Here is another tidbit from Gastronomica, by request. This one has yet again to do with sixteenth-century cookbooks (anyone who has explored this century’s culinary writing knows it is chock-full of both horrors and delights), and their fascination with the many things one can do with food besides eating it. Some excerpts from the Fall 2004 issue of Gastronomica:
How to Make a Cooked Chicken Jump on a Table
Take some quicksilver and a little bit of magnetic powder, mix together and place in a well-sealed small bottle. And then put it inside a chicken or other cooked thing, which must be hot, and it will jump. And the same holds in a sink or pot, etc.
Better yet than the jumping chicken is the walking egg, my personal favorite, found in a different “cookery” book:
A Secret for Making an Egg Walk Around the Room
Your Lordship must take an egg and make a hole in it on one end and the other. And by blowing through the hole, you must remove all that which is inside. Then take a cockroch and put it in the egg through one of the holes. And then you must stuff both the holes with white wax and then set it aside. Then, when you wish to perform this trick, call for an egg, but when the egg is brought forth, skillfully exchange the eggs. And then you must say, “I will make this egg walk around the room,” and put it in the middle of the room, and place a candle near it, and the coackroach will begin to walk inside the eggshell and the egg will walk around the room.
There are other excitements like these which are too long to share here, but I can tantalize you with their titles: Flying Pie, Lenten Imitation Butter (made from almonds, rose water, pike broth, sugar, saffron, and starch), and the extremely dramatic
How to Dress a Peacock with All Its Feathers, So That When Cooked, It Appears to Be Alive and Spews Fire From Its Beak
One must wonder what these Renaissance cooks would have made of our cuisine!
While we’re on the topic of food, you must go see Ratatouille if you haven’t already. You can pay $15 to see it at the El Capitan, as we did, preceded by a truly surreal and horrible stage show featuring dancers dressed as chefs and characters from random movies like Toy Story and Mary Poppins. Or you can just go elsewhere, which is probably better. But go! Even if you’re not a foodie, it’s a really wonderful story and a great movie.
[This post was imported on 4/10/14 from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com.]
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
I liked the organist at the El Capitan for pirates. He was really good. Was the stage show truly awful?
The organist was fine, but the stage show… well, I think we were just too old and the theater was too empty. Some of the dancers looked like they were just going through the motions (which I would be too if that were my job). And it was bizarre to have singing/dancing chefs joined by, in turn, Mary Poppins, Woody and Jessie (I didn’t know he had a cowgirl friend), Donald Duck, one of the characters from Tarzan (which I haven’t seen), Mr and Mrs Incredible… it just didn’t make a whole lot of sense, and when they tried to rally the audience there was near-silence. It was sad.
Ratatouille!!! I wept with laughter. C’etait si bon!!!
It was also so beautifully made. I regretted my choice not to pursue animation.
I especially loved the weight and “plop” they gave the rats, though I’ve always been (and still am) unimpressed with CGI humans.
I hope this film gets some kids in the kitchen!
I totally agree. The humans were nothing compared to the rats, and they still can’t get human hair right, despite their skill with animal fur!
I have nothing but the highest admiration for animators. I almost want to pursue it myself… 😐