finally, saloop
Found and drunk at last in Selçuk, Turkey, after a long quest. Saloop stalls died out in London in the 19th cent., replaced by coffee, but it used to be a breakfast staple, either by the cup or in a bowl with a slice of bread.
It's smooth, creamy, sticky and sweet, with a slight granular starchiness. This cup had a dusting of cinnamon. It's a winter drink in Turkey, and you can see why. And why it's also a perfect breakfast: a buzz of sugar followed by a long slow starch release, similar to cereals.
The same orchid tuber that makes saloop, called salep, is also used in Levantine ice-creams, and I had one of these too: probably similar to what used to be called here hokey pokey, stretchy and taffy-like:
Penny a lump
The more you eat
The more you jump.
15 november 2008
16 november 2008
The famously closed Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford has generously put online some of Wilfred Thesiger's 38,000-odd photos. Almost impossible to single any of these out - every one is sensational. Take a look.
23 november 2008
James Joyce, from Portrait of the Artist
I heard an old woman in a shop maintain
This fog comes when the moon is on the wane:
And ten full days must pass
Before the crescent mows it in like grass.
John Holloway, from Warning to a Guest