Rachel Laudan

A slight tingle, a flinty taste, verging on sour.  What is this?  A moment of confusion. I am taken back to English pubs in the west country before urbanization and gastropubs hit, when there was bread and cheddar and scrumpy.  Scrumpy, a local cider, alcoholic of course, actually very alcoholic sometimes, had that tingle that [...]

Versailles, designed for splendor, not for cooking, was not such an easy place to find good food in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The very lucky. The king, though even his meals were brought from kitchens a quarter of a mile off. The fairly lucky. Courtiers at all levels were not only housed by the [...]

Thanks to everyone who commented on my story about English tea.   One moral I have drawn is never use the passive. Because there were no downstairs staff. My grandmother, who had rheumatism that made it hard for her to move around the house, did have someone (Mrs. B) who came in to help with the [...]