Book nosh, anyone? Food-and-drink book review

If you like trivia and love food, then BR 16251 is the book for you. Schott’s Food and Drink Miscellany, conceived written and designed by Ben Schott serves up rich helpings of food lore and assorted facts and factoids. I received the book this week in the mail and stayed up much too late to finish it.

Learn how to cook a swan and why it is illegal to do so, learn the arcana of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, learn what strange marine fare Captain Nemo had in his larder, learn what an ortolan is, learn what happened to the animals in the Paris zoo in 1870, and so much more.

* Did you know that a Pimms No.4 Cup is based on rum and a No. 6, on vodka?

* … that the term hana giri is a Japanese term that means petaled flower cut, mijin giri-finely shredded, sainomo giri-cut into dice, senmen giri-cucumber fan cut, an, tanzaku giri-thin rectangular cut.

* … that the pH of black coffee is 5.1?

* … that roman banquet givers provided sandaligeruli to remove and replace the guests’ sandals?

* … that the term ullage describes the amount of space in a wine bottle, not filled with wine and can be naval slang for a useless crew?

* … that the terms jug-bitten, has a guest in the attic, cannonaded, bitten by the brewer’s horse, has his soul in soak, spiffed, snookered, cup-sprung, got a crumb in his beard, taken draps, bit by a barnmouse, and sniffed the barmaid’s apron refer to drunkenness?

* … that a Picolo bottle of champagne equals ¼ of a regular size, Demi-1/2, Magnum-2, Jeroboam-4, Rehoboam-6, Methuselah-8, Salmanazar-12, Balthazar-16, Nebuchadnezar-20, and Melchior-24 bottle bottle.

* … that the Savarin, a rum-laced fruit sponge, is named for writer Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)?

* … that The Full VerMonty and Honey, I’m Home are Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavors?

* … that #92 in George Washington’s Rules was Take no Salt or cut Bread with your Knife Greasy?

* … that the recipe for the cocktail Bachelor’s Dream is as follows: ½ oz. Curacao, ½ oz. Maraschino, and ½ oz. Crème Violet which is stirred together, strained into a cocktail glass, and garnished with fresh whipped cream?

* … that to make black velvet mix champagne and Guinness in equal measures, adding the latter to the former to avoid excessive effervescence?

* … that taramosalata is a Greek dish consisting of fish roe in olive oil used as a spread or dip?

* … that the French cooking description a la Parisienne indicates potatoes, artichoke hearts, braised lettuce?

* … that a carnivore eats dog, a detritivore-decaying matter, fucivore-seaweed, gallinivore-poultry, hominivore-humans, lactivore-milk, mellivore-honey, merdivore-dung, ornithivore-birds, oryzivore-rice, panivore-bread, pomivore-apples, quercivore-oak leaves, ranivore-frogs, sanguivore-blood, and vermivore-grubs?

* … that clarissimo is cigar color nomenclature for green, maduro-dark brown, and oscuro-black?

* … that mangetout is Britspeak for snow peas, courgette-zucchini, plonk-cheap wine, shandy-beer and lemonade (ick), sirloin-porterhouse, and bap-hamburger bun?

* … that a dish made of lights and melts would have lungs and spleen in it? (How awful or offal!)

* … that the expression Adam ‘n’ Eve on a raft is American diner slangfor two poached eggs on toast, that a bucket of hail is a glass of ice or a bucket of cold mud is a serving of chocolate ice cream?

* … that a person suffering with amylophagia consumes starch, coprophagia-feces, geomelophagia-raw potatoes, geophagia-clay, hyalophagia-glass, lithophagia-stones, pagophagia-ice, and trichophagia-hair.

* … that the term robusto signifies a cigar of 5 inches and gran corona-9.25?

Interesting Quotes:

Lord Curzon: Gentlemen do not take soup at luncheon.

Lorenzo di Como: Without lunch, what wil become of love?

Philip II of Spain: They (fish) are nothing but element congealed, or a jelly of Water.

Winston Churchill: I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.

George Herbert: Wine is a turncoat, first a friend, then an enemy.

Horace: Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul.

Grimod de la Reyniere: New wine, a friend’s dinner, and the music of amateurs are three things to be feared.

* * *

Reading this book is like dipping into a box of chocolates or a bag of mixed chips. I like to combine a book of this type, nonfiction chunky, with a good fiction book such as the one I am reading now, The Last Templar. You can alternate and visit each book because they don’t conflict. Another nonfiction book that would work well is the one I just downloaded from the NLS beta-test website, Cuttin’ Up. It’s about the humor and culture in African-American barbershops.

-By David Faucheux