just a reader.

July 12, 2005

'I don't feel like an egg,' said Deirdre unhelpfully. ' I'd like something different.'

There was an expectant silence round the table.

'Some rice, all oily and saffron yellow, with aubergines and red peppers and lots of garlic,' went on Deirdre extravagantly.

Barbara Pym, Less Than Angels.

June 11, 2005

On the appointed Tuesdays, Jake often strolls up Market Street and plucks delicacies from the food marts—poached salmon fillets and ripe, lime-scented avocado halves stuffed with chilled cocktail shrimp. Some days he'll go pure aphrodisiac, picking up a dozen oysters on the half shell or a pint of Siamese ceviche, with the fruit of the sea pickled in equal parts lime juice and soy. Almost always he dips into Slavin's Tropical Health Mart for a quart of their house salad: guava, mango, and cherimoya, with pomegranate seeds and slices of blood orange and fried plantain.

Bart Schneider, Beautiful Inez.

May 31, 2005

Supper

Spaghetti with butter and dried basil

Spring cabbage with dill

Boiled onions with bran, herbs, soya oil, tomatoes and beaten egg

Cold tinned sliced corned beef

Retsina

From The Sea, The Sea, by Iris Murdoch.

May 29, 2005

Lunch

Hot buttered toast with anchovy paste

Baked beans and kidney beans with
        chopped celery, tomatoes, lemon juice and olive oil

Bananas and cream with white sugar

Hard water-biscuits with
        New Zealand butter and Wensleydale cheese

Muscadet wine

From The Sea, The Sea, by Iris Murdoch.