[Sca-cooks] Return of the Wanderer (partly OT)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Pixel, Goddess and Queen wrote:

> Yea and verily. My love and I spent a lovely 10 days in the south of
> England last year, doing the B&B route, and cornflakes a la Kellogg were
> pretty standard. Of preference, we ate the muesli.

Talk about yer sacreligious intrusions and cultural bastardization. In
one of P.G. Wodehouse's last stories about Jeeves and Bertie Wooster
(bearing in mind that the chronicle begins in 1916 and ends with
Wodehouse's death in 1975), Bertie asks Jeeves if had happened to
breakfast on kippers, as he had just displayed an unusually high degree
of intelligence (for those who haven't read these stories, Jeeves is
kind of like a benevolent Evil Mastermind disguised as Bertie Wooster's
valet, with impeccable taste in neckties and spats for his master, as
well), Jeeves replies that he has, in fact, recently breakfasted on an
American cereal product called Cute Crispies. In one or two other
stories Wodehouse has had occasion to poke gentle fun at American
breakfast habits.

> Incidentally, the "standard" English breakfast was pretty much the same as
> the Irish breakfast being discussed--cereal and oj, toast, butter, and at
> least orange marmalade, tea and/or coffee, lean bacon, egg, fried
> mushrooms, tomato, and some variety of sausage. It's a wonderful start to
> the day when you're doing full-throttle sight-seeing.

Agreed. If the cholesterol doesn't kill you, that is. Interestingly
enough, living as I do in a city that probably has one of the highest
concentrations of recent Irish immigrants in the world, I've discovered
a strange and rather wonderful phenomenon. In addition to the 47
bazillion Greek diners in New York, wherein you can get eggs, pancakes,
burgers, moussaka and pastitsio 24 hours a day, there's an increasing
number (say, 37 bazillion) similar places, but for the fact that the
token ethnic foods on the menu consist of "Irish breakfast" in the
morning, a mixed grill in the evening, corned beef for the morally weak
;  ), and either boiling bacon or Irish ham with cabbage, shepherd's pie
(unfortunately usually made with ground beef) and rather good fish and
chips, usually made with unpeeled potatoes. As for vegetables, the less
said the better, although I've developed a slightly perverse liking for
the semi-ubiquitous coarsely mashed, buttered parsnips and carrots.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98