October 20th is International Chef Day. I have two international books on chefs-Iron Chefs. I loved watching the old Japanese TV show that was dubbed into English. The first book was from a friend who lives in Japan. The only English in the whole book is in the title “The Battle of Iron Chef”. I believe the book was published in 1994. It is also printed and read backwards. The back is actually the front, and you read backwards from American books.
The other book is “Iron Chef: The Official Book” printed by the Food Network in 2000. This book gives a quick biography of the cooks, the history of the show, and discussions of each episode.
Since we were talking about international chefs, I have a recipe from “Two Fat Ladies. Gastronomic Adventures (with Motorbike and Sidecar)” by the BBC in 1996. This book followed along the British TV Cooking show of the same name. I also loved watching this cooking show.
October 20th is National Brandied Fruit Day. The Two Fat Ladies had a dessert for this day. Their recipe from the book is ‘Cherries Jubilee’. The cherries are soaked in Kirsch liqueur, and then flamed with a little cognac. This is a great recipe. I would talk about fruitcake being a brandied fruit…cake. I love fruitcake, whether soaked with brandy, rum, Grand Marnier, or Armoretto. But that will be for another day in December.
Wolf Awareness Week (third week in October) this year is from October 20th to 26th. I have an interesting book “Aesop’s Fables” Aesop was Greek. His stories were mainly just oral renditions until about 300 BC when they were first put to print. These were oral stories told to adults, and later, became children’s stories.
I have several stories with wolves. First is ‘The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’. The wolf dressed up like a sheep to get locked into their pen overnight. However the sheep herder, went that night to kill one sheep for food. He killed the wolf. The moral is “Harm seek, harm find“.
The second story is the ‘Wolf and Crane’. A wolf got a bone stuck in his throat, and offered to pay a crane to reach in his throat to pull out the bone. The crane retrieved the bone, and demanded his payment. The wolf grinned and said “Why you have already been sufficiently recompensed, by being permitted to draw out your head in safety from the mouth and jaws of a wolf.” The moral being “In serving the wicked, expect no reward, and be thankful if you escape injury for your pains.”
The third story was that of a wolf that had stolen a lamb from the fold. A lion stopped him and seized the lamb from the wolf. After getting a safe distance away, the wolf shouted “you have unrighteously taken that which was mine from me.” The lion jeeringly replied “It was righteously yours, eh? The gift of a friend?” The moral is “What is evil won is evil lost“
We should all spend a little more time cooking-be a whisk taker. If there happens to be a little brandy, well, someone is getting baked, stewed, pickled, juiced, sauced, maybe even a little pie-eyed. How do wolves eat their food? They wolf it down.
The moral is “Reading is fun…damental“
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