Birthday books

This past Bank Holiday I entered the realms of the thirty-somethings (waves to Aliya and Matt Curran). Along with a nice novel rejection, I also got a couple of books. Two more dissimilar tomes it would be hard to find. The first, which I am reading at home, and only on sunny days, is Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy, filled to the brim, Veggiebox fans, with jams, curly kale, potatoes, meat puddings, pig-socks, roly-poly's, stews, honey, berries and other rural delights; the second book was Russell Hoban's The Bat Tattoo, which is resolutely urban and so far--I'm at the halfway mark--is firecracking with brilliance, but is a bit scanty on the food front. There's a fair amount of alcohol though: Jack Daniels, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir. For anyone that hasn't read him, Hoban's post-millennial work puts me in mind of Jonathan Carroll, only without the talking dogs.

Food for thought

As promised, a week’s worth of eating. The big question is, have I cut down on chocolate? Sorry about all the spaces. I can't be bothered removing them.

Friday

Home-made chicken Kiev with new potatoes, petit pois and broccoli

Home-made lemon drizzle cake with clotted cream

Saturday

Poached egg, toast and ham

Home-made dark chocolate cup-cake

Ciabatta and salad (including home-grown tomatoes, Aliya, sorry)

Square of dark mint chocolate

Mushroom burgers in stone-baked bread, chips, homous and salad (including shop-bought tomatoes, sorry Aliya)

Organic chocolate ice-cream with raspberries

Sunday (feast day!)

Scrambled egg and mushrooms with toast

Square of dark mint chocolate

Banana

Two handfuls of wild blackberries picked whilst out walking the dog

Round the in-laws:

Roast lamb with mint sauce, roast potatoes, runner beans, carrots, garden peas and marrow

Blackcurrant pie with cream

Summer fruits with chocolate ice-cream

Back home:

Cheese and tomato (sorry Aliya) on toast

Monday

Wheat biscuits (like Weetabix)

Chocolate rice cereal bar

Ham sandwiches

Banana

Bubble and squeak potato rostis (with bacon, cabbage and carrot), with warm salad (including boiled egg, and yes, some tomatoes—sorry, Aliya)

Tuesday

Wheat biscuits again

Fruity cereal bar

Ham, cheese and tomato (sorry, Aliya) baguette)

Cashew nuts

Apple

Spaghetti Bolognese with vegetarian mince (and some more home-grown tomatoes, Aliya. What can I say?)

Couple of squares of dark chocolate

Wednesday

Can’t remember what I had for breakfast. Sorry. It didn’t involve chocolate though.

Chocolate cereal bar

Chicken and stuffing sandwich

Pepper Focaccia

Scampi with chips, peas and tartare sauce

Organic chocolate ice cream with raspberries and strawberries

Thursday

Malted wheats (kind of like a slightly healthier version of Shreddies)

Raisin and chocolate cereal bar

Ham sandwiches

Apple

Friday

I can't remember. Was it fish? But there were some chunky chips in the pub at lunchtime. Saturday I made a tasty vegetable risotto for dinner. Chocolate would have been a factor on both days.

Food glorious chocolate

I have recently been re-reading Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual, and remembered an article by Ian Jack in the Guardian quite some time ago. In it he points out that Perec once attempted to keep a list of everything he'd eaten over the course of a year. (It was a frighteningly diverse and at times curdling account).

After my fourth visit to the hygienist in twelve months (costs me £40 a pop for the privilege each time) I realise that I really need to cut down on chocolate, so, in an effort to curb my cocoa addiction and improve my general intake of food, I'm going to attempt the same thing as Perec, but for a week only. Unlike Tim Stretton, I'm not much of a list-maker/listmaker/list maker, but have a notebook for this very task. I'll post the results on here next Friday.