Food quiz 2

[wellinghall]

4. Who gave a dinner party where he served, "Caviare, turtle soup, homard newburg, perdrix aux choux, asparagus, blackberry ice, mushrooms, sherry, Mumm 1911, light port, 1875 brandy"?

5. Whose host urged him, "Don't spare the caviare," "Eat your fill of the whitebait," "And when the porterhouse steak comes along, wade into it"?

6. Who was astonished to have, "A quite epicurean little cold supper laid out ... There were a couple of brace of cold woodcock, a pheasant, a pate de foie gras pie with a group of ancient and cobwebby bottles."

Comments

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I don't know any of them, but I'd definitely like to go to 4's party.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

And this was in January.

[legionseaglelj.livejournal.com]

Golly! Where did he get his asparagus from?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but he complains that it cost him £1 a bundle!

[legionseaglelj.livejournal.com]

The dates of the wine and the brandy suggest to me that the dinner in question is happening in the 1920s (just possibly the 1930s); everything is massively expensive either inherently or because it's out of season (and the fact that he complains about the cost of the asparagus suggests he's doing it to impress) but the meal isn't structured* - it's just "Let's have what's expensive"; you gave the cost of the asparagus in sterling, so it can't be the Great Gatsby, so I'm going for a self-made (possibly war profiteer) man who probably ends up as the victim in a Golden Age detective story.

*That is, it follows the formal pattern of cold hors d'oeuvres, soup, fish, main, vegetables, pudding, savoury but everything in each category is the top of the range item it could possibly be in that category, without considering that while lobster newburg would be fab on itself, would it really go well after turtle soup?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

1920s, yes.

Self-made man, to some extent.

War profiteer, no. He left his cushy desk job to go into the trenches.

This is a real person, writing in his diary.

[legionseaglelj.livejournal.com]

Now I feel really bad for having misjudged him!

I can't think of anyone who fits the bill and who survived into the Twenties, so I'm going to have to draw a blank.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I shall leave it open for a little while, before giving the answer.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Answers are here:
http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/1191804.html

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Answers are here:
http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/1191804.html

[legionseaglelj.livejournal.com]

6 is Doctor Watson, and I can't recall at the moment if the story is the Noble Bachelor or The Naval Treaty.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It is indeed.

[hilarityallen.livejournal.com]

Dammit! I talked myself out of that one. I went "That's a Sherlock Holmes story!" and then I got myself confused by the cobwebbed bottles, which I convinced myself were out of character. But no! my subconscious was right!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I think the cobwebbed bottles, and indeed the dinner, were in honour of their guest.

[legionseaglelj.livejournal.com]

And, indeed, the occasion (I've now checked my references) given that they were celebrating (albeit in bittersweet circumstances) the reunion of a couple who had believed themselves parted forever.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Indeed :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Answers are here:
http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/1191804.html

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Ah - I was just thinking it might well be - glad to see I was right!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It is indeed Dr Watson.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Answers are here:
http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/1191804.html

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

5 has a feel of PG Wodehouse - so perhaps it was someone hosting Bertie Wooster?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, wading into a Porterhouse steak is very Wodehousian, isn't it? No idea if it's right, though.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It is Wodehouse, although it isn't Wooster.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It is Wodehouse, but it isn't Wooster.

[legionseaglelj.livejournal.com]

Mike and Psmith?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Nope.