quotes_jun8_2008.htm

She caused fowls to be slain; she sent for vegetables, and the sober, slow- thinking gardener, nigh as old as she, sweated for it; she took spices, and milk, and onion, with little fish from the brooks – anon limes for sherbets, fat quails from the pits, then chicken-livers upon a skewer, with sliced ginger between.

This is from Kim.

Kim has trekked down from the mountains to the plains, bearing the double burden of his Lama, who is only slowly recovering from a vicious attack by Russian spies, and of the secret documents they have taken from those same spies. He is overborne and exhausted. The Sahiba, in whose house they have taken refuge, is planning to build up his strength again.

‘Suprème of chicken,’ he read loudly, ‘Filet béarnaise, Woodcock and Richebourg ’74, pêches Melba, Croutes Baron. I couldn’t have improved on it myself, though one might‘, he went on — ‘one might have substituted quail en casserole for the woodcock’.

This is from “Sea Constables” in Debits and Credits.

Three naval officers, on leave during the Great War in 1915, are enjoying a luxurious meal in a good restaurant. They reminisce about the hardships of active service in Britain’s coastal waters, and in particular about their experiences in dealing with a ‘neutral’ ship which is trying to carry vital fuel to Germany.

… they ate wild sheep roasted on the hot stones, and flavoured with wild garlic and wild pepper; and wild duck stuffed with wild rice and wild fenugreek and wild coriander; and marrow-bones of wild oxen; and wild cherries, and wild grenadillas.

This is from “The Cat that Walked by Himself” in Just So Stories.

The Man, who up till now has been living in the wild on his own, is for the first time enjoying the benefits of life with the Woman.