Teleny Tantalizing

Peter Fryer in Secrets of the British Museum provides an excerpt from Teleny which reads like a sumptuous meal described by Brillat-Savarin. Almost a set piece.

Teleny's kisses up and down his friend's back resemble 'a rain of rose-leaves falling from some full blown flower'.

'Now,' says Teleny, 'let us go in the next room and see if we can find something to eat. . . . I cannot give you a banquet.' Nevertheless they find Cancale oysters, 'of an immense size', a dusty bottle of Sauterne; a pâte de foie gras highly scented with Perigord truffles; a partridge with paprika; a salad made out of a huge Piedmont truffle; a bottle of exquiste dry sherry; a dish of Seville oranges, bananas, and pineapples, flavoured with Maraschino and covered with sifted sugar; a bottle of sparkling champagne; tiny cups of fragrant and scalding Mocha coffee; and a bowl of ararak, curaçao, and whisky punch flavoured with many hot invigorating spices. One begins to wonder what appetites this book is really intended to arouse. The food, by the way, is served in 'dainty blue old Delft and Savona ware, for he had already heard of my hobby for old majorlica.'

And so for day 511
07.05.2008