Elizabeth David (1913–1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid- 20th century she helped revitalise home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and books about European cuisines and traditional British dishes. Born to an upper-class family, she studied art in Paris and travelled to Greece, where she was nearly trapped by the German invasion in 1941. Returning to England in 1946, she was dismayed by the contrast between the bad food served in Britain and the simple foods she had enjoyed in France, Greece and Egypt. She wrote magazine articles about Mediterranean cooking, and in 1950 published A Book of Mediterranean Food. Her recipes called for ingredients such as aubergines, basil, figs, garlic, olive oil and saffron, which at the time were scarcely available in Britain. By the 1960s David was a major influence on domestic and professional British cooking. Between 1950 and 1984 she published eight books; after her death a further four were published.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_David
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
853:
Byzantine–Arab Wars: The Byzantine navy began to sack and plunder the port city of Damietta on the Nile Delta, whose garrison was absent at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Damietta_(853)
1762:
The Trevi Fountain in Rome was officially inaugurated by Pope Clement XIII. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevi_Fountain
1849:
Abraham Lincoln was issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, making him the only U.S. President to ever hold a patent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln%27s_patent
1958:
Ethnic rioting broke out in Ceylon, targeted mostly at the minority Sri Lankan Tamils, resulting in up to 300 deaths over the next five days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_anti-Tamil_pogrom
2012:
Tokyo Skytree, the tallest tower in the world at a height of 634 m (2,080 ft), opened to the public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Skytree
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
food web:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/food_web
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The progress of the sciences toward theories of fundamental unity, cosmic symmetry (as in the unified field theory) — how do such theories differ, in the end, from that unity which Plato called “unspeakable” and “indiscribable,” the holistic knowledge shared by so many peoples of the earth, Christians included, before the advent of the industrial revolution made new barbarians of the peoples of the West? In the United States, before spiritualist foolishness at the end of the last century confused mysticism with “the occult” and tarnished both, William James wrote a master work of metaphysics; Emerson spoke of “the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal One . . .”; Melville referred to “that profound silence, that only voice of God”; Walt Whitman celebrated the most ancient secret, that no God could be found “more divine than yourself.” And then, almost everywhere, a clear and subtle illumination that lent magnificence to life and peace to death was overwhelmed in the hard glare of technology. Yet that light is always present, like the stars of noon. Man must perceive it if he is to transcend his fear of meaningless, for no amount of “progress” can take its place. --Peter Matthiessen https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Matthiessen
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