Alimentary, my dear Reader

Miss Eagle has been thinking about the food and literature thread. Miss E loves a good word and a good story as much as good food and good wine. From Michael Hettich comes this poem:

The Chef

I can't help gleaming

as I marvel at the oysters

I gathered this morning

from the airport, for you—

because they are the muscle

of the ocean, the flavor

of tide, the life

inside my own body

and yours. Taste

with your whole mouth,

taste beyond yourself,

swallow the muck

of this brief eternity

and fill your body

with luck, and pleasure!

There is no other world.

—for David Bracha

This was discovered, dear Reader, by your correspondent in a journal of food and literature called Alimentum. The title is a Latin word meaning nourishment. So, for those in southern Australia, as the nights get chilly and the hoped for rains come and staying home with the ducted heating seems desirable feed your soul with the comfort food of fine food-related writing.

Seasons of the Soul: Shrove Tuesday and Pancake Day

To-day is Shrove Tuesday: more commonly known as Pancake Tuesday. Pikelets count for Pancake Day and the recipe is here. For a George Herbert meditation for Shrove Tuesday, go here. During Lent, Miss Eagle will be posting at To the Desert on topics related to this great Season of the Soul.

Divining colander

A colander is an underrated implement - although, in these days of custom kitchens and up-market appliances, decorator colanders are appearing all over like this Alessi/Stark design pictured above. Colanders are often seen as only for draining things like pasta, rice, and vegetables but another use is to line one with buttered brown paper, fill with cake mixture, and use the result as a skirt for a Dolly Varden cake as my mother once did for a childhood birthday cake.

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One of my favourite poets, Rosemary Dobson, has a poem in the latest Australian Book Review on the subject: