I was gabbing at my sister a few days ago and came up with this thread title and thought it would be good for the Lounge Set. The genesis had something to do with somber music from a radio station, the announcer saying it was written by a Frenchmen back in the pre-Cambrian days of yore. From this death dirge inspiration, I began a rant to entertain my sister that ended up castigating French Culture for being about nothing but: Food, Wine, Sex and Death. Now that you know the origin of the title we can get down to the meat of each subject.

I recently had lemon meringue pie with orange spice tea and I thought it was excellent and a wonderful combination. Never have wine with lemon meringue pie is my advice. Nothing pairs well with it. If you smear lemon meringue pie all over your partner during sex this will enhance the experience. When you die you should have a piece of lemon meringue pie placed on your chest before burial, you can eat it while the ferryman Charon poles you across the river Styx.

I hope this inspires some responses. Especially from Phat Mack, since Ray Zee has placed him on the Mt Olympus of posters. We have four dazzling subjects to tear to shreds. Recipes welcome. Splashing in wine tubs is welcome. Sex is always welcome. Death takes a holiday is also welcome. Quotes from Jean Paul Sartre are not.

I saw the title to this thread and assumed it was a draft. I was all for it. My response was to be a simple "In".

Ah, but pie. Usually, by the time the pie hits the table, I am pretty much wined out. So it's coffee or brandy or something like that. Dessert wines are OK, but since they're so sweet they are better off alone.

I'm going to go ahead and approve the orange spice tea with the lemon meringue pie -- as long, of course, as the pie is perfect -- which in this case means put under a broiler for a few seconds to finish it by making the very teeny tiny peaks of the meringue brown. If everything is perfect, I say: Go for it.

My favorite pie story: My ex-wife and I are eating breakfast with three other couples we barely know in a new-wave eatery. It's half social, half business. The other wives are grilling the waitress: are the eggs from free range chickens? have they been only fed macrobiotic bugs on their free ranges? biscuits made from organic whole wheat? coffee free trade coffee?

Finally, after what seems like 30 minutes, the waitress looks at my ex. "I'll have a piece of apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. And the biggest mug of any kind of black coffee you can find."

The other wives look at my ex as though the devil had appeared before them. One of the husbands looks at me and says, "Pie? We're allowed to have pie for breakfast? Nobody tells me anything."

[QUOTE=Phat Mack;53209014]I saw the title to this thread and assumed it was a draft. I was all for it. My response was to be a simple "In".

.................Snip..............The other wives look at my ex as though the devil had appeared before them. One of the husbands looks at me and says, "Pie? We're allowed to have pie for breakfast? Nobody tells me anything."[/QUOTE]

Yes it would be a good draft but I have no time to run one up the flagpole. I have too much on my plate already for being retired.

That is a strange coincidence, my first girlfriend from long ago loved to have pie for breakfast.

Excellent story by the way - you should write a book or two. I volunteer John Cole as editor. He's not doing much that is useful anyway.

Should be glad I never made it past one page of Sartre. Something about translated works makes my skin itch, and I feel like something is stolen from me. In any case, my lemon meringue pie story.

Lemon meringue is one of those special dishes, best homemade, preferably by the matriarchal grandmother if she is available for such tasks. She should also be plump from the years of eating her own baking. If neither case is true, then the patriarch will do.

Grandmother #N (I stopped counting by then) made a killer lemon meringue pie. Up until those days, I was raised on prepackaged dinners, and if my mother was so inspired, a mixture of some box product. At 14, 5'9", and 75lbs, my nutritional upbringing was apparent.

I'm partly lying. I do not know if this lemon meringue was killer or not. It was the only kind I've ever had, and each pie was distinctly different. Some were sour enough to make a coyote pucker, while others were sweet as... well, pie.

At that time, I didn't know many things, the quality of the pie notwithstanding. I didn't know that I was allergic to lemons, as it wasn't something I ate or drank often at that time. The "Christmas sickness" could have occurred for many reasons, and it was easy to blame it on the flue, which was a popular item in a snowy world.

It took me many years to learn that I was allergic to lemons, and it took me many more years to learn that meringue was not sour. I don't mean to say that the frosting on the pie was sour, as my memory of those years is best left a tangle mess, but that, for some reason, my mind only associated meringue with lemons, and therefore, the mysterious cream stuff was sour as well. It wasn't until I worked in a restaurant, where I had to learn to make mousse by hand, that I learned what meringue really was, and at the same time, I was able to appreciate how difficult it was to make right. In the wrong hands, it can be too dull, to flat, too sweet, and with the proper mistake, sour as acrid grapes.

For this upcoming Christmas, I will made do with a Hostess apple pie. It is a consistent concoction, and while it wasn't made by a plump grandmother, it is, to me, the sweet perfection of my childhood food.

On food: Those so called world gourmets who laugh at English cuisine...

Please tell me a better breakfast than a full English?
Please tell me what meal surpasses the glories of a Sunday Roast?

And puddings? If you've never had a good trifle, you've never lived life to the full.

And our more provincial fare: fish and chips, pie and mash, beef stew and dumplings, Lanchashire hotpot and the humble pasty - and a dozen others. All marvels to the taste buds.I grant you our penchant for offal can put some off, but a well made liver, or heart, or devilled kidneys are sensational. And our pies, oh our pies...

And our cheeses - I grant you, the French have some of the greats, but Cheddar and Stilton are in the elite. And there are many many more to discover.

Some you laugh at: Spotted Dick,
and some you probably never heard of: a Knickerbocker Glory.
But the wonders of this small island's food roll on to please the palate just as its green and pleasant hills roll on to please the eye.

I laugh at your laughter, because I know better.

Not in these countries, it doesn't:



https://blogs.scientificamerican.com...offal-is-good/

Go live in France, learn the language and read it, then. Like a proper intellectual. That's what I did.

Simone de Beauvoir detested offal, apparently.

(The adopted kid I was telling you about, I bought him two books for his 18th birthday. One was 1984 and the other was Nausea. He didn't read a word of either.)

Hot dogs and sausages don't count as offal? It's the rest of the animal shoved inside it's own intestines.

I love warm buns, this coves two thread subjects: [NSFW]

And why is that woman your ex-wife?

John Cole isn't doing anything of importance right now. He's a dean.

Well, you could be baking some Christmas Cookies! That's important. Especially to Grandkids.

Here is a family favorite from my house to yours:

russian-tea-cakes

They are especially yummy. Highly recommended.

I second Mr. Zee's opinion of Phat Mack. I would put Zeno and Mr. Cole at the same Olympian altitude.

Pie is overrated IMHO. Especially lemon meringue: goopy lollipop flavored jelly with fluffy white tasteless stuff is all I can make of it.

Wine and sex, OTOH, are underrated. If they're good, nothing else really matters much, if at all. There's plenty of bad wine; bad sex is simply a non sequitur.

I've traveled the country a lot the last few years and I have to say that our restaurant scene here in Lala Land is second to none. Many of our coolest, strangest, best, and most beautiful restaurants are downtown in formerly frightening neighborhoods.

"When it's good, it's really really good. When it's bad, it's still pretty good."

The above fits in well with what I wanted to post about next: Christmas Cocktails*.

Cheers all:

Christmas-cocktails-punch-recipes

*Wine contains alcohol so all alcoholic beverages can slip into the slippery slope of this thread.

Andy,

I will be in California this summer. We need to meet up and hit one of those fine restaurants.

I also think pie is overrated. I prefer cake and cookies.

I have mixed feelings about sex these days. I miss it, but I'm really no longer trying.

Zeno,

New York. New York.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

John, the Airing of Grievances was yesterday...

Must we be judgemental? Can't we be inclusive and embracing? Perhaps those who don't like pie have never had the life-changing epiphany that is great pie.

And ice cream. Why is ice cream being left out of the discussion? I have written love letters to ice cream parlours, although I have yet to receive a response.

Just to brag: I've managed to gain 12.5 pounds since Thanksgiving -- a new personal best!

Just to brag: I made those Russian Tea Cookies I posted about above. They are Excellent and go really well with spiced Christmas type teas. I also made some fudge, to add to the Christmas collection of goodies.

Yes. Yes. I will be sending you a PM soon to get the planning started - after the Christmas gorging is completed.

Andy,

I will be in southern California in the spring. Orange County area to give you a more precise location. Visiting an Italian friend that can cook up a heavenly storm. She is especially good at Sicilian dishes having lived in Sicily for more than 20 years. This should cause you immense jealously but I know you are above that.

Anyway, I'll stop by and throw a rock through your living room window to let you know I'm in town and you and can take me out for dinner at one of those fabulous restaurants in LA.

If you measure price, quality, and legit cultural food, I agree wholeheartedly, though ChinaTown is a massive con.

If we are talking farm-to-table, LA doesn't come close at all. Farm-to-table would already be $20 / plate (avg order $50+) in low-income cities, and that would spike to $75 / plate in LA.

I'm half-and-half on the downtown eating scene. The food hits the gastro preferences of the hipster crowd, which is small portions and half-assed, overpriced knock off the real thing, taking that Po' Boy place as a prime example. It's kind of sad to see what downtown is turning into since I left. I'm trying to like it, but it just doesn't feel the same to me anymore.

I used to live near 7th & Metro, right amid the art scene. Downtown used to be a great place for a smile, a nod, and partying while looking like a bum at places that demanded $200 for a seat at a table. Everyone these days seems so angry, upset, overdressed for nothing, and so damn.... Hollywood.

Koreatown eventually stuck up it's middle finger and went all-in on getting real Korean food, and as we all know, when **** get's legit, the hipsters quit. It's nice to see K-Town back into normal form.

And Hollywood is still the same ****hole it's always been. Even though all those restaurants and condos popped up east of Highland, it still sucks. Best bet is eat at Jack in the Box and take the Red Line to anywhere else.