October 25: Pears and Apples, Squab, Hunger

...There were pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shop-keeper's benevolence, to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered-leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, squab, and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner...

The passage above is just a small portion of a much larger paragraph focused on food.  In the Ghost of Christmas Present stave, Dickens includes so much description of edibles that it reads like a Victorian issue of Gourmet magazine.  Squab and oranges and pears and mutton.  Charles Dickens had a thing about food.  It might have had something to do with his poverty-stricken childhood, but there's no getting around the fact that he associated food with Christmas happiness.

I am hungry this morning.  That is the only reason I chose this passage.  I want to eat.  A lot.  I know I'm hungry when I read Dickens' description of silver fish and think, "I wonder how that would taste with risotto?"  I've had this hunger all week long.  Yesterday, I ate all day long.  Literally.  Crackers and cheese and chocolate and fruit bars.  If someone had set a plate of sauerkraut in front of me, I would have feasted on it.  And I hate sauerkraut.

I don't think I have a tapeworm.  I'm not suffering from consumption.  It's simply that time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when the weather gets colder and the residents feel the urge to pack on some pounds to insulate themselves for the upcoming winter.  Like squirrels or bears, except we don't hibernate.

I am determined not to eat as much today.  My book club meets tonight at my house, so I will try to conserve my eating for our little get-together.  We are all making various soups for this evening.  My wife is making cheesy broccoli.  Someone else is making a shrimp bisque.  We're having pumpkin soup and roasted red pepper soup.  I am more excited about the soups than the discussion.  But, again, I'm really hungry.

I've noticed that many of the recent Blogs of Note center around food or clothing or crafts.  Maybe I'll take some pictures of the soups tonight and then post them tomorrow morning.  That might get me some kind of recognition.  Maybe I will be named the Best Soup Blog.  Or the Best Pictures-of-Food Blog.  Or the Best I'm-Just-Trying-to-Be-Named-Blog-of-Note Blog.

Or maybe Saint Marty will be too busy cramming food in his mouth to remember to take a picture.



Anyone want a Norfolk Biffin?