Friday, December 13, 2013

For some reason the photograph of swans which I have just picked from the archive comes up as a small red cross. Please therefore imagine  the elegant necks and white feathers  resting and mingled beside the water.

An advertisement reads "Quails an elegant alternative to turkey".

A couple more days of hospital food for H. Having been to school in England,  I nod with approval as she reads out, Macaroni Cheese.. .Shepherds Pie... Steak and Kidney pie. "Not for me!" says she. I am pricked by a moment of  nostalgia not so much for the dishes themselves but for the economic style of cooking.


 

3 comments:

Lucy said...

That sounds like rather good hospital food to me, I could be tempted by that menu. What a shame it doesn't have the same savoury, comforting, nostalgic resonance for H, I wonder what would, barbecue chicken perhaps? You can exercise your culinary skills to tempt her when she gets home, only perhaps not with quail! The idea of that as an alternative to turkey seems to me hilarious; I imagine a fairy-sized platter with a quail surrounded by micro Brussels sprouts, roast potatoes and the tiniest of sausage rolls wrapped in bacon.

Tom said...

Sorry Joe, but I'm with Heidi on this one....but only up to a point. Pie and mash; chicken Kiev with spinach and butter beans; garlic chicken with potatoes and mixed veg; Dover sole fried in butter; the list goes on. Not one of the succulent dishes did I get in hospital; non-stop ham and pretend mashed spud was my lot. But boy, did Lucy's food go down an extra treat from usual when I was released.

Unknown said...

Lucy and Tom My problem is that I have an interest in food as such. When in hospital I downed the blandest and most awful of dishes. More out of curiousity than anything else. Certainly not the satisfaction of the cook and gourmet which I fancy myself to be in a different frame of mind. The fact that those school meals were as bad as they were has little to do with the nostalgia which accompanies their memory.