spaghetti.

Robert Morley, British actor and wit

Do you know anyone who does not like pasta?

Everything tastes better outdoors.

Claudia Roden, British cookery writer

Do you enjoy picnics? Describe the last you had.

Undoubtedly the desire for food has been and still is one of the main causes of great political events.

Bertrand Russell, British philosopher

Could you say more about the reasons of social upheavals?

Seeing isn’t believing, it’s eating that’s believing.

James Thurber, American humorist

Jokes are not supposed to be explained.

Literary

FOOD IN FICTION

Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club by Charles Dickens

Mr. Pickwick and his companions have been invited by a hospitable stranger, Mr. Wardle to join his family in a carriage and have dinner. None of the company seems to worry about dieting. The host gives commands to his servant Joe.

“Undo the hamper, Joe… Now, Joe, knives and forks. … Plates, Joe, plates. Now, Joe, the fowls. Come, hand in the eatables. The capon, now the tongue – now the pi- geon-pie. Take care of that veal and ham – mind the lobsters – take the salad out of the cloth – give me the dressing.” Such were the hurried orders which issued from the lips of Mr. Wardle, as he handed in the different articles described, and placed dishes in everybody’s hands, and on everybody’s knees, in endless number.

“Now, ain’t this capital?” inquired that jolly personage, when the work of destruction had commenced.

“Capital!” said Mr.. Winkle, who was carving a fowl on the box. “Glass of wine?”

“With the greatest pleasure.”

How to make an Irish stew by Jerome K. Jerome. (An extract from the book “Three Men in a Boat to Say Nothing of the Dog”)

Many readers have enjoyed this incredible version of an Irish stew.

George said it was absurd to have only four potatoes in an Irish stew, so we washed half-a-dozen or so more, and put them in without peeling. We also put in a cabbage and about half a peck of peas. George stirred it all up, and then he said that there seemed to be a lot of room to spare, so we overhauled both the hampers, and picked out all the odds and ends and the remnants, and added them to the stew. There were half a pork pie and a bit of cold boiled bacon left, and we put them in. Then George found half a tin of potted salmon, and he emptied that into the pot.

See vocabulary and tasks on CD.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

“What did they live on?” – said Alice, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking.

“They lived on treacle,” said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or two.

“They couldn’t have done that, you know,” Alice gently remarked. “They’d have been ill.”

“So they were,” said the Dormouse, “very ill.” Treacle = molasses

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

These cucumber sandwiches have always puzzled Russian readers.

“...Hallo! Why all these cups? Why cucumber sandwiches? Why such reckless extravagance in one so young?”

The Blind Spot by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)

Who would expect an English aristocrat to express a high opinion of such a common dish as borsch?

‘Business is not my strong point at any time,’ said Sir Lulworth, ‘and certainly not when we’re on the immediate threshold of lunch.’

‘It isn’t exactly business,’ explained Egbert, as he followed his uncle into the diningroom. ‘It’s something rather serious. Very serious.’

‘Then we can’t possibly speak about it now,’ said Sir Lulworth, ‘no one could talk seriously, during a borsch. A beautifully constructed borsch, such as you are going to experience presently, ought not only to banish conversation but almost to annihilate thought. Later on, when we arrive at the second stage of olives, I shall be quite ready to discuss that new book on Borrow, or, if you prefer it, the present situation in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg’.

Sources: http://www.goodreads.com

Food

Mother Goose

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, All on a summer day: The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts

And took them quite away! The King of Hearts

Called for the tarts,

And beat the knave full sore; The Knave of Hearts Brought back the tarts,

And vowed he’d steal no more.

“The Queen of Hearts” forms the basis for the plot of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter XI. “Who Stole the Tarts?”, a chapter that mocks at the British legal system through means of the trial of the Knave of Hearts, where the rhyme is presented as evidence.

Harry Potter. The Philosopher’s Stone by Joanne Rowling

Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, “Anything off the cart, dears?” Harry, who hadn’t had any breakfast, leapt to his feet. …He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry – but the woman didn’t have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bettie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver

Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.

Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.

“Hungry, are you?”

“Starving,” said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.

Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, “Mum always forgets I don’t like corned beef.”

…“Go on, have a pasty,” said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry’s pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten).

“What are these?” Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. “They’re not really frogs, are they?” He was starting to feel that nothing would

surprise him. ….

He finally …opened a bag of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans.

“You want to be careful with those,” Ron warned Harry. “When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor – you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger flavored one once.”

Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner. “Bleaaargh

– see? Sprouts.”

They had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny gray one Ron wouldn’t touch, which turned out to be pepper.

booger – mucus or snot, usually dried nasal mucus.

FOOD IN POETRY

No bread

I wish I‘d made a list,

I forgot to get the bread.

If I forget it again

I’ll be dead.

We had blank and butter pudding, beans on zip.

Boiled eggs with deserters, no chip butty: just chip.

I wish I’d made a list,

I forgot to get the bread.

My mam got the empty bread bin and wrapped it round my head.

Our jam sarmies were just jam

Floating in the air.

We spread butter on the table

Cos the bread wasn’t there.

My mam says if I run away she knows I won’t be missed, not like the bread was…

I wish I’d made a list!

Ian Mc Millan

Notes:

blank and butter pudding, instead of bread and butter pudding

beans on zip – beans on nothing

boiled eggs with deserters, instead of boiled eggs with soldiers; soldiers are thin pieces of toast that eaters dipped into a boiled egg

no chip butty: just chip – chips (French fries) sarmies= sandwiches

School Dinners (“16 tons” melody)

If you stay to school dinners

Better throw them aside.

A lot of kids didn’t,

A lot of kids died.

The meat is of iron,

The puds are of steel.

If the gravy don’t get you,

The custards will.

Anon.

Photo by Dmitry Davydov.