Turkey - The Wandering Palate

Chatting with my American friend yesterday on the ritual of Thanksgiving, I asked her if Goose was ever on the menu for Thanksgiving. She looked at me in bemusement, “Oh no, that’s very English, we don’t do Goose”. Curious I thought, given Thanksgiving is rooted in English tradition and Henry VIII, a man who sure knew how to celebrate – marriages and redefining the Church – would be perplexed at this denial of ancestry. Read More >

Uncategorized | Related to: Thanksgiving, Turkey |

Many bottles of wines

These suggestions are purely personal and what we will be enjoying at the Wandering Palate Christmas table, although you are most welcome to follow the recommendations, or drop me a line if you need advice on your selection or sourcing.

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Buying Wine, Produce | Related to: Christmas, Goose, Turkey, Wine Dinner | 1 comment

From a lost play by Eubulos, (c.405 BC - c.335 BC)
‘For sensible men I prepare only three kraters (large vase used to mix wine): one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home.

The fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness.’

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.

But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defence of the new.”

As uttered by the vitriolic restaurant critic Anton Ego, in the film “Ratatouille”, after his epiphany.