Cynthia D. Bertelsen's Gherkins & Tomatoes
A Writer's Musings on Nature and Culture, Since 2008
Purple bougainvillea flowers hung thick and rope-like over the sand-colored walls, their little white hearts nearly pulsating in the blazing noon heat of Rabat, Morocco. The door of The English Bookshop stood half-opened. The stern English proprietor stood behind the counter, his thin pale fingers reaching into scuffed cardboard boxes, filled with the newest shipment of books…
Continue reading ➞ In the Scent of Cinnamon, a Whiff of Medieval Humoral Theory
Eggs a guilty pleasure? There's a reason for that. Thanks to Dr. Thomas Royle Dawber’s research team and the famous “gold standard” Framingham Study,[1] eggs morphed into things to be eaten on the sly, enjoyed alone, like a whole bag of foil-wrapped Dove chocolates. Based on the weak statistical correlation between cholesterol levels and heart…
Continue reading ➞ The Chicken or the Egg? 3. Instructions to the Cook
Sit at dinner tables as long as you can, and converse to your hearts' desire, for these are the bonus times of your lives. (Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens, p. x) Talk about a window into the past and a mirror to the present! A thousand years plus some separate us from the author and…
Continue reading ➞ Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq: The Tenth-Century’s Answer to Jamie Oliver?
