Atdtda22: [42.1i] Consumption, 605

[Paul Nightingale]

[605.4-5] ... a Full English Breakfast modified for the Pythagorean dietary
here ...

Hence something that looks like something else, eg "imitation sausages"
[605.5] and, later on, the "vegetarian haggis" [605.25].


If one were to ask a sample of British people what they understand by the
term 'British food', their responses would not be identical but would tend
to overlap in ways which might encourage the notion of a 'core national
diet'. A day's 'menu' might be: the full English breakfast (fried egg,
bacon, sausage, tomato, etc.); roast meat (especially beef) with all the
trimmings; afternoon tea with scones and/or home made cake; and fish and
chips for supper. Remote though this may be from the daily food consumption
of most British people, there is nonetheless a case for arguing that this
constitutes a national diet as defined by the collective imaginings of the
people.

From: Ashley, B, Hollows, J, Jones, S & Taylor, B, Food and Cultural
Studies, New York: Routledge, 2004, 76.

Later, with reference to Anderson's imagined community (81), Ashley et al
continue: "Food is clearly instrumental in the identification of 'other'
nations." (83)


Note also Vance Aychrome's "insatiability" [605.10]. The man shovels food in
a manner reminiscent of Mr Creosote; his appetite, bordering on the
indiscriminate, is juxtaposed to his principles (or at least the principles
underpinning a vegetarian diet).


[605.12-13] ... a fool's errand around here on the best of mornings ...

Unable to find a decent cup of coffee Lew is perhaps suffering withdrawal
symptoms. Cf. his continuing attachment to cyclomite, eg the opening of Ch20
on 233:

... proceeding, desperately, from such opiated catarrh preparations as
Collis Brown's Mixture on to cocainized brain tonics, cigarettes soaked in
absinthe, xylene in unventilated rooms, and so on, each proving inadequate,
often pathetically so, as a substitute for the reality-modifying explosive
he had enjoyed back in his former or Stateside existence. 

And so to:

[605.17-20] ... coffee around here was apt to taste like anything but
coffee, owing to folks's tendencies to use the only grinder in the house to
prepare curry powder, incense, even pigments for indecipherable works of
art, so he ended up, as usual, with a chipped mug of pale, uneventful tea
...

Another poor substitute.