Terry Pratchett had a quote for everything
THE WISEST AND FUNNIEST OF MEN - REST IN PEACE
“This wasn't food - it was what food became if it had been good and gone to food heaven.” Wee Free Men
I have just finished reading Sir Terry Pratchett's last book The Shepherd's Crown (yes he was knighted and a very good thing too). As everybody knows he died last year of Alzheimer's Disease. A tragedy and I will say no more about it. Just go to the web and you will find literally hundreds of tributes. Suffice to say that I have read just about all of his books - certainly all of the major ones, and will seek out the few I have missed.
I have a little book beside my bed in which I write quotes that strike me as memorable, as I read. Terry Pratchett is probably the author with most entries in that book. They are mostly about Life, the Universe and Everything - about big things - but as portrayed through the lives of little people, sometimes literally little, for whom he had a great respect and love. And women.
But this blog is supposed to be about food and I thought to see what he had to say about food.
I suspect he had little time for fancy food. Most of his food references are to the food of the poor, and the undiscriminating. Those who like all of the wrong things. He refers several times to a diner in Ankh Morpork (note the name Morpork - I think he loved pork products - the more sausage and bacon the better), called The Greasy Spoon.
“Sham Harga had run a successful eatery for many years by always smiling, never extending credit, and realizing that most of his customers wanted meals properly balanced between the four food groups: sugar, starch, grease and burnt crunchy bits.”
– Men at Arms
"...the food was good solid stuff for a cold morning, all calories and fat and protein and maybe a vitamin crying softly because it was all alone." Guards, Guards
(The illustration is not from his books but from somebody paying homage to them)
But at the same time as he shows a kind of fondness for this kind of food, he is also aware of its dangers - some of the food he describes is truly awful, and he does warn one to be careful. One website which listed various things you should know about Discworld said: "Be cautious of street food" and quoted the following as an example:
"Long before the streets of London were overrun with upmarket burger vans, taco shacks and the like, Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler was purveying the classic ‘sausage inna bun’.
It’s best not to think too much about what the sausage is actually made of, and therefore only something to eat if desperate.
Still, you can guarantee it’s a good price."
In this short passage, there is amused contempt for 'foodie fashions' such as taco shacks and the like, contempt for rubbish food, but sympathy for those who have to eat it because they can afford nothing else, as well as amused and grudging respect for those who exploit a business opportunity - Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler pops up regularly throughout the books, wherever there is a crowd he is selling them something they crave - like a 'sausage inna bun'. Think Australian sausage sizzles. And then there is this experience he had (I'm guessing in America):
"I once absent-mindedly ordered Three Mile Island dressing in a restaurant and, with great presence of mind, they brought Thousand Island Dressing and a bottle of chilli sauce"
Food in his books is curative and restorative, as well as occasionally poisonous, and often associated with home - a most important place in the Discworld novels - even Death has one. Indeed Death itself is sort of a home. I'll conclude with the latest quote I wrote in my little book, from The Shepherd's Crown. It's not about food but it's a good quote to end on.
"The Feegles believe that they are dead. This world is so filled with all they like, they argue, that they must have been really good in a past life and then died and ended up here. Appearing to die here means merely going back to the Last World, which they believe is rather dull."
