The Delicious Legacy

Hello!Burmese food writer turned activist MiMi Aye has been raising awareness about the crisis in Myanmar since the coup in February 2021. MiMi’s award-winning book ‘MANDALAY: Recipes & Tales from a Burmese Kitchen’ is loved by Nigella Lawson and was chosen by The Observer, The FT, and The Mail on Sunday as one of their Best Books of 2019. MiMi also co-hosts the food and culture podcast The MSG Pod and is on social media as @meemaleeThanks for listening, The Delicious Legacy

'Many other improprieties a good servant will avoid.’ ...Rules for health, hygiene and manners in Middle Ages...Yes! They existed. People were worried about manners, and food poisoning and etiquette.Yes people washed their hands before they sat on the table.And much, much more! Listen to todays fascinating episode!Voiceover on "The babees book" by Lucy Davidson.https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-davidson-a31682136/Enjoy!xThe Delicious LegacyBooks on medieval manners:Frederick James Furnivall, ed., Early English meals and manners: John Russell’s Boke of nurture, Wynkyn de Worde’s Boke of keruynge, The boke of curtasye, R. Weste’s Booke of demeanor, Seager’s Schoole of vertue, The babees book, Aristotle’s A B C, Urbanitatis, Stans puer ad mensam. For the overview of medieval table manners see Hammond, Food and Feast, 116–19; Henisch, Fast and Feast, 159–203; Gies, Life in a Medieval Castle, 116; and Hans Sachs, “Ein Tischzucht,” in Astrid Stedje, Deutsch gestern und heute: Einführung in Sprachgeschichte und Sprachkunde (Lund: Liber Läromedel, 1979), 130.

Hello!Rice is a very ancient food…People ate rice perhaps from 12000 BCE gathered with other seeds and nuts. Today every third person on earth eats rice every day in one form or another. Rice is grown on about 250 million farms in 112 countries. But one dish more than any other, defines the global reach of rice and how it is claimed by many nations and has a deep, complex history: Biryani!From Persian "birinj biriyan" - literally, fried rice, to the Mughal Empire and an old Mughlai recipe from Shah Jahan's kitchen, to subtle pulaos that let the fragrance and flavour of highly aromatic rice shine through and would have been considered more refined and fit for a king there's a rich cultural trail to follow in todays exploration of one of my favourite rice dishes!Enjoy!The Delicious Legacy

How old is a Greek salad? And how 'Greek' for that matter?Who introduced the potato to the Greeks?What other dark misunderstandings the introduction of the tomato and potato in Europe has?( and what's got to do with werewolves?)And finally some delightful tomato recipes from the Greek Cycladic Islands for your gastronomic enjoyment!Just to kick start your summer!Enjoy!The Delicious Legacy

Hello!Nikolaos Tselementes. His name is what every Greek says when talking about cookbook. "Did you look at the Tselementes for your recipe"? Indeed when I was growing up i thought that a guide to cooking, or a book with recipes was called "Tselementes"! :-)On his death in 1958, the impression one is most likely to get from the statements of such well-known men of letters and esteemed journalists writing about him, is that before Tselementes there was chaos in the Greek kitchen. Idle, ignorant women who very little about cooking forced their poor husbands to live on one bad meal after another, a Situation that often resulted in divorce… Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. The unanimous adoration for the author of the first complete cookbook written in modern Greek, and based on French cooking, was the result of a sweeping trend that started at the turn of the century. This trend was created by the rich and travelled upper classes —- especially those wealthy Greeks living in the Egyptian cities of Cairo and Alexandria - who, imitating their English and French neighbours, were eager to leave their Eastern past behind and become Europeans.Nothing of course is further from the truth!But let's find out about the life and legacy of this colossus of the modern Greek kitchen!Enjoy!Thom

Hello!Welcome to part two of our exploration of the foods of Aztecs.Corn, food of the Gods and humans.The ceremonial drink cacao and the alcoholic drink pulqueAll here.Plus the importance of the Florentine Codex, a document with descriptions of many native plants and animals and customs of the Aztecs.Here is the Florentine Codex, digital edition with English translation too:https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/book/11/folio/1v?spTexts=&nhTexts=Enjoy!The Delicious Legacy podcast

Hello!Excite about Part2 of our Irish Food History!The Irish palette, is coarse like an oat cake. Fatty from butter and meat, and salty from preservation of food.What animal shaped the culture of Ireland more than any other? I'll give you a clue with this amazing myth and story. Táin Bó Cúailnge, the story of the cattle raid of Cooley!What's the relationship with fish and seafood? What if an alien came down to Ireland and saw this island, surrounded by sea, and thought the Irish would eat a lot of fish, what is the reality and how it has been shaped by history, poverty and religion?And what about the famous bog butter?Regina Sexton is Food and Culinary Historian, Programme Manager MA in Food Studies and Irish Foodways, University College Cork. She has been researching and publishing in the area of Irish food and culinary history since 1993. As such, she is the best possible person to takes us through an adventure through the history of Irish foodways!Enjoy the latest episode!Thom & The Delicious Legacy

Pomponius Mela, a Roman geographer, who hailed from the Roman province of Baetica (now Andalusia) in southern Spain writing in 43AD, he described the Ireland and Irish people as “a people wanting in every virtue, and totally destitute of piety”. And yet this country was so “luxuriant in grasses” that if cattle were “allowed to feed too long, they would burst”.Hello! The ancient Greek geographer and explorer Pytheas of Massalia while exploring north west Europe named the land of Ireland "Ierni" and from there Claudius Ptolemaeus ("Ptolemy") called the island Iouerníā . The Roman historian Tacitus, in his book Agricola (c. 98 AD), uses the name Hibernia. It meant "land of winter", and he modern name Eire derives from here.So today's episode, part 1, is all about the food history and food culture of ancient Ireland. I've talked with food historian Regina Sexton who is based in Cork to give me all the fascinating details of the rich ancient food history of Irish people.Regina Sexton is a food and culinary historian, food writer, broadcaster and cook. She is also a graduate of Ballymaloe Cookery School holding a Certificate in Food and Cookery. She is the Programme Manager of UCC's Post-graduate Diploma in Irish Food Culture. She has published widely at academic and popular levels. Her publications include A Little History of IrishFood (Gill & Macmillan, 1998) and Ireland’s Traditional Foods (Teagasc, 1997)I hope you'll enjoy my discussion with her and join me soon for part 2!See you soon,Thom & The Delicious Legacy