British Quality Shirt Makers

For as long as I can recall, Jermyn Street has been synonymous with quality tailored products for the discerning gentleman.

Jermyn Street had everything. Shirts, ties, suits, colourful corduroy trousers of a certain weight, shoes -  the list goes on.

When as a student I lived in London,
I would visit Trumpers for a monthly haircut. Their West Indies Lime cologne remains a classic. Perhaps I was born middle aged. But I just enjoyed and revelled in the idea of tradition,  quality and helpful service.

Jermyn Street shirts are excellent long term value. I've had some that have lasted over twenty years.

But it seems that Jermyn Street shopping is no longer synonymous with the best of British manufacture.

The washing instructions label on a recently bought shirt says it was made in Vietnam. So it's worth asking the shop assistant for provenance of their wares these days. The shirts in the shops are in sealed bags, so you can't root about to check these things whilst on the premises.

Perhaps this is part of the sad decline of British manufacturing. Presently there are about 19,000 employees in textiles and garment making in the UK.

One hundred years ago over a million people worked in the same industry.

So,  at those Jermyn Street prices it's worth checking before you buy.

Even better,  wait for the sales.

Corgis, The Queen and Princess Beatrice.

At this time of year the Queen hits the Highlands.
The dogs come too.



Oh dear. It looks like the Queen's corgis have been acting a bit rough whilst on their holidays in Balmoral, the monarch's rather chilly, gloomy and under-heated home in Scotland.


Brenda has always liked corgis. Her first one was called Susan.

The Queen has three Corgis – Monty, Holly, Willow. She also has three Dorgis (cross-breed of Dachshund and Corgi) Cider, Candy, Vulcan.

Whilst on holiday, she would bury the children in the sand to the great amusement of the corgis.



Perhaps it was the travelling or the change in routine. The corgis set on the Norfolk terrier owned by Princess Beatrice. Here's a picture of her with the dog. The dog is on the right. Many think that the unfortunate princess looks like her father in drag. How do they know this with such confidence?



It seems that the official royal dog walker lost control of the pack and they attacked the non-corgi interloper. Another vet bill no doubt.

Fax for the memory

The first commercially available digital fax machine was the Dacom Rapidfax first sold in the1960s. It used digital data compression technology that was initially developed by the Lockheed company for efficient transmission of digital images from satellites.

Nowadays in the UK, most fax machines can be found in office cupboards, attics and junk shops. But according the news this week the fax is thriving in Japan.

Calligraphy is respected art in Japan and many professionals write letters by hand rather than type them.

Email is often perceived as a characterless means of communication, if you'll forgive the pun.

Almost 90% of Japanese businessmen surveysayer entry say that a fax machine is a vital business tool.



The majority of job applications and CVs are handwritten because Japanese employers like to judge applicants' personalities from their handwriting.

Could you imagine that in the UK, where many school leavers are unable to write decent English. Text speak is even used in GCSE exams I'm told.

So I dug my old fax machine out, with plans to fax rather than post letters. The cost of UK post is a real disincentive to the art of letter writing.

Two problems:-
- You can't get the thermal paper any more.
- Hardly anyone has a fax. They're all in other cupboards or attics.

FresianBook, milk yields and social networking in cows

Another story that avoids the Olympic 'O' word. You couldn't make it up.

Despite our double dip recession that's looking for its triple dip, there seems to be no shortage of money for pointless academic research projects.



The University of Exeter has got both DEFRA and independent milk industry funding for a study into the social skills and friend-making ability of cows.

The aim is to electronically tag a herd of cows and then to study their movement by satellite tracking over three years. This will help them to understand how cows make friends with other cows, develop those relationships, achieve boundless happiness and then increase their milk yield.



I'm not sure of the relationship between happiness and milk yield. But we do know that oxytocin, the milk releasing hormone has a direct effect on serotonin neurons in the brain. This could be a case of the tail wagging the cow. So much for the null hypothesis too.

On a comparative biology basis. Do women who are more sociable, with more friends have a higher milk yield? I don't think so.

Evidence That Oxytocin Exerts Anxiolytic Effects via Oxytocin Receptor Expressed in Serotonergic Neurons in Mice
Masahide Yoshida, Yuki Takayanagi, Kiyoshi Inoue, Tadashi Kimura, Larry J. Young, Tatsushi Onaka, and Katsuhiko Nishimori

The Journal of Neuroscience, 18 February 2009, 29(7): 2259-2271; doi: 10.1523/​JNEUROSCI.5593-08.2009

Subterfuge about subfusc.

The Olympics is truly upon us. A woman in Tesco said "It's only the second day. When will it all end? They must have run out of things to bore us with. Every non-British win is another little national disaster. Who gives a sh*t!"

But I've managed to find an unrelated story, hidden under all the Olympic news.



So to Oxford. Several months after Brasenose College gave some guidance on the wearing of pyjamas at breakfast in hall there's more news on the dress code front for undergraduates.

Now, Oxford University students will no longer be obliged to wear 'gender-specific' academic clothing. The reason? It seems that the traditional approach of male or female clothing has offended the transgender community.



http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/statutes/regulations/48-012.shtml



This will look good at the next set of exams. It will mean that men can attend formal occasions in skirts, blouses and stockings and women can wear suits and white bow ties on a white shirt.

It seems that somebody passed a motion, in a nice sort of way. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer society (LGBTQ Soc.) motion was passed by the students' union earlier this year. The University has agreed, out of a sense of fairness and good humour. The rules come into play from the start of August.

The LGBTQ came up with some bollocks about the change in the rules making a number of students' exam experience significantly less stressful.

At the moment if a transgender student wants to wear subfusc of the opposite sex they must ask for special dispensation from the university proctors.

No doubt we'll get some good pictures from some of the more over enthusiastic dining societies.



The Bullingdon in Ball gowns?





David and Boris posing with the Bullingdon.




Our glorious chancellor.

Sephardi Cuisine - Coriander and Cardamom

This is the Sephardic Museum in Toledo.






Sephardi Jewish cooking developed alongside the local cookery traditions of Spain and Portugal. Due to the influence of Muslim rule of Southern Spain a lot of exotic ingredients, not common to Europe became part of the regular diet.






Caraway, coriander, cumin and turmeric feature in the cooking. Olives and pickled vegetables would be served as a accompaniment to meat dishes.






Like Gulf Arabic coffee of today they used cardamom in their coffee. Chopped mint was added to salads and was used to make a refreshing drink mixed with lemon. You can still get mint and lemon - nana wa limoon - in most Arabic speaking countries today.

As a modern variant on Sephardi cooking, I offer you a recipe for Ginger and coriander fishcakes, served on a lemon and tomato salsa bed.

Sephardi Fish Cakes

Ingredients
2 Medium size brown onions - peeled and finely chopped
2 Slices of brown bread
750 g Haddock - free os kin and bones - minced
5 Garlic cloves - minced
100 g Coriander - chopped
1/2 Tsp Garam masala
1/2 Tsp Ground ginger
3/4 Tsp Paprika
3/4 Tsp Ground turmeric
1/2 Tsp Cayenne pepper
1 Egg
1 Large matzo biscuit - ground in a blender to a fine meal
50 ml Olive oil
5 Ripe medium tomatoes - diced with central part removed
1 Flesh of lemon - without pips- diced
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Directions
Soak the bread in water for 5-10 minutes, them squeeze out the water, making a ball of wet bread in the hand.






Put the bread in a food mixer. Add the fish and the ginger.
Add the cayenne pepper and seasoning. Then add half of each of the following, as the rest will be needed for the salsa. Coriander, garam masala, garlic and turmeric.
Mix together until it forms a wet dough-like consistency.






Place in the fridge to cool. The metal mixer bowl is ideal for this.






Then start on the salsa preparation. Heat the oil in a pan, then add the garlic and onion. Cook on a medium heat until the onion is softening and starting to turn golden. Add the remaining spices.






Take the fix mix out of the fridge and after wetting the hands, roll the mixture into golf-ball sized pieces.






Flatten a little and then dip into the matzo meal to form a fine coating.






Fry the fish cakes in shallow olive oil for 5-10 minutes until the outside is
going golden brown and the inside is cooked. Remove from the pan and put onto kitchen towel.






Serve the fish cakes on the hot salsa base. Garnish with fresh coriander and lemon wedges.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Rhubarb

Rhubarb is a vegetable and not a fruit. Official.

The rhubarb season in the UK is limited, but getting better due to growing it under cover and with forcing it in long pipes or specially made pottery.




As a variant from the normal pudding I offer you a Rhubarb and Raspberry Crumble.

Preparation Time 15 minutes

Cooking Time 1 hour

Ingredients

Base
400g Rhubard stalks, cut to 10cm lengths
50g Brown sugar
200g Raspberries pulped in a blender
2 tbsp Sherry

Topping
100g Plain flour
100g Butter
100g Brown sugar
50g Ground almonds
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

Preparation

Base
Put the rhubarb, sugar and sherry in a pan with a lid. Allow the rhubarb
to soften on a medium heat. 5-10 minutes usually.





Then add the raspberry pulp and mix well.




Put the rhubarb and raspberry mix, with the liquid into an oven dish.




Topping
Mix the butter, ground almonds and flour together until it forms a
breadcrumb-like texture.
Add the sugar and vanilla essence and mix.
Place the mixture on top of the fruit layer, fairly evenly, but allowing
a few lines for the juices to flow out.
Bake at 200C for 45 minutes.




Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before serving. This lets the fruitjuices underneath soak up into the crumble layer.

Serve hot, with custard, yoghurt or crème fraîche.

Here it is as a recipe chart. Just click on it to make it bigger.