SC - London Eats Out exhibition review (very long)

[Christina Nevin]

Saluti everyone!

Well, myself, Tricia and Alan attended the "London Eats Out" exhibition on
Saturday. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, got lots of ideas and thought they
did an excellent job. Alan, who is a complete novice to both cooking and
medieval cooking, said it gave him an extremely good introduction and idea
of what they ate at the time, as well as the 'take out' aspect of London
cuisine, and helped him visualize a whole lot better. Tricia said she
expected there to be more 'stuff' (I'm not quite sure what she was
expecting), but you had to remember this was targeted at the general public,
not historical re-enactors of the culinary persuasion. ;-)

The exhibition was sectioned into centuries. Each century had 2 or 3 small
displays of single objects or small amounts of objects, and one or two 'set
pieces' showing a set restaurant table, shop, etc. The notes were all (as
far as I could tell) excellent, accurate and informative. They could have
perhaps explained some things in a bit more depth (for example, I had to
explain what a 'capon' was) but on the whole I believe were at the right
level for their target audience.
As well as the displays, there was a perspex shelf 'dado rail' traversing
around the whole exhibition hall between the set displays. This showed items
as diverse as Tudor banana peels (yes! the famous banana peel!), bones,
sandwich wrappers, etc with explanatory notes. These were grouped into
'similar object' categories, each showing a mini-history through the 5
centuries, before going onto the next category. 

1500-1600 first showed a painting of a 'curds and whey' seller, and displays
of spices (saffron, cochineal bugs), dolphin 'popoyse' bones (yuk), turnsole
clothlets, musk, a dried bladder of isinglass (way cool - I never knew what
it looked like), gold leaf and other such things. There was a massive
display of gold and silver 'show' pieces (platters, jugs, a clockwork wagon
that sprinkled rosewater from a tap on its barrel cargo), of which one can
only dream of seeing at an SCA feast. 
The set piece was a reconstruction of a Drapers Company feast. This
consisted of ornately shaped, gilded and confit-decorated pastries and pies;
whole chickens; brawn beautifully garnished with gilded leaves, rough lumps
of brilliant red and green jelly & confits; a roast attractively adorned
with sprigs of rosemary & cloves; and a large turbot (pike?)eating its tail,
which (as the notes cheerfully proclaimed) had been slashed to bleed before
being killed. 
The piece de resistance was an enormous pie with gilded shapes applied,
topped by a swan. This construction was the swan's head and neck stuffed and
wired so it would stand alone, the wings and tail all separated and wired,
then the four pieces pinned into the crust to create the illusion of a whole
bird - when there was actually very little of it there. Most clever I
thought, and Alan is now looking for a taxidermist who can make us something
similar.
Other single displays for this era were a traveling oven, and the two
bottles of 1600s wine that were recently found intact, and sampled.
Apparently they contained a dry Madeira/sherry like wine, with an
approximate 7% alcohol percentage.

Of the latter centuries, the 1600-1700 display showed a 'takeaway'
kitchenshop of the time, with authentic and reproduction pottery kitchenware
(chafing dish, colander, dripping pan, bowls, 3-legged pots, etc.) to drool
over. Pasties, meat and pies were the foods shown.  There was also a
recreation of a coffeeshop with appropriate cups, pipes, wall tiles and
undoubtedly inflammatory leaflets, and a clever still-life of a punchbowl
and ingredients. Mineral water bottles! Yes, Evian weren't the first!
Imported mineral water from somewhere in Germany. The bottles were that
rounded, cigar shape and rather lovely in themselves. There was also a
display of various pieces of pottery - 'face' mugs and bottles, etc. 

Further on in the 1700s - 1850s, there was a magnificent-cut crystal
confectioner's covered bowl, shaped like a pineapple (naturally!). The main
set piece was a table set for four at Vauxhall Gardens. When I first reached
London I was hugely disappointed to discover the Gardens were now a bunch of
ugly businesses and warehouses (spot the Regency romance addict <grin>) so I
found it particularly charming to see items (mugs, plates, tokens, glasses)
that were either used or sold (or purloined!) from the original Gardens. The
food, as was remarked in period, was rather sparse (and apparently
expensive), leading me to the conclusion it was their era's 'nouvelle
cuisine'. 

We kinda zipped around the 1850s - 1900s, as Tricia's back was giving out.
Most of the set pieces were tables set for hotels and restaurants of the
era, and was photograph-heavy. 

The exhibition booklet is entertaining, but doesn't show the set pieces (at
least none of the ones we want to see) unfortunately. Mainly paintings,
contemporary drawings, and photos. It's a good overview of the topic
however, so worth the ten pounds, to me at least (if you have any questions
about it, just email me).

My camera didn't have any film in it (duh!) so if I can, I might go back in
a fortnight by myself and take photos of the pre-1650 stuff. It was
definitely one of those exhibitions you need to view more than once to take
it all in, so if I missed anything spiffy I shall report back again (in less
length!) Also, one of my friends, Mistress Filippa di Lucignano (hi to
everyone in Lochac from her!) has very kindly offered to go back to the
exhibition and videotape it for me (wonderful woman). So if any of you make
it here to London in the future, you can come see the exhibition after all. 

All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and has given me a
(much needed!) injection of enthusiasm. And for those of you patient enough
to have got through this verbose missive, I have three postcards of the swan
pie. First 3 emails get them.

Al Servizio Vostro, e del Sogno
Lucretzia

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Lady Lucrezia-Isabella di Freccia   |  mka Tina Nevin
Thamesreach Shire, The Isles, Drachenwald | London, UK
thorngrove at geocities.com | http://www.geocities.com/~thorngrove 
"There is no doubt that great leaders prefer hard drinkers to good
versifiers" - Aretino, 1536 
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