Comfort eating

The British Library is as good a place as any to eat at whilst in Kings Cross. Their menu is a smidgeon more sophisticated - today's selection included pork and apricot casserole, wild rice, pork souvlaki and braised oxtail - and yet meals here still remind me of school dinners.

I don't say this because of the institutional feel of books and academics, and I don't mean this as a slur on British Library chefs: I am the only person I know who loved school dinners.

I went to a school where soggy cabbage, liver and bacon, oxtail soup, lumpy mashed potatoes, pickled beetroot salad and rice pudding with a film on top were standard stodgy fare well into the late 80s. I ate them all and the dinner ladies adored me.

I still get cravings for toilet-paper-pink blancmange, spotted dick, jam roly poly, tapioca - "frogspawn" - pudding with the dollop of strawberry jam on top, spam sandwiches and mashed swede (but not together).

Though I concealed it from my peers, I was distraught when my school introduced burgers and chips and my old-school favourites were violently sidelined.

So despite the posher-sounding menu items, the stews at the British Library are still over-cooked, the salads still wilting, the chips still dry, and the custard still has a film of skin over it.

Just the kind of comfort food I love.

Related link:
+ School dinners haunt adults

Other links today:

+ "Jasper rings, boots of Cordoba leather, cloaks and hats, a spray of rose water at the barber's, short rose-pink tunics, beautifully curled hair cascading down his back." A bit of a dandy was our Leonardo da Vinci.

+ "Have you not noticed that Americans don't give two shits what Europeans think of us? Each email someone gets from some arrogant Brit telling us why NOT to vote for George Bush is going to backfire, you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies!" Clark County Ohio backlash and The Guardian's hasty retreat.

+ "There are at least 700 books in my English department office. There are another 200 stashed in filing cabinets in the hallway. In my home office I estimate there are more than 2000 on the shelves and another 300 in a pile on the floor. There are about 400 books on cooking and gardening in the kitchen. And finally, there are about 50 books on a shelf next to my bed. Those are the ones I intend to read soon." I want to marry this man!

+ "If single moms come out in droves in the forthcoming US presidential elections, that is good for Kerry. But not if single dads come out in larger numbers, unless, of course, if the Latinos show up, balancing out the possible Nader factor, which could also be overtaken by the cell-phone voters who, along with black voters, are much more likely to vote for Kerry. Except for the fact that black voters seem to be not quite as Democratic this year as the last time around." X marks the... what? Why it appears so difficult to predict the presidential victor.