DiShiNg It Up

7^ ,

Think Yiddish,
Act British

A meal fit for a queen
or just a Jewish home
in the United States.

Gideon Keren
Special to The AppleTree

hile I was teaching
English as a foreign lan-
guage, students often
asked me what constitutes a typical
English meal. I've had to resort to
scratching my head as a means of
reply.
Ask an Italian this question and his
problem will be which dish to
choose from among a plethora of
mouth-watering, world-famous culi-
nary creations: pi77a, lasagna,
canelloni, you name it. Likewise, in
Greece you'd stumble across the
moussaka and souvlaki; in France a
whole range of delicacies would
crop up, not to forget the all-impor-
tant snails and frogs' legs; in Spain
they'd bring out the tapas, and even
in Sweden you'd be offered the
national dish, which I've been reli-
ably informed happens to be called
Swedish meatballs, together with a
smorgasbord or two.
It is therefore ironic that London is
now staking its place as one of the
gastronomic capitals of the world
where you can find restaurants serv-
ing food from all corners of the
globe except, well, England, I sup-
pose.
There are some factors to be taken

Gideon Keren is a freelance

writer in London.

into consideration when dissecting
the curious state of English cuisine (if
that's not a contradiction in terms).
After all, surely it's somewhat hyper-
bolic to exaggerate the virtues of
continental cooking when such fave
dishes as lasagna or canneloni can
be bought in any supermarket and
warmed up in the microwave. But
that's precisely my point. My stu-
dents' mothers would
Would you like to tell
rather be carried out
us about your family's favorite foods,
— feet first — of
or about an interesting family tradition that you enjoy today?
their households
If so, please send it to: Traditions, c/o AppleTree,
rather than buy
27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, Ml 48034,
Furthermore, in the
these traditional dish-
last 15 years, with
es ready made. At
Britain becoming more
home, everything has to be fresh-
"European,"
a change in the British
ly cooked. But not in an English
son in the shops (though in the light
palate has been in evidence. It
home, apparently. Nowadays,
of the BSE scare — the mad-cow
seems
that even packaging the food
when two income-earners in the fam-
disease with which British cattle
for user-friendliness in the kitchen
ily is the norm, you would be
seems to be inflicted at present —
may no longer be enough to save r__,
regarded quaint, if not downright
kangaroo and ostrich have made
our traditional dishes. I particularly'\
crazy, if you asked the proud
an appearance).
like steak-and-kidney pudding, simi-
providers of whatever it is you're
But these were always rather
lar to its namesake, the pie, but
about to consume if they actually
grand dishes for rather grand peo-
encased
in a soft, suet-based dough
made it themselves.
ple who could afford the ingredients
as
opposed
to a crusty pastry. Or at
Of course, there is a history of
and the staff to prepare them. The
least I used to like it, as it's no
delicious traditional English dishes.
cheaper, less time-consuming version
longer to be found anywhere for
How about mulligatawny soup as a
of the venison pie, for instance,
love or money, having completely
starter, followed by quails stuffed
would be something like steak-and-
disappeared
from the supermarket
with red rice and chestnuts, venison
kidney pie, a staple of the English
shelves.
pie in red wine filled with sausage
diet, which every housewife knew
Nowadays, you're more likely to
meat and an assortment of vegeta-
how to make in the days when there
find tortellini cooked in a basil
bles as the main meal, ending up
used to be housewives, but noWa-
sauce embedded in a sea of bas-
with summer pudding or trifle as the
days only seriously considered if
mati rice and wild mushrooms,
dessert?
bought from the supermarket.
I, for one, have never seen veni