The Old Foodie

There was a sudden large spike in visits to this blog a couple of weeks ago. When I looked to see what had triggered it, most of the searche...

This week I have set myself a little challenge – to see if I can keep you interested over a whole week of posts on the topic of cabbage. T...

‘Cheese Rules’- how did you read that? Cheese, does, without doubt, rule. There are also (or used to be) rules about the eating of cheese...

Medieval manorial households were like miniature self-sufficient villages, and keeping the community fed was a massive undertaking. In addi...

There have been numerous attempts throughout history to regulate personal extravagance in food and drink on the basis of religious, politica...

Humans have a long tradition of substituting an inferior ingredient for an unaffordable, unavailable, or forbidden one – and then naming it ...

I (and my lovely daughter) are in Thailand this week. Shopping and Eating. It seems appropriate then, to give you something with an Eastern...

The wedding of my young friend is approaching fast (The Girls’ Lunch is today), and the realisation of all that planning is at hand. Wedding...

Before quiche and the likes of marbled-mocha-vanilla-strawberry-topped-hazelnut-crusted cheesecake, there was simply cheesecake. Cheesecake...

June 20 ... On this day in 1389, Queen Isabella, the wife of Charles VI of France , made a ceremonial entry into Paris . “Isabella of Ba...

April 16 The very strict dietary rules decreed for hundreds of years by the Christian Church were a very powerful inspiration for fake foo...

April 15 ... The feedback yesterday convinced me that the rationale behind the mock chicken pie made from pork and potatoes was indeed beca...

February 7 Today is the birthday of Charles Dickens (in 1812). This wonderful story-teller’s works are rich with images of food – ...

Today, September 12 th …. I am in transit today, on my way home from England and the Symposium. I may not get chance to post for ano...

Today, June 12 th … Today is the feast day of Saint Onuphrius, who, like the rest of the Saints I have featured in this blog, is only ...

Today, March 12th … The wonderful markets of Paris have a long history. They had already been trading for perhaps centuries when legislation...

Today, March 6th … The American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne spent the years from 1853-1857 as United States consul in Liverpool, England. Nat...

Today, February 7th … This day in 1665 was a Tuesday - Shrove Tuesday to be exact - and Samuel Pepys recorded his dinner in his diary: “Up, ...