Returning from my son's morning golf lesson I decanted two bowls of home made soup (leek & celeriac with just a hint of grated horseradish for anyone interested) and sliced some bread.
'Father', he said, as I placed a bowl in front of him, 'Is soup a food, or drink?'
We pondered that question for a while together, questioning the nature of other sloppy foods from casseroles and stews to watery mashed potatoes and runny poached eggs, eventually concluding that soup is 'food', because it is eaten with cutlery - to wit, a spoon.
'But what of cuppa-soup,' he then enquired, 'we drink that from a cup?'.
'Then that must be a drink' I replied.
He fell silent, seemingly troubled.
'What is the matter, my child,' I asked, to which he replied:
'Should we judge the content, then father, from the appearance of the vessel? Should we divine the nature of what is within solely from that which we can perceive from without?'
I threw his soup down the sink and gave him a sandwich... Nobody loves a smartarse, eh?
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It's not the vessel that matters. It's the cutlery. And please don't spoil that notion for me, as I've found it much easier not to drink at home since having raspberry sorbet doused in vodka for pudding. Which may be served in a glass or a bowl, a glass bowl, or even a mug. But provided it is eaten with a spoon, it is a pudding, not a drink.New comment
Ooooh... I think you're skating on thin ice with that one, if you'll excuse the pun...
Talking of boozy puds we were experimenting t'other day, trying to come up with something traditional but exotic for Christmas. Inspired genius led to the purchase of a Jamaican spiced bun and a pack of persimmons which were then used to make a spice bun and persimmon trifle. What could be more trad for a Christmas high tea than trifle or more exotic than Jamaica? Our first thought was pineapple jelly, but we hadn't got one so we used tangerine instead and it worked so well we will stick with it. BUT, getting back to the booze, I had two ideas for pouring over the broken up cake, sherry (trad) or Pimms (rad). Tried each in individual glasses and I preferred Pimms, Ben prefered sherry. Sherry is cheaper, soI'm going to go with that, but may stick in a shot of red vermouth too to give it a bit of a dual flavour. I rejected the idea of Rum as too predictable, but can see some might fancy it.
Anyhoo - we can vouch that this dessert as well as being relatively cheap (a HUGE HTB Jamaican spice bun - big enough for three or four trifles if you wanted to freeze chunks for later in the year - costs a couple of squid from the Exotics section of Tesco's, and persimmons are currently half price at a Pahnd for three bigguns (ooer missus)... Didn't occur to us during the experimentation phase, but we had an afterthought that rather than just using regular vanilla custard in the 'tops' we'd bung in a sliced banana or two too.
Whooooo, mon, play dem steel drums all night long...
:D