Food And Drink

"Elder ladies, up earlier, had coffee before; For themselves they've prepared now a tasty encore, A concoction from heated, with cream thickened, beer, In which curds, densely floating, of cream cheese appear. For men there's a choice of smoked meats on a platter: There is tongue, savouries, sausage, and half-geese well fattened, All first-rate, all by secret house recipe cured, Long in juniper smoke in the chimney matured, At the end, as the last course, 'zrazy' were served. Thuswise was in the Judge's house breakfast observed."

"They served different refreshments to ladies and men: Here a whole coffee service on trays was brought in, Trays enormous, each painted with exquisite flowers, And upon each a steaming tin coffeepot towers, And cups of gilded Dresden fine porcelain gleam, With each cup a small pitcher containing the cream. Such coffee as in Poland you'll not find elsewhere: In a good house, in Poland, by old custom there, Making coffee's the task of one housemaid alone (As the coffee-maid known), who imports from the town, The best beans, or from trading barge buys them, and who Has her own secret ways of preparing the brew, Which as jet-black as coal is, and as amber limpid: Is as fragrant as mocca, and as honey viscid. It's well known that good coffee needs really good cream: In the country that's easy; the maid, at first beam, Sets the kettles, proceeds next to visit the dairies And there gathers the flower of cream; gently carries In a separate jug, to each cup freshly brought, So that each one is dressed in a separate coat."

"The third course had been served. And then Pan Chamberlain, In Miss Rose's glass pouring a wee drop again, Pushed a plate to the younger of gherkins and bread..."

"He begrudges Tokay, and his palate will stain With that devil's brew, modish, false Moscow champagne..."

"The men were given vodka; and all took their seat, And Lithuanian cold barszcz all proceeded to eat."

"(...) At length passed them a saucer with biscuits: "You need Something rather substantial to go with your mead...""

"The Horeszkos denied me the girl! Had the nerve Me, me, Jacek, a bowl of black gruel to serve!"

"There then stood in the garden hard by the same fence On which Rykov's triangle had based its defence, A cheese-house, built of lattice, big, heavy with age, Of timbers cross-wise fastened, not unlike a cage. In it shone many dozens of white cheeses lying, While suspended around them big bunches hung drying Of wild thyme, sage, cardoon, and of fennel and bennet, Miss Hreczeha's home drugstore all hanging within it."

"And meanwhile all the gentry behind the Count pour To the inn. There Gerwazy recalled days of old, From three kontuszes Warden for three broad belts called, On these up from the vaults three big barrels appear: One of vodka, of mead one, the third full of beer. Removed the spigots, three streams gushed, gurgled and sped, One gold, one white like silver, and cornelian red The third; with triple rainbow they sparkle and sing, Into hundred mugs gush, in umpteen glasses ring."

"You know, my friend, he's only some sixteenth cousin to the Horeszkos, the tenth water on the kisiel. Kisiel is a Lithuanian dish, a sort of jelly made of oaten yeast, which is washed with water until all the mealy parts are separated from it: hence the proverb."

"Any Muscovite general puts on a great show, Like a pike cooked in saffron, all glitter and glow."

"After mass at the chapel, it was the Lord's Day, They proceeded to Jankiel's to drink and to play. A small bowl of grey vodka by each hand frothed hot, In between ran the hostess who held a quart pot."

"And that vessel: that gold shape, he had to confess, That horn of Amaltheia – a carrot, no less! He saw a child devouring it greedily yonder: So farewell to the spell! To the charm! To the wonder!"

"Here the Tribune, quite done, with his staff gave a sign, And the house-servants entered in pairs, in good line, And began serving: 'barszcz' soup, called 'royal', to start, Or the old-Polish clear broth, prepared with great art, Into which, by a secret old recipe, threw The Tribune a gold coin and of pearls not a few. (Such a broth the blood purges, improving one's health), Followed by other dishes, but who can them tell! Who now comprehends all these, to our times quite strange, These huge platters of 'kontuz', of 'arkas', blancmange, And then cod with its odorous and rich stuffing comes, With musk, caramel, civet, pine nuts, damson plums; And those fish! Great smoked salmon from Danube afar, Caspian sturgeon, Venetian and Turkish caviar, Pike and cousin luce, each one a full cubit long, The flounder and mature carp, carp 'royal' and young! Last, a master-chef's tour de force comes into view: A fish uncut, with head fried, its middle baked through, At its tail end and swimming in sauce, a ragout."

"What the Tribune's perusal makes known, without fail The skilled cooks at once carry all out to the letter. The work hums, on the tables some fifty knives clatter, Small scullions, black as Satan, run, bustle and scurry, These with wood, those with pailfuls of milk or wine hurry, Into pots pour, and cauldrons; steam gushes; two fellows Take a seat by the range and work hard at the bellows; The Tribune, that the firewood more easily should Catch alight, bids that butter be poured on the wood (In a well-to-do house such waste can be forgiven). The scullions pitch dry bundles of twigs in the oven, Yet others, huge roasts onto enormous spits drag Of veal, venison, haunches of wild boar and stag; They pluck mountains of game birds, great down clouds arouse, All denuded lie heath cocks, and chickens, and grouse. (...) For the rest, of all viands there was a great stock, Put together from larder, and from butcher's block, From the forests, from neighbours, from far and from near: You would say, only bird's milk could be lacking here. Two things a generous lord to a feast can impart, Unite in Soplicowo: there's plenty, and art."

"(...) Although it was late, The Tribune some cooks quickly from neighbours collects; Soon has five, and they labour, while he them directs. As the chef, a white apron he tied round his waist, Pushed his sleeves to his elbows, a white nightcap placed On his head; held a fly-swat, and with it drove back Greedy insects which fain would the dainties attack; A well-wiped pair of glasses he placed on his head, Drew a book from his bosom, unwrapped it, and read. The volume was entitled: The Excellent Cook, Every known Polish dish was writ down in this book In detail; Count of Tęczyn would have it on hand When he planned those great dinners in Italy's land Which Holy Father Urban the Eighth so amazed; Karol-My-Dear-Radziwill on it later based His reception at Nieswiz for King Stanislaus, That most famous of banquets, the fame of which glows In Lithuania today yet in popular tale."

"The Judge straightway the eye of the servitors caught: And soon bowl, bottles, sugar and sliced beef were brought. Plut and Rykov so briskly set to cut and clink, So to greedily swallow, so copiously drink, That in half an hour twenty-three fillets they munched, And downed half a huge bowl of most excellent punch."

"They light a hundred fires, roast and boil without pause, Tables groan under meats, like a river drink flows; The whole night would the gentry drink, eat, and sing through..."

"Now Gerwazy the bygone old times recollects: So, he belts from the gentry's kontuszes selects; Soon, pulled up on these belts, from the cellar appear Big barrels of grey vodka, oak vodka, and beer..."

"Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things."

"“We can’t stay here; but let me take you somewhere for a cup of tea. The Longworth is only a few yards off, and there’ll be no one there at this hour.” A cup of tea in quiet, somewhere out of the noise and ugliness, seemed for the moment the one solace she could bear. A few steps brought them to the ladies’ door of the hotel he had named, and a moment later he was seated opposite to her, and the waiter had placed the tea-tray between them. “Not a drop of or whiskey first? You look regularly done up, Miss Lily. Well, take your tea strong, then; and, waiter, get a cushion for the lady’s back.” Lily smiled faintly at the injunction to take her tea strong. It was the temptation she was always struggling to resist. Her craving for the keen stimulant was forever conflicting with that other craving for sleep—the midnight craving which only the little phial in her hand could still. But today, at any rate, the tea could hardly be too strong: she counted on it to pour warmth and resolution into her empty veins."

"Tea does our fancy aid, Repress those vapours which the head invade And keeps that palace of the soul serene."

"[tearfully] Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea."

"Here, thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea."

"Soft yielding Minds to Water glide away, And sip, with Nymphs, their elemental Tea."

"In English society while there is tea there is hope."

"Tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country."

"Tea is a work of art and needs a master hand to bring out its noblest qualities."

"One day I decided to try to have a complete day without tea. I was quite shaken. I was quite disturbed."

"Who, sitting down to tea after hours spent in country sunshine, can fail to tell himself that he is living in a far more fortunate period than either the age of Pericles or the Middle Ages? Who would willingly turn the hands of the clock back to a time before tea had been brought into Europe? Sentimentalists who put Merrie England in the Middle Ages surely forgot that Merrie England was a tea-less England and by so much the less merry than England to-day."

"Nothing like a cuppa after an oggy-boggy that finished up better than a slap in the face with a wet kipper."

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."

"Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence."

"Emma devenait difficile, capricieuse. Elle se commandait des plats pour elle, n'y touchait point, un jour ne buvait que du lait pur et le lendemain, des tasses de thé à la douzaine. translation: Emma was becoming difficult, capricious. She ordered dishes for herself, did not touch them, one day drank only pure milk and the next, cups of tea by the dozen."

"Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea."

"Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups, That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in."

"I view tea drinking as a destroyer of health, an enfeebler of the frame, an en-genderer of effeminancy and laziness, a debaucher of youth and maker of misery for old age. Thus he makes that miserable progress towards that death which he finds ten or fifteen years sooner than he would have found it if he had made his wife brew beer instead of making tea."

"Tea! thou soft, thou sober, sage, and venerable liquid, * * * thou female tongue-running, smile-smoothing, heart-opening, wink-tippling cordial, to whose glorious insipidity I owe the happiest moment of my life, let me fall prostrate."

"Matrons, who toss the cup, and see The grounds of fate in grounds of tea."

"I dream about tea when I'm not drinking it. It's there beside me, my most constant companion. I can't conceive of a morning, let alone a day, without it. To be deprived of tea would be a terrible torture I could not endure. But I have only felt this way, this obsessively, since I discovered the really good stuff."

"I am so fond of tea that I could write a whole dissertation on its virtues. It comforts and enlivens without the risks attendant on spirituous liquors. Gentle herb! Let the florid grape yield to thee. Thy soft influence is a more safe inspirer of social joy."

"Surely a pretty woman never looks prettier than when making tea."

"Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?"

"Picture you upon my knee, Just tea for two and two for tea, Just me for you and you for me, alone!"

"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at! Up above the world you fly, Like a teatray in the sky."

"The Greek word euphuia, a finely tempered nature, gives exactly the notion of perfection as culture brings us to perceive it; a harmonious perfection, a perfection in which the characters of beauty and intelligence are both present, which unites "the two noblest of things"—as Swift … most happily calls them in his Battle of the Books, "the two noblest of things, sweetness and light.""

"The sweetest thing that ever grew Beside a human door."

"Instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light."

"To pile up honey upon sugar, and sugar upon honey, to an interminable tedious sweetness."

"Sweet meat must have sour sauce."