SC - leeks, tavern food and galingale
Christina van Tets
cjvt at hotmail.com
Wed May 26 11:42:50 PDT 1999
Hello the list!
Sorry that I've had to put all these in the one message (I know people tend
to prefer one topic per letter) but I can't manage things any other way at
present.
For non-culinary documentation of leeks, you could try the CA on gardening
(sorry, it's still in a box somewhere): I think it gives details on early
etymology of gardens, and indicates the importance that leeks held at that,
even among the non-Welsh. Also you could try a Germanic etymological
dictionary (that the words for garlic and chives are variants on the basic
word for leek in German and Dutch I find interesting in itself - it would
imply that the leek was in use prior to the sound shift which split Dutch
from German in about 500 AD - did the Goths use leeks??).
As to tavern food, I would look at one or two pictures - Brueghel for
preference (that lovely one which shows bowls served from a barn door
carried horizontally is my favourite - if you can't get hold of a copy of
the real picture, it's spoofed in Asterix in Belgium). Didn't someone some
months back mention a practice of serving bowls of various items for a set
price to make things easier in taverns? Was that documented, or just a
guess?
Oh, and by the way, I went to a jenever (gin) museum the other day - very
nicely laid out with touchy feely exhibits all over it. The sacks of spice
for flavouring were especially good. I was particularly interested in the
galingale (which, yes, they still use), since I had not been able to lay my
hands on any until then (no pun intended, but it was rather fun to run my
hands through a sack of the stuff). What struck me most was the fact that
it smelt so much like a mild turmeric. Do the two taste similar? Could one
use a _little_ turmeric to replace galingale in recipes?
Incidentally, you can make a really nice Kir from Bessenjenever
(blackcurrant gin) and sparkling Moselle from Luxembourg. We decided to
call it Kir Benelux. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Mind you,
almost anything seems like a good idea after Kir.
Cairistiona
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