Garnishes, Guests and the Failure of Conversation

Discuss.

Arabella Boxer’s Book of English Food

The introduction to the First Courses section contains a bit of commentary on soups and garnishes

This practice of handing round a number of elaborate garnishes separately, amused the English. Part of its appeal was that by enabling the guests to assemble their own dishes it pandered to their distrust of what they described as ‘mucky food’. In practice it must have been quite tedious, in that the conversation was constantly interrupted.

Talk among yourselves while I slip out to the kitchen…

And so for day 2625
19.02.2014

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