Apres La Guerre

‘Nothing much changes under the sun,’ some say.

And yet there are also others who say: ‘you can never swim in the exact same stream twice.’

Pullum Frontonianum

fried chicken ancient roman style

Here is a pic of some fried chicken done in the way of a recipe dating from around the 4^th Century in Ancient Rome. This dish is called ‘Pullum Frontonianum’ (it’s still called that, btw) and its is based around a marinade of olive oil, dill, red wine, salt, dried rose petals, ground coriander seed, black pepper, and fig syrup – with the whole thing fried first to get it crisp and brown on the outside, and then slowly baked with the marinade again added regularly over the top during the baking process.

Those Formula 1 car racing teams and drivers sponsored by Total Oil will not quite be the same as they were before the jolly fat man with the handlebar moustache was a regular figure in the garages and in the hospitality tents.

 

Total is sponsor of Romain Grosjean
and the Infinity Red Bull Team

De Margerie was from the same family that owns Taittinger Champagne, a very fine accompaniment to Apicus Chicken – the other name for the chicken recipe above, named after the recipe book in which the recipe was first recorded – as far as we know – with that book also dating from around the 4^th Century.

So, does everything change, or does nothing really change.

Well, we can hardly go past the French for the answer: ‘apres la guerre – la guerre.’ And ‘plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.’

Here is a nice memorial to M. De Margerie:

http://www.forumspb.com/

...At the bottom of the page. Until last night his pic and his position were right in the middle of all the other dudes here.