Another Dahl.

This month seems to be dominated by all things Dahl.
From Sophie to Roald and back again.

On Sunday me and Grundy took a trip to Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire the former home of Roald Dahl and present home to The Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre. Grundy has been slightly obsessed with Roald Dahl of late and looking back at my own childhood Dahl has without a doubt played a big part as he has done to so many children for generations. I can remember sitting in bed, probably around the age of seven thumbing through a tattered copy of Georges Marvelous Medicine, the cover art work I recall vividly, a great swirl of turquoise blue wafting up from a cauldron stirred by George and framed in crimson. It was also the first book I can remember reading alone and in one sitting, pretty unremarkable now of course but looking back a triumph in a life of reading.

Great Missenden was a small yet interesting place to look around, this tiny unassuming village is the birthplace of some of the most internationally read and well recognised children's books of all time. The BFG, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Matilda all written in a small shed in a back garden, the village library is where Matilda fell in love with books and knowledge, the red-pump garage as described in Danny & The Champions Of The World and what is now a house was the orphanage as described in The BFG and the great man himself buried in the local church yard at the top of the hill.

It seemed that we were the only Dahl tourists there that day but it was a Sunday and we got up early to make the journey, we started with a cup of tea in the Twits Café where the walls were dotted with framed original pages from Dahl's first notebooks on Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, pages so influential and so accessible nestled alongside pots of sickly candy canes and jars of gobstoppers all good signs.

When we went into the museum itself we were issued with a pamphlet each and told to walk down the corridor as we did so the smell of churned chocolate stroked our nasal passages with Dahl's voice reading pages from well loved memoir 'Boy' exciting the ears. The first room showed images and artifacts from the authors childhood, his school satchel and uniform alongside the little taxidermy mouse used in 'The Great Mouse Plot of 1924.' Passing slabs of Wonka branded chocolate the museum continues with videos of the author at home, a deconstruction of his writing process and you can even sit in the very chair that every Roald Dahl story was written, and of course we did, it'd be rude to pass on such an opportunity.

Although the museum is geared more towards a young audience it is still a fascinating way to spend an hour or so and for the film buffs there are costumes and props from Tim Burton's version of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory including Johnny Depp's Wonka outfit and the re-vamped versions of the Oompa Loompa and also the sets used in Fantastic Mr. Fox.

For any fan of Roald Dahl the shop is a must and there are quite positively hundreds of items all Dahl related from books to prints, pencil cases, DVDs, mugs and more. After the museum you can go on a self guided village trail that takes you to various places of interest culminating in a visit to Dahl's grave where fans have left presents and tributes including a bottle of marvelous medicine and a Wonka bar. Dahl's house is not on the trail as it is still owned by the Dahl family but as we had made a special journey we felt the need to find it and after a short walk and the help of phone based navigational technology we found the famed Gipsy House and from the public pathway that passes at the side of the garden and a quick glimpse through the hedge there, with a bright yellow door was the writing hut, Dahl's much celebrated literary retreat. We were just hoping that the Dahl family didn't see us and call the authorities. I am pleased to report they didn't.

Now that Grundy owns all of the books (more or less) I feel I myself should re-read them, probably starting with Esio Trot, a tortoise based childhood favourite for sure.

"There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination.
Living there, you'll be free if you truly wish to be. " - Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka.

Food.

Once again it has been a while since my fingers have run across these keys. I have recently signed up to an iPhone contract so I've been doing all that is required (as far as emails, Facebook etc) on that; my poor little trusty MacBook has been sobbing, sheathed in an apparently protective layer of purple neoprene in the corner.

Spring is here, probably my favourite time of year: dogs running about in parks, daffodils waking by the towpath, the sun with it's cheery optimistic shine and lashings of clinky drinks, gin and tonics and the like. I have been watching Sophie Dahl's new cookery program, a series that seems so wonderfully and quintessentially British is makes the heart sigh. I must admit when I first heard Miss Dahl was to delve into such a kitchen table culinary foray I watched with an air of caution, Miss Dahl does not eat meat and I rarely trust those that don't especially if it's for any other reason than heeding medical advice.

It almost goes hand in hand with the warnings of butchery scenes before the food television of today. I am of the opinion that if you are to eat meat (or I 'spose it could apply to any food stuffs more or less) you should know of it's origins and where it has come from, if possible.

If you are to eat meat, butchery is after all a reality and I have no problem with seeing meat hanging in the market or things still holding onto their heads post mortality. One of my favourite things to cook is rabbit stew and I have before now decapitated, gutted and skinned a few rabbits from scratch. I am much happier to eat this knowing I prepared it myself; it's not a blood thirsty desire to butcher it is more a chance to exercise my morals when it comes to the consumption of meat per se. These skills of basic food preparation have been lost to shiny artificial produce vac-packed in supermarket chillers ready and waiting for us. I'd be telling porkie pies if I was to say I don't shop in Supermarkets, these days I seem to always shop in supermarkets for the great majority of the time but it is worth remembering the joys of cooking as opposed to just re-heating even if it is as basic as a baked potato. Sometimes the most basic of dishes are the best and most comforting. Cooking is a skill that should be practiced by all.

What Sophie Dahl does is take the most basic recipes but gives them a twist and although Dahl chooses not to eat meat (her prerogative) her meat recipes are re-told with the same charming zeal and passion as the rest. Every dish in her book and series has a back-story and echoes the works of adored food writers Elizabeth David or Jane Grigson; each recipe is evocative of a time in a life, a memory or an emotion. We all eat so therefore we all have food memories, food is a wonderful and much under-estimated emotional trigger.

I am slightly odd in that I really enjoy reading food writing and like nothing more than sitting down with a strong cup of tea, a couple digestive biscuits (to dunk of course) and a heavy lusciously produced cookery book on my lap. I don't have to be consuming the food to find joy in it.

As I glance over at our bookshelf it strains under the pressure of row after row of culinary tome: an ancient copy of Mrs Beeton nestling alongside Nigella, Rick, Jamie, Gordon, Marco and Hugh, Clarissa and Floyd, I have eclectic tastes if nothing else but each has their reason and each one has recipes I have and will return to again and again. A Foodie? I'm not sure, but one thing I do know is I enjoy eating and a treat every now and again is without a doubt a necessity.

Produce does not always have to be lovingly made single handed by a farmers wife and placed into kilner jars with accompanying doilies for it to be good. Ben & Jerry's, Marmite, Cheerios even Mr Kipling etc are all good and very much evocative of different periods in my life. One thing I will say is that you'll never beat a cake made by the W.I. and I wouldn't wish to try either. Who wants a pancake on pancake day without artificial Jif lemon? Not I! Sometimes tradition must hold the upper-hand; the W.I. Victoria Sponge, produced to perfection deserves to sit upon the same pedal-stool as Cadbury's Fruit & Nut or Bassetts Licorice All-Sorts, not the best ingredients, not the healthiest but certainly the most loved. Dahl, among others (I'm thinking of the self-styled domestic goddess that is Nigella Lawson) take the pretensions out of cookery and give us the license to reminisce through gluttony guilt free and surely that is what food is about? Enjoyment? Eat what you wish to eat but be brave from time to time and try new things.

For me knowing your food's origins and how it comes to be upon your plate (the art of butchery as one example) enhances your appreciation for what you are eating. It's perfectly fine to fill up on Cadbury's and chow-down on Golden Grahams but from time to time please support our local artisan producers for whom their produce is not only a passion but a way of life and it'd be a travesty to let them go unnoticed and dissolve into history.