Matthew liked the story well enough in K.J. It’s a long, strange trip to say the least.’ Spending apparently much of 2004 travelling through Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, he looked for the heart of Gypsy music in all its messy glory. ‘Journalist Garth Cartwright goes to the heartland of Gypsy music, the Balkans, to meet the legends and present some of the truth behind those legends. At least one, silphium, is now extinct.’īack when the Roma were still commonly referred to as Gypsies, Gary reviewed a rollicking book about Gypsy music and musicians, Princes Amongst Men. A few that were used in the past cannot now be identified. Some are used daily all over the world, or in large portions of it. He traces the origins of dozens of spices. In Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices, Andrew Dalby does exactly what the title says he is going to do. I did try reading the source novel by Caroline Graham in the form of the first novel, The Killings at Badger Drift, but it lacked the charm and wit of the video series.įaith gives us a taste of what a good culinary history can be: ‘Heaven forbid I should ever judge a book by its title, but this one certainly can be. Check our video reviews for a look at this series. I am really not much for video of any kind but I’ve been enjoying the video version of Midsomer Murders, now well twenty years in length. So every surface is treacherous and really not safe to walk on. It is not really cold there’s a constant snow falling and a damn blustery wind to boot, a bad combination indeed.

The weather here this week on this Scottish estate definitely means that other than the grounds staff that has to go outside, everyone else is staying inside their residences, either in the main estate building or in the old crafter cottages.

Of course, right now I’m enjoying winter tomato soup with bulgur, chopped bacon rich with garlic and chilis. These are quite welcome smells, especially on this raw, snowy afternoon where the temperature is hard pressed to reach minus five degrees (twenty three degrees for you yanks). I could smell lamb being braised with garlic, cumin, ginger and butter as I approached our Kitchen. Druidism is as good as any.― Caradoc Singer to Dectective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby in the Midsomer Murder ’s “The Sleeper Under The Hill” episode

Kingdom of the Grail by Judith Tarr