Libum (was RE: SC - OT Dogs vs Cats...)

[Alderton, Philippa]

Posted before me:::

....Talking about the dish known as "blanc desire":
>I think the dishes are more inspired by Middle Eastern ingredients
than
>by actual Middle Eastern dishes of the period because there sometimes
>seems to be no direct counterpart to some of the Anglo-Norman
>rice/almond dishes in the Arabic cookery sources. I could be wrong
about
>this, though.
>
>Adamantius

In the glossary/index of Curye on Inglysch, Hieatt and Butler say:
"The
various spellings may suggest the dish was thought to be Syrian; no
doubt
it was Arabic in origin." That's all it says about the origin of the
dish.
Frankly, I'm not sure I follow their reasoning. The various spellings
they
refer to are:
        Blanc desire
        blank de surry
        blank desure
        blank de syry
        Blank dessorre
        blank desire

I could possibly see "blank de syry" being interpreted as "white of
Syria",
but the other spellings seem closer to "desire", as in "something
white
that's desirable". Am I off track here?

- -Margritte

Looking at Margrittes list of aka's for this dish, they seem to have a
sound pattern.  Blanc Desire could easily have been an Anglicanization
of another language's title.  The theory I posit is that someone
experienced a dish in exotic mediterranean land, brought back athe
description and the 'name' to be recreated by a local cuisiner by his
understanding of the description and availability of foodstuffs
locally.

niccolo
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                          
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