“History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.” – generally attributed to Napoleon, though likely far older I’m not a fan of arguing with guests, but if someone asks me my opinion, or why I’ve done something, I’ll likely tell them. So, without trepidation I waded in when one… Read More French Fries Ties Thais

“In 1909 the Automobile Club de Monaco (Sport Automobile Velocipedique Monegasque) started planning a car rally at the behest of Albert I, Prince of Monaco. The Monte Carlo Rally was to start at points all over Europe and converge on Monte Carlo. In January 1911 23 cars set out from 11 different locations and Rougier… Read More Rally ‘Round the Dinner Table

“Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.” – Henry Miller, author I got my holidays mixed up, confused, jumbled… You see, it wasn’t actually the Tamil New Year this last weekend, which actually happens on April 14th or 15th, and this year will start the new year of… Read More Happy Thai Pongal

“Oh, better, no doubt, is a dinner of herbs, When seasoned by love, which no rancor disturbs, And sweetened by all that is sweetest in life, Than turbot, bisque, ortolans, eaten with strife.” – Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton, politician, poet & novelist It was the Nanakusa-no-sekku, the Festival of Seven Wild, Edible Herbs of Spring. In… Read More The Seven Herbs of Spring

“Vulcan was a small planet proposed to exist in an orbit between Mercury and the Sun. In an attempt to explain peculiarities of Mercury’s orbit, in the 19th-century French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph LeVerrier hypothesized that they were the result of another planet, which he named Vulcan. No such planet was ever found, and Mercury’s… Read More Live Long & Have Some Dinner

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” – Edith Lovejoy Pierce, poet No electrical trials nor tribulations struck this weekend to hamper our end and beginning of the year festivities. Instead… Read More Chau 2010, Hola 2011!

“I just love Chinese food. My favourite dish is number 27. – Clement Atlee, former British Prime Minister Before getting on to my write-ups of this weekend’s dinners, a brief look back at the last two classes of 2010, the “other two” of our Four Chinese Meals – the north and the south, represented by… Read More The Other 2 of 4…