M&D - Chapter 18 - Rather early for a Ploughman's Lunch

[Allan Balliett]

Johnny - Do you mind defining 'pickle' in a ploughman's lunch as opposed
to, say, 'pickle' on a burger from McDonalds in the states? As an American
I was baffled when I was introduced to British (indian?) 'pickle' by a
British university student who was interning with me a few years back.

-Allan in WV, where 'pickle' and 'jam' are sometimes synonymous

On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 10:23 PM, Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:

> Our heroes return, "back with Senses Boggl'd from War, Slavery,
> Successful, Obs, the wind at St Helena, unaccustom'd Respect from their
> Peers". In short, they have seen the stars, and the darker side of mankind,
> yet arrived home as a newfound success. They decide not to reveal and
> misgivings when they address the Royal Society, omitting any concerns about
> Maskeylne as they "find they have nothing but good to say of all they have
> met at St. Helena and the Cape".
>
> The Tops a-spin comment suggests both the giddy daze of new celebrity, but
> possibly also that they are unwitting pieces in some greater force's game?
>
> Dixon soon leaves home - he is a man of simpler pleasures than London
> insists upon, unmpressed by a lunchtime helping at the Mitre, instead left
> reminiscing about The Jolly Pitman in Staindrop (An actual pub? A
> convincing name? Or an oblique reference to Northern English mining
> communities, the forgotten furnace of the Empire?)
>
> The Ploughman's Lunch continues the cheese theme - in case you've not
> sampled the delights of British pub food, it's essentially a big slice of
> cheese (nothing fancy, preferably Cheddar or Stilton), with plenty of
> pickle and butter, sandwiched between two thick sliced crusts and with a
> side order ranging from beetroot, aplles, miniature salads and Scotch eggs).
>
> Yet our close and trusted advisor wikipedia informs us that the
> Ploughman's lunch is a neo-classical culinary invention - introduced in the
> 1960s to invoke a traditional British pub menu that never existed in the
> first place. In short, TRP seems guilty of an anachronism! Scandalous
>
>
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