SaltShaker

Our recent visitors from Canada for a private dinner apparently enjoyed themselves quite a bit and recommended us to a group of their friends from Chicago, who dined with us this last weekend, also for a private evening.
Much of this comes out of some favorites, and one dish, new to the dinners, comes out of [...]

 The man who trusts men will make fewer mistakes than he who distrusts them.”
- Camillo di Cavour, prime minister, Kingdom of Sardinia
I’m getting a bit behind on dinner posts, so I may throw these at you rapidly over the next couple of days. You’ll live. Let’s start back at the beginning of the month and [...]

 The fields from Islington to Marybone, To Primrose Hill and Saint John’s Wood, Were builded over with pillars of gold; And there Jerusalem’s pillars stood.”
- William Blake
Over time, we’ve had quite a few visits from our local puertas cerradas compatriots, as well as visited their dining spots. We’ve had a few from the US and [...]

 We’ve traveled almost the full length of the island and can report that every corner of it is wet, every river overflows its banks, every rain barrel is filled to the brim, every wall washed clean of writing no one knows how to read anyway.”
- from In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez
Last [...]

 Shellfish are the prime cause of the decline of morals and the adaptation of an extravagant lifestyle. Indeed of the whole realm of Nature the sea is in many ways the most harmful to the stomach, with its great variety of dishes and tasty fish.”
- Pliny the Elder
It was the age of Pisces, not Aquarius, [...]

 But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter.”
- General William Tecumseh Sherman
Is there really anyone out there who doesn’t snack on crackers of [...]

 Yet traditional Chilean food, although simple, has a medley of flavors, influenced by the vast diversity of plant foods and products that are naturally available. And this is all thanks to it’s varying landscape and the cultures of the native Chileans, most prominently, the Mapuches.”
Danielle E. Alvarez, Lonely Planet
While most of the world spent last [...]

 Who has given the wind wisdom,
Lent the air a tongue so lightsome,
Ready speech to the yard’s rowan,
And the small birds’ tender bevy?”
(from All Seemed to Be Speaking, Speaking, by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, translated by C.E. Tallquist)
One of the things I like about our historical themes is that I get to learn little tidbits about various [...]