Category: Rome

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An Island In The Middle Of A Lake, And Yes, I’m Thinking About Rousseau And Bachelard And Jung, While Contemplating Roasted Salmon And W.G. Sebald’s “A Place In The Country” As Pan Appears With James Hillman And A Nymph And Everything Stops.

In Rousseau’s Fifth Walk, he writes about time spent on a small island in the middle of Lake Bienne in Switzerland. On the island there is only a single house, but a large, pleasant and comfortable one which, like the island, belongs to Bern Hospital and in which a tax collector lives with his family … Continue reading An Island In The Middle Of A Lake, And Yes, I’m Thinking About Rousseau And Bachelard And Jung, While Contemplating Roasted Salmon And W.G. Sebald’s “A Place In The Country” As Pan Appears With James Hillman And A Nymph And Everything Stops.

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Sausages And Cooking Murder.

Louis Vincent Palliere renders in bright colors the infamous Slaughter of the Suitors” by Odysseus and Telemachus, note those gorgeous capes tripping hues between orange and red. I love cooking sausages.  All sorts of sausage.  Beef, chicken, lamb and pig; andouille, bloedwurst, boudin, bratwurst, chorizo, hot dogs, kielbasa, knackwurst, linguiça, longaniza, merguez, morcilla, saucisson, soppressata,  … Continue reading Sausages And Cooking Murder.

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A Southern Saturnalia

Saturnalibus, optimo dierum! (Catullus) And so it is.  A time of honoring agricultural deities, gathering to brave darkness, exchanging tokens of friendship, banquet-style eating of copious amounts of the gods’ riches, and drinking . . . drinking and drinking.   For twenty years I’ve started Saturnalia celebrations with the seasonal Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale, 2016 … Continue reading A Southern Saturnalia

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The Anatomical Theater: Heart and Blood

This beautiful looking cow heart you’re gazing at appears courtesy of Regula Ysewijn, who blogs under the title Miss Foodwise.  Stuffed with kale, bacon and mushrooms this hearty repast reminds us that any body part in a human we probably dine on when it comes from an animal.  More about this fabulous dish later, for … Continue reading The Anatomical Theater: Heart and Blood

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Cochon De Lait For The Three Graces, Day Two With Some Bollywood For Good Measure

A simple table setting from Hannibal.  Well, a simple precision given the layers of life and death unfolding between Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham.  Consider this a dark bridge to the scene from Pan’s Labyrinth which ended the previous post.  Fork and napkin on the left, knife on the right, wine glass also on the … Continue reading Cochon De Lait For The Three Graces, Day Two With Some Bollywood For Good Measure

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Cochon De Lait For The Three Graces, Day One

The number of guests at dinner should not be less than the number of the Graces nor exceed that of the Muses, i.e., it should begin with three and stop at nine.  (Marcus Varro) I have a suckling pig in my refrigerator.  Over the next three days I’ll narrate his transformation from corpse to recipe … Continue reading Cochon De Lait For The Three Graces, Day One

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Cooking Fish With H.P. Lovecraft

People around the country and in the nearby towns muttered a great deal among themselves, but said very little to the outer world.  They had talked about dying and half-deserted Innsmouth for nearly a century, and nothing new could be wilder or more hideous than what they had whispered and hinted years before.  Many things … Continue reading Cooking Fish With H.P. Lovecraft

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What Happens When A Dead Roman Cook Meets A Dead Gulf Coast Red Snapper? Let’s Find Out. Happy New Year!

Apicius’ eponymous cookbook dates from the first century to the fifth century CE as determined by the scholars who have translated and supplied a critical introduction to this 2006 CE edition of one of the ancient world’s great tomes of recipes. Quite a range of time–from let’s say Claudius, without forgetting Caligula, of course, onto … Continue reading What Happens When A Dead Roman Cook Meets A Dead Gulf Coast Red Snapper? Let’s Find Out. Happy New Year!

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Rome: Porridge or Pig Stomach?

I’m in the beer section of a market, what to have?  What to have?  Ah, Dogfish Head, yes they have some rather . . . oh, an almost three-thousand year old beer recipe from Italy.  I’ll take it. Birra Etrusca Bronze: drinking vessels in 2,800 -year-old Etruscan tombs.  I taste wine?  Sauturne?  Fermented pomegranate?  A … Continue reading Rome: Porridge or Pig Stomach?