The Delights of Delicate Eating

Rating:
Summary: Charming view of an different era
Review: This charming book is about food, among the upper classes, a century ago. It is written by Elizabeth Pennell (1855-1936) who was a food writer and an avid collector of cookbooks. It is a series is essays about various topics -- On salads, or The magnificent mushroom. Pennell does not write full recipies, but refers to them in prose. About a salad to accompany a light breakfast:

"...Make it of tomatoes, scarlet and stirring, like some strange tropical blossoms decking the shrine of the sun. Just a suspicion of shallot in the bowl; the perfect dressing of vinegar and oil, pepper and salt; and the luxuriant tropics could not yield a richer and more fragrant offering. It is a salad that vies with Cleopatra in its defiance to custom. Love for it grows stronger with experience. The oftener it is enjoyed the greater the desire to enjoy it again."

Needless to say, the writing is sometimes a bit over the top. The book is devoted, as the title says, to the delights of delicate eating.