I just read the loveliest YA book! It's a collection of three stories called Tumtum & Nutmeg: Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall, by Emily Bearns, and it has some of my favorite things:
- Posh Brits (well, mice) with big houses and modest expectations;
- Characters who keep falling into adventures when they'd rather be curled up with a nice book; and
- Fictional mice (much more adorable than non-fictional mice, which can be a bit creepy scurrying around your apartment in the dark).
Included: an evil aunt, pogo stick–wielding ballerinas, and pirate rats! Highly recommended (particularly for the younger set, mind you). But the author's cutie-patootie website has fun for all ages—namely, a recipe for Peppermint Creams. I'm not sure what those are, but they sound lovely.
In other food news, London events company Bompas & Parr, which is apparently an extremely sensitive establishment, "created black cherry and Champagne jellies set with 24-carat gold" to serve last Tuesday in honor of Michael Jackson's memorial. Um, Jell-O? Really? For mourning cakes? Inappropriate much?
More thrillingly, I just found a website called British Food Direct, "for expats and British food lovers," and I think it's going to change my life, despite their faint grasp of English grammar (see below). I mean, holy Cadbury chocolate, Batman! This is fantastic! I will keep you posted.
Finally, my mom is in town, and we stopped in my local Irish grocer for some Nutella tonight. An adorable, white-haired old Irishman asked my mom where the custard was; she didn't know where (or what) it was, so he went off to ask someone else. Instead of getting help from someone who worked there, he asked another man who had been waiting in line, and who led him to it in the back of the store while the cashier held the line for him. A discussion on how to make custard from a powder followed. (Add milk. Bring to boil. Add awesome Irish accent to taste.)
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