It’s midwinter and we aren’t going anywhere here in Australia. Currently, millions of us are limited to 5 kilometres from home, including me. So let’s cosy up and make the most of it. Scroll down to escape with:
a chirpy flirty EXCLUSIVE for you
a hearty old recipe
a historical perspective on lockdown
a ‘Room of One’s Own’
The Romance is on!
The short story I wrote a couple of months ago has been shortlisted for the Newcastle Short Story award. Yay - I do love a bit of affirmation.
To warm the cockles of your heart a little, you can take a sneak peek of the full story here, for a short time only. (Technically, it will be first published in the annual Newcastle Writers book, so I can’t leave it up online.)
Cook yourself a Babylonian banquet
If words don’t warm you, maybe food will. You may not be allowed out to dinner, but you can enjoy the exotic, epicurean riches of ancient Babylon at home.
What/when/who/where exactly was Babylon? The city-state of Babylon was in modern Iraq, close to modern Baghdad. If you read the Bible, it’s where the Israelites were carted off as slaves in 598 BC. 1200 years before that, Babylon was already a sophisticated kingdom with some of history’s earliest written laws, the code of Hammurabi.
Not only did the Babylonians have written laws, they also had cookbooks. This recipe is translated from the clay tablet above:
There must be the flesh from a leg of lamb. Prepare the water. Add fat, [ … ], salt, beer, onions, [a herb called] spiney, coriander, samīdu [possibly semolina], cumin, and beetroot to throw into the pot. Then, crush garlic and leeks, and add them. Let the whole cook into a stew, onto which you sprinkle coriander and šuḫtinnū.”
Let me re-interpret that into a recognisable modern recipe for you:
Tuh’u Lamb
1 leg of lamb OR 3-4 lamb shanks
2-3 onions, quartered
5 cloves of garlic
1 T cumin seed
1 leek, sliced
1 can beer
sprig rosemary (that’s a ‘spiney’ herb)
4 beetroot, peeled and quartered
1/4 cup semolina or 1/2 cup pearl barley
Fresh coriander
Brown the lamb shanks or leg in oil or lard. Fry garlic, leek and cumin seed. Add onions, beer, rosemary, leeks, beetroot and semolina or barley. Put the lid on and cook for 2-3 hours or until tender. Add salt to taste. Serve sprinkled with coriander.1
And eat like a king! Let me know how it goes:
With a side serve of historical public health advice
‘Unprecedented’ was the most overused word of 2020. But actually doctors and officials have dealt with many mass outbreaks of disease in the past. Some of it sounds familiar:
A thousand years ago, Persian court physician Ibn Sina (aka Avicenna) recognised contagion caused by ‘traces’ left in the air by a sick person, and recommended their separation from others.
Quarantine was first introduced by the Croatian port of Dubrovnik in 1377, to stop the spread of plague from ships. Other European ports later built ‘lazaretto’ facilities to isolate sick passengers and crew for 40 days. In Venice, infected ships signalled with a white flag that could be seen from the San Marco tower. Only the captain was allowed to disembark to speak to authorities, and he had to maintain what we call ‘social distancing’. 2
When cholera broke out in Europe and the US after 1830, authorities set up quarantine and disinfection stations at borders, and clamped down on the movement of undesirables like prostitutes and beggars. This failed to stop the waterborn disease.
By 1911, the eleventh edition of Encyclopedia Britannica opined that “the old sanitary preventive system of detention of ships and men [was] a thing of the past”. Until along came the 1918 influenza, novel influenza, SARS etc…
From the long perspective of history, we have more in common with people of the past than we might think.
A Room of Her Own
To return to cosiness, I am getting my very own actual escape hatch. I’m pretty excited for the new writing studio being built in our garden.
Virginia Woolf famously said ‘a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction’.3 I have always loved having my own space, ever since I was a little girl. Maybe you have a beloved, quiet space of your own too.
The building project inspired me to read Virginia Woolf’s essay. I discovered that it’s a meandering, lyrical piece, less polemical than I expected. I love this bit where she describes musing by a river bank. Isn’t this what inspiration feels like?
Thought… had let its line down into the stream. It swayed hither and thither among the reflections and the weeds, letting the water lift it and sink it, until — you know the little tug — the sudden conglomeration of an idea at the end of one’s line… However small it was, it had, nevertheless, the mysterious property of its kind… it became at once very exciting and important; as it darted and sank, and flashed…4
Wishing you moments to muse, and bright ideas at the end of your line, despite restrictions, wherever you may be!
This recipe is based on this article https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/daily-life-and-practice/bar-test-kitchen-tahu-stew/#note01, with refinements suggested by https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/201206/new.flavors.for.the.oldest.recipes.htm and my own tastebuds.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/2/12-0312_article#r31
A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf, Penguin 2002, p14
Ibid, p18
Alison I enjoyed the gentle distraction from the sameness of each day due to the lockdown. Such interesting history as well. So enjoy your work. Dorothy
Hi Alison.
I loved your Nest Egg story. So sweet and a lovely brief distraction during lockdown! Public health history is fascinating. We’re not alone in this experience. Public health is something you don’t appreciate until you don’t have it! Anyway, back to my lockdown baking. Thanks for the interlude.
Sue