Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Tradition!

A few weeks back, friends invited us for dinner.

Pat is originally from Yorkshire and so decided to serve a traditional Roast Beef Dinner. Yummy.

What I didn't realize until we sat down and she explained to us, is that in Yorkshire, the Yorkshire Pudding is served as a first course.

OK, first of all, this is a fantastic idea, as far as I'm concerned, since all the rest of the meal is just an excuse for that wonderful, wonderful pudding. And gravy. A great big jug of gravy to be poured wantonly over the pudding.

The explanation is that hungry workers would fill up on the pudding and then, hopefully, there might actually be some roast beef left over for lunch the next day. Whatever. It was great.

Since then, I keep thinking how cool it is that, within my own culinary tradition, there is still so much for me to learn! It's like suddenly finding out that your father can tap-dance. Kind of wakes you up and makes you wonder what else is there for you to discover.

I'm excited. I want to learn more about English cooking. Along with learning about all those other wonderful cuisines out there - French, Italian, Indian, Polish.....

It's going to be an exciting year!

A note to my siblings: To the best of my knowledge, Dad couldn't actually tap-dance. That was just an example. But it makes me smile to picture it...

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