English Cuisine | The Rambling Epicure

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, August 20, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 20, 2012 Permalink 0

A number of rare or newly experienced foods have been claimed to be aphrodisiacs. At one time this quality was even ascribed to the tomato. Reflect on that when you are next preparing the family salad.–Jane Grigson

Jane Grigson was an English food writer. Grigson’s growing interest in food and cooking led to the writing of her first book, Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery (1967), which was translated into French, unusual for an English food writer. Elizabeth David read the book and was impressed by it, and recommended Grigson as a food columnist for The Observer, for which she wrote a column from 1968 until her death in 1990.

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, August 17, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, August 17, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

Summer cooking implies a sense of immediacy, a capacity to capture the essence of the fleeting moment.–Elizabeth David

Elizabeth David was a British cookbook writer who, on her return from “exile” in Egypt after WW2, decided that action had to be taken with regard to the quality of food in Britain. She was outright hostile to second-rate cooking and the use of frozen, canned and out-of-season ingredients, and is, in many people’s mind, a precursor of the concept of Slow Food. In any case, she was a primary mover in bringing true traditional home cooking using quality ingredients back into the mainstream in Britain.

All her books are listed here, and most are still available at Book Depository or other online independent booksellers.

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, August 1, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, August 1, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

The air pulses with the warm smell of lilac, but as we pass each door, the lilac dominance is subdued by heady wafts of asparagus cooking.–Jane Grigson

Elizabeth David was an English food writer. Grigson’s growing interest in food and cooking led to the writing of her first book, The Observery (1967), which was translated into French, unusual for an English food writer. Elizabeth David read the book and was impressed by it, and recommended Grigson as a food columnist for The Observer, for which she wrote a column from 1968 until her death in 1990.

Rosa’s Musings: A Good Old British Dessert With A Modern Flair: Spicy Damson Plum Roly Poly

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, October 4, 2011 Permalink 0

by Rosa Mayland

Summer fades; the first cold, Northern air
Sweeps, like hatred, through still days –
The August heat now gone elsewhere,
To Southern, bird-filled coasts and bays;
Amid constricting vales of cloud,
A pale and liquid Autumn sun
That once beat down on an empty plain
And may again. And may again.
— Trever Howard, Autum

Lately, I’ve been in an unusually nostalgic, and in a rather morose state of mind. No matter how much I love autumn and look forward to cooler weather, seasonal mood swings always hit me hard when the summer ends. I guess it is something natural/biologic which each of us experiences to a certain degree. This time though, the “blahs” hit me a little harder than usual and I guess this is partly because last week, on the 13th of September, my English grandmother would have celebrated her 85th birthday, that is if she had not passed away last March…