Lentorama 2020: 40 Days of Food

Day 9: simnel cake

The English love their fruitcake. The traditional Christmas pudding is a fruitcake, as is the traditional wedding cake. The simnel cake is Easter's fruitcake. Though it wasn't always for Easter.

The simnel cake was originally made for Laetare Sunday, or Refreshment Sunday. The fourth Sunday in Lent, on this day the fast and other restrictions of the period are relaxed. Priests can wear rose colored vestments, flowers can appear on the altar, and the people could enjoy foods that they'd otherwise avoid.

Over time, the British holiday Mothering Sunday would also be held on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and the simnel cake became associated with that day as well.

The cake itself is a light fruitcake (I assume the lightness is relative to other fruitcakes), two layered with marzipan between the layers and on the top. The cake is decorated with 11 or 12 balls of marzipan (often shaped like eggs), representing either the apostles alone or Jesus and the apostles, in both cases without Judas. The cake is baked, and will spend some time under a broiler or grill to brown the marzipan.

But why is it called a simnel cake? No one really knows. There's a theory that the word has something to do with the fine, white flour made to make the cake. It does not appear to be related to the pretender to the throne Lambert Simnel, as the word first appeared a couple of centuries before his birth. This page from Anglican Way magazine gives various theories, and if the Anglicans can't sort this out no one can.

Lentorama 2020: 40 Days of Food

Day 8: hollow chocolate Easter bunny

While it didn't quite stack up to Christmas morning - then as now the gold standard for childhood nervous energy - Easter morning had its own excitement, not the least of which was the Easter basket. Full of sweet treats and the occasional present, the crowing glory of most baskets was a chocolate rabbit. You'd unwrap it from its shiny foil, take a big bite... and it would be hollow. Why would chocolate makers play such a cruel trick?

Simple. Hollow bunnies are easier to eat than solid ones.

As noted in this article, there is a point where chocolate can be too thick to eat easily, especially for kids. Hollow bunnies are easier to bite through and break apart as needed, which is a much more positive experience. The manufacturer also benefits from being able to make larger bunnies with less chocolate, which entices the eater. Even if it winds up being a lie.

Lentorama 2020: 40 Days of Food

Day 7: figolli

Malta has a few baked goods associated with Lent and Easter, but figolli are the most festive. With roots apparently going back to pagan times, modern figolli are filled with marzipan, iced in festive colors, and often given holiday-appropriate shapes (fish, lambs, etc.). They are topped with half a chocolate egg, still wearing its foil wrapper.

It's common for kids to bring figolli to church to be blessed, and they're also often given as gifts.

Here's one of several recipes for figolli that are out there, which I include as it has links to two other Maltese Easter foods, a Lenten cake and a fish soup.

Lentorama 2020: 40 Days of Food

Day 6: zurek

Unlike yesterday's entry, which in its early days was considered a "dry soup" to start a meal, today's entry is an actual soup from Poland. While it's possible to find it year round now, it is most associated with Lent and Easter.

Unlike soups that use a meat or vegetable stock as its base, zurek uses a liquid made by soaking rye bread in water, creating a started called zakwas (check here if you want to take a shot at making it yourself). Traditionally the soup includes sausage, herbs, and hard boiled eggs, though that can vary depending on when you serve it (no meat on Fridays during Lent, of course).

According to this list of Polish Easter foods, zurek is often consumed with herring, another common Lenten food in Poland. There's also a tradition of having a funeral for zurek after Easter is over, either by burying a pot of it or dumping it on the ground. This reminded me a little bit of the fish funeral in Ireland, as people are sick enough of eating something to want it gone and buried.

Lentorama 2020: 40 Days of Food

Day 5: capirotada

Capirotada is a bread pudding commonly served in Mexico during Lent and on Easter, though it appears to have roots going back to Moorish Spain, where it was served as a savory dish before the meal, rather than as a dessert as most of us would expect from a bread pudding. The main spices in the dish - cinnamon and cloves - were also found in savory dishes cooked in the region at the time. Even today, when the dish is mostly served as a dessert, there are versions that include ingredients like tomato, onion, and (when permitted) meat.

Unlike standard bread pudding, capirotada uses a sugar syrup to hydrate the bread, rather than milk and eggs. The cinnamon and cloves are used to flavor the syrup, which also darkens it. This lends to a Christian interpretation of the dish where the bread represents Jesus, the syrup his blood, cinnamon the wood of the cross, and cloves the nails used in the crucifixion.

Fruit (often dried, though fresh pineapple or banana is also used) and nuts can also be added, while some versions also include a cheese (not sure if this is the Mexican Easter cheese I've seen referenced in a few places or something more like queso fresco).

This article (which I've liberally ripped off for this entry) includes a recipe, not sure how authentic it is. This one may be better, as the writer has personal experience with the dish.  Or you could go with Rick Bayless. Really, there are a ton of recipes online if you want to give it a go yourself.

Lentorama 2020: 40 Days of Food

Day 4: Cadbury Creme Egg

The history of this confection - a milk chocolate egg containing a white and yellow fondant yolk - goes back to the 19th century, when John Cadbury and Joseph Fry had competing chocolate companies in the UK.  The companies pushed each other to create new treats, with Cadbury putting out the first filled egg in 1875 (though it was filled with other candies rather than a candy yolk).

The two companies merged in 1921, and in 1923 started to produce creme-filled eggs, though eggs like those you get today weren't made until the 1960s. Since then the eggs have become an Easter staple in the UK and other parts of the English-speaking world (and beyond). Adding to their appeal is their seasonal availability, although there have been versions made for other holidays (like a "scream" egg for Halloween).

Cadbury's purchase by Kraft in 2010, and its spinning off of its confection businesses as Mondelez International in 2014 led to changes that were not always welcome. There was an attempt to make the chocolate shell using powdered cocoa, which saw a drop in sales. Mondelez also moved production out of established factories in places like Ireland and New Zealand in favor of places like China and Brazil, where costs are lower. Not sure if that changed the product, but there was outcry over moving the production of such a traditional product to non-traditional locations.

Personally, I don't care for these eggs. Too sickly sweet for me. My wife loves them, and I'm happy to leave them to her.

Lentorama 2020: 40 Days of Food

Day 3: Peeps

Much like candy corn at Halloween, there is little to no middle ground when you ask people about whether or not they like this iconic Easter candy.

(Though I have to admit, I may be in that middle. I don't hate Peeps the way that I hate candy corn, but I don't exactly look for opportunities to eat Peeps either.)

Peeps are a marshmallow candy shaped, originally at least, as chicks (with their name coming from the distinctive sound made by chicks). They've been made by the Just Born company since the mid-1950s, when they bought the company that originally produced them. The folks at Just Born figured out a way to make what was a hand-formed candy into something that could be mass produced, and they quickly became ubiquitous at Easter.

The chick was joined by a rabbit in the 1960s, and new shapes, colors, and flavors would be added over the years. The company would later create Peeps merchandise (with products from lip balm to nail polish to plush toys and pillows), and even open some Peeps-branded retail outlets.

But going back to the original Peep, why is it so divisive? Part of it is the flavor; the marshmallow taste isn't that strong, and I find the coloring adds a bitter note (or at least I did the last time I had one). There's also a texture question, as Peeps can go stale quickly, though there's a notable segment of Peep eaters who specifically want them to be a little stale so there's a little firmness and crunch. But they're cheap and handy to fill out an Easter basket, so I don't think Peeps will be going away any time soon.

Lentorama 2020: 40 Days of Food

Day 2: lamb

Unlike the relatively recent adoption of ham as an Easter food, eating lamb was adapted from tradition that pre-dates Christianity. The use of sacrificial lamb's blood to mark doorways on the original Passover led to lamb becoming part of the seder (though there is some disagreement as to whether or not lamb should be eaten at Passover).

As Christianity grew and the lamb became a symbol for Jesus, it's not surprising that lamb would continue to be a part of the meal celebrating Easter.  At some point in the middle ages the pope included lamb as part of his Easter meal, which cemented its place on tables worldwide. That practice continues today, though animal rights groups have asked Pope Francis to end it.

It's the ashiest of Wednesdays today, meaning it's time to kick off Lentorama 2020:  40 Days of Food

The theme this year is food that one might eat during Lent, inspired by the number of food-related traditions that came up last year. Expect to see some (or all) of those foods again this year. But to start, a food that's not specific to Easter but is an Easter favorite.

Day 1: ham

Ham is kind of a strange choice of meat to celebrate the resurrection of the world's most famous Jewish person, but it came about from practicality.  Early Christians living in more temperate climates would most often have lamb at the center of their Easter feast (more on that in a later post). Once the religion moved into more temperate climates, where spring wasn't always in full bloom at Easter, lamb was not always available.

What was available was ham, which had been curing during the fall and winter. There's some evidence that ham was enjoyed at Easter as far back as the 6th century (and may have already been the entree at pre-Christian spring feasts).

I ran across one page claiming that ham is an Easter meat due to a pig killing the Mesopotamian god Tammuz (or Dmuzid). The source also said that a 40 day mourning period set by his wife, Inanna (or Ishtar) was the foundation of Lent. I'm not sure about either of these stories, as most sources that I found have Tammuz being killed by demons, and don't mention a 40 day mourning period. But there are also apparently a number of alternative stories around the death of Tammuz, so I could have just missed the one involving pigs.

Book Log 2019 Extra: Popsugar Reading Challenge

In past years I've kind of done the Popsugar Reading Challenge, but rather than make an actual attempt (or use it to pick books whenever I remember), I decided to take the 2019 list and see how well what I actually read fit the challenge topics. As I've done in the past, I will count a book more than once if it meets more than one (which seems fair as I'm doing this after the fact).


A book becoming a movie in 2019
A book that makes you nostalgic
A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction)
A book you think should be turned into a movie - We That are Young by Preti Taneja
A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads

A book with a plant in the title or on the cover - A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

A reread of a favorite book - Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (not really a favorite, but it's the only re-read I have in 2019)

A book about a hobby

A book you meant to read in 2018 - The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe (which I'd been meaning to read in 2018, 2017, 2016...)

A book with "pop," "sugar," or "challenge" in the title

A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover - Slaying the Badger by Richard Moore

A book inspired by mythology, legend, or folklore - The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

A book published posthumously

A book set in space - The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

A book by two female authors - Seeing Further, edited by Bill Bryson (probably not what was intended, but there are several essays written by women in this collection)

A book with a title that contains "salty," "sweet," "bitter," or "spicy"

A book set in Scandinavia - The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz

A book that takes place in a single day

A debut novel - Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

A book that's published in 2019 - Fall, or Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson

A book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature - Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

A book recommended by a celebrity you admire

A book with "love" in the title

A book featuring an amateur detective - Holy Orders by Benjamin Black

A book about a family - Faithful Place by Tana French (book 3 in the Dublin Murder Squad series)

A book written by an author from Asia, Africa, or South America - Death's End by Liu Cixin

A book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in the title
A book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie

A retelling of a classic - We That Are Young by Preti Taneja (based on King Lear)

A book with a question in the title

A book set on a college or university campus - The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwan

A book about someone with a superpower - Fall, or Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson

A book told from multiple character POVs - Slaying the Badger by Richard Moore (which looks at the 1986 Tour de France from the viewpoints of several of the people involved, including legendary cyclists Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond).

A book that includes a wedding

A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter - The Quiet American by Graham Greene

A ghost story - Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

A book with a two-word title - Unnatural Causes by P. D. James

A novel based on a true story - The Throne of Caesar by Steven Saylor

A book revolving around a puzzle or game

Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Advanced:

A "cli-fi" (climate fiction) book - The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemesin (this is a bit of a stretch, I suppose, but there's a climate angle in there)

A "choose-your-own-adventure" book
An "own voices" book
Read a book during the season it is set in - Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel (based on the part of the book set in the present)
A LitRPG book
A book with no chapters, unusual chapter headings, or unconventionally numbered chapters
Two books wit the same title
A book that inspired a common phrase or idiom (e.g. Big Brother from 1984)

A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent - The Cloister by James Carroll

 Bok Log 2019 #55: Seeing Further by Bill Bryson (editor)

This collection of essays was compiled for the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of the sciences. Each of its authors goes into detail about a specific topic or area of scientific inquiry, looking mostly at where things stand today and what the future may hold. 

While there is some historical writing, this book is not a retrospective on how the Society furthered the cause of science over the last three and a half centuries. Which is probably in keeping with the idea of the Society and its promotion of learning and discovery.

Some of the essays are pretty heavy, and I'll admit to doing some skimming along the way. From what I've read this is probably something you'll want to tackle in print, as it's got a number of illustrations that, based on my experience, didn't translate well to an electronic format. 

Book Log 2019 #54: Slaying the Badger by Richard Moore

It was hard to follow the Tour de France in the US in the 1980s. You'd get an hour or so of coverage on a Sunday afternoon, getting what CBS thought was the highlights of the week. Even with this limited access, I was taken with the race pretty much the second I learned it existed. Which made it all the more exciting when an American - an American! - won the race.

This book covers that 1986 race, where Greg LeMond became the first non-European to win the overall title, besting teammate (and five time winner) Bernard Hinault (the Badger of the title), whose pledge to ride in support of LeMond was not apparent in the actual racing. The book follows the race and the growing animosity between the riders (which of course spread throughout their whole team), and then catches up with the riders in the present for their recollections and thoughts about what happened.

This probably isn't LeMond's best-known Tour win to Americans (that would probably be the 1989 win where he made up a 50 second deficit to Laurent Fignon on the last day's time trial into Paris), but for history and drama it's hard to top. Anyone with an interest in competitive cycling should read this. There is also a 30 for 30 documentary by the same name which I've not watched but will hopefully get around to someday.

Sadly, Moore passed away unexpectedly in March 2022. 

 Book Log 2019 #53: Faithful Place by Tana French

A teenaged Frank Mackey (who we met in The Likeness as the main character's handler in the Dublin police) makes plans to run away to London with his girlfriend, but on the night of their planned departure she never shows. Thinking she dumped him due to his family, he leaves home (on the titular Faithful Place) and never returns.

At least not until two decades later, when Mackey's sister calls him out of the blue to say that a suitcase was found behind a fireplace in the abandoned house where Mackey and his girlfriend were going to meet. That bring Mackey back to the old neighborhood, and into an investigation as to what actually happened to his girlfriend.

This might be my favorite novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series, due to how the case and Mackey's family history intertwine.  While all the cases to this point had a personal element to them, this one is the most personal, and that may be what elevates the story for me. As with Rebus, this is a series you should be reading if you aren't already (although be forewarned that it's a very different series in terms of tone and emotional impact).

 Book Log 2019 #52: Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin

Old and new cases entwine, as John Rebus picks up a 40 year old murder that has connections to an attack on Darryl Christie, the apparent new underworld boss in Edinburgh. As Rebus again teams up with Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox to investigate the cases, he has to deal with his personal health and long-time nemesis Gerald "Big Ger" Cafferty, who may not be as retired as he seems.

At this point I'm just happy we're still getting Rebus novels. Start reading them if you haven't already.

 Book Log 2019 #51: Milkman by Anna Burns

A girl growing up in Troubles-era Northern Ireland attracts the attention of a paramilitary member known as "milkman," though she is resistant to his advances as he's older and married and she has a kinda-sorta boyfriend. As the interest turns into stalking, the girl has to face increased gossip about her relationship with milkman, which also hurts her familial relationships, most notably with her mother. The story plays out in a very Troubles sort of way, though the ending does offer a bit of a surprise as to how the girl is able to return to a normal life (or as normal as could be during the Troubles).

I see I only gave this three stars on Goodreads, and I don't remember why. I do recall a feeling of annoyance at how the plot was driven by rumor and gossip, but that's probably true to how things would have gone at the time. I did like the book overall, so it could be my middle aged man's point of view that's the problem.

 Book Log 2019 #50: Unnatural Causes by P.D. James

Adam Dalgliesh is on holiday, spending some time in his aunt's cabin on the Suffolk coast. But of course someone has to turn up dead, and in this case it's a local crime writer. Suspects abound, from the local literary circle to the family of the deceased, and when the evidence points in contradictory directions, Dalgliesh is compelled to help the local detectives figure out whodunit.

Three books in and I'm still not really feeling this series. I may re-read the Morse novels again before moving on to the next installment here.

Book Log 2019 #49: Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

This is Mandel's first novel, and if you've read other books by her prior to this one you'll feel comfortable with the transient and somewhat mysterious female protagonist Lilia . A criminal act committed by her father when Lilia was young leads to a life in motion, one which continues into her adulthood. This seems almost needless, except that a detective hired to find Lilia is still trying to find her, having become obsessed with finally finding her.

One night in New York, Lilia decides it's time to leave again, but in doing so her boyfriend Eli decides he needs to track her down to figure out why she left. As you might have guessed from the title, all parties wind up in Montreal, where things come to a head.

While the main character here is similar to those in later works, this is a very different book from Station Eleven, so adjust your expectations accordingly. I did enjoy it, although I was often at odds with the idea that the detective and Eli were both so committed to finding Lilia. Maybe I just don't understand obsession that well.

 Book Log 2019 #48: The Quiet American by Graham Greene

I haven't read a lot of Greene's work, but picked this up remembering how much I liked Our Man in Havana. This is a very different book from that one, but I enjoyed it just as much, just in a different way.

The book is set in the early days of the Vietnam War, in that time where the French were beginning to fade out but before the US started sending troops. A British journalist makes the acquaintance of a CIA agent, whose goal is to get Vietnam to fall under a "third force" that is neither capitalism nor communism, but a form a rule that combines local custom and tradition with a Western style government. The tension between the jaded journalist and true believer spy plays out both in how they experience and influence the war and in their common love for a local woman.

The book was inspired by Greene's time in Vietnam, and displays a good understanding of the country and its people, as well as an uncanny sense of how the war would wind up going. Reading it now, so many years after the war's end, makes it an even stronger indictment of the idea of American exceptionalism. It also makes me wish that more of the people who've been in charge of US wars over the last 30 years had read this. 

 Book Log 2019 #47: Fall or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson

I was not a huge fan of REAMDE, so I wasn't too thrilled that this novel brought back Richard "Dodge" Forthrast, the gaming company billionaire. But it turns out his presence in the novel is relatively short - sort of.

(Spoiler alert, inasmuch as you can have spoilers on a book three-plus years after it came out.)

Dodge winds up brain dead after a routine medical procedure goes sideways (when doctors tell you not to eat before going under, you should listen to them), and before taking him off life support his brain is scanned to create a connectome, a full structural mapping. Years later, a grandniece loads this connectome into a server and is able to reboot Dodge.

And it is a reboot. Rather than picking up where he left off, this new Dodge starts more or less from scratch, though over time it's clear that there are some memories (or something akin to memories) that help the cloud-based Dodge (now going by Edgod) develop a sense of self and a new world based on meatspace.

From there the book follows both the development of this new online world (and the introduction of new connectomes to it) and the struggle for control of the new world (which takes place both online and in physical space).

The novel ties together both the REAMDE and Cryptonomicon timelines, with characters from both making appearances (several of whom wind up in the cloud). I'm assuming this puts an end to this universe, which is a little disappointing if true (I would rather have had two more novels with the Waterhouse/Shaftoe family than the two Forthrast books).

I also wish this book was at least 200 pages shorter. At some point lush detail becomes overkill, and this book reaches that point several times. On the other hand, there was a decent ending to the book, which isn't always a guarantee for Stephenson. 

 Book Log 2019 #46: A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

I picked this up so I'd have something to read while on jury duty (while waiting to get called, not during actual jury duty), and it was a good choice inasmuch as a short story collection is easier to get in and out of when you might have to stop reading on short notice. 

As for the stories themselves, it's a mixed bag. There are 32 stories, so it's not shocking that some of them aren't great. But with that many stories, you can easily pass on one of it's not working for you and move on to the next. All of the stories are typical of Bradbury's writing, so if you're a fan you may find the overall collection more to your liking.

This collection was originally published as The Golden Apples of the Sun.