8/7/2023 0 Comments Treacle tart and udding![]() ![]() But my first (and lasting) impression of treacle came from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, when the Dormouse begins telling a story at the Mad Hatter’s tea party: It’s always magically popping up on those tables at Hogwarts. The naming situation is especially problematic for those of us in the U.S., whose only experiences with treacle come from books. It reminds me of another Christmas classic from across the pond, “bread sauce.” That could be the most delicious thing in the world, but you’re never going to convert me with a name like “bread sauce.” It just doesn’t sound like something you want to eat. I think treacle suffers from a classic British food problem: lack of name appeal. When we’re baking scones or Yorkshire puddings, Orwell says, we can be chefs of our own making. That may be bad news for tourists-but it’s a moment for home cooks to shine. So how could a food lover like Orwell explain the U.K.’s mediocre showing in the kitchen? As he tells it, it’s because the best English cooking isn’t at a charming bistro or fancy restaurant, but is made at home, where foreigners don’t have access. You’d think he’d be a little kinder to his home cuisine, but he savages everything from fish and chips (“definitely nasty, and has been an enemy of home cookery”) to rice puddings (“the kind of thing that one would prefer to pass over in silence”) to pretty much any kind of vegetable (“usually smothered in a tasteless white sauce”).īut Orwell did reserve some praise for what was, in his mind, Britain’s crowning culinary glory: “sweet dishes and confectionery-cakes, puddings, jams, biscuits.” Best of all were the Christmas treats: plum pudding, and treacle tart, “a delicious dish … hardly to be found in other countries.” Orwell was obviously never one to hide his feelings about food his travel writings slam chefs everywhere from France to Burma. George Orwell summed up its characteristics rather bluntly: “simple, rather heavy, perhaps slightly barbarous.” If there’s one thing I bet you didn’t say, it’s “British.” Despite the U.K.’s recent restaurant renaissance, its meals have been a culinary punchline for nearly a century, ever since World War I hobbled the country’s food culture. ![]() What are you in the mood for, though? Thai? Italian? Indian? Ethiopian? You can’t possibly cook now, you decide, and turn to your trusty takeout-menu drawer. Imagine this: It’s a Sunday night, the end of a long weekend full of gift shopping, cookie baking, and fun-but-exhausting holiday merrymaking. ![]()
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