Cuisine, Cookbooks, Corea, and Freedom

"Neither Britain nor America can boast a coherent, admirable, traditional cuisine," says the Arts & Letters Daily blurb linking to this article — Pluck a flamingo. The blurb continues, "That is one reason both lands produce such great cookbooks."

I've heard it said with pride that the idea of a recipe is alien to Koreans. Everthing I know how to cook comes from a recipe, as do most of my favorite dishes of my mother (but not my father's chili, interestingly). My wife gets her cooking ideas from phonecalls to her mother or one of her sisters.

While it may be true that we English-speakers cannot boast of our food, we can boast of our freedoms, the Rights of Englishmen, even as they are under assault (not by "Islamo-fascists" but by our own governments). I'd rather die standing on my feet than living (and eating fine foods) on my knees.