Answer : Berry Pie
Posts Tagged ‘John Sunderland’
Life Cafe 983 Riddle Raffle June 11 – June 18
East Village Riddle Raffle JUNE 4 – JUNE 11
Answer: Beef it up!
Artists’ comment by John Sunderland.
There’s something about the way that cattle seem to look at the world, with complete complacency and acceptance. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see
a cow drifting by, chewing the cud, suspended irrationally in the sky, as though it was the most normal way for a cow to get about.
The thing about surreal illustrations is that they have to be well executed, this image is not quite there. I would like to try it again as a painting and take more time over it. I have alway had trouble with cows!
983 Riddle Raffle JUNE 4- JUNE 11
ANSWER
Gammon is an English name for thick cut bacon- bacon is the flesh of a pig- and this is the back of a pig! Hence Backgammon. I’ve been told that Americans don’t know or use the word ‘Gammon’ apart from in the sense
of BackGammon the game. Well you learn something new everyday folks!
However for that fact, on the Obscurity chart, this ranks a 7, that doesn’t count if you are European in which case the obscurity level would be a one or two.
Cheers, John, the Old Yorkshireman in New York.
983 Riddle Raffle MAY 29- JUNE 4
‘LEMON CHEESECAKE’ artists’ note, by John Sunderland.
Cheeky huh! I Iooked in our fridge the other day and there was this lonely lemon sat on a shelf, and coincidentally, at Life Cafe Bushwick we had Lemon Cheesecake on the menu…so.
Clues wise, ‘Cheesecake’ was the generic term used for the kind of glamour illustrations and calendar photos that my dad would used to have in his office. So here is my
image of a sexy lemon inspired by the blonde and lovely, ‘Miss April’ from 1961. ( I am currently being investigated by the anti-sexism organization for exploitation of citrus fruit. Obscurity level, I give it a 3 on a scale of 10.
983 Riddle Raffle: MAY 21- MAY 28
‘FRENCH KISS’ The picture riddle from the East Village, first week in June, 2010 artists’ note by John Sunderland
The inspiration for ‘French Kiss’ came from my memories of my first French Greeting- being kissed on both sides of the face by a french person, (rather than the french kiss, full on back of the throat job).
In this illustration, the clues are; the embarrassed look on the young man’s face, (I remember what that felt like coming from a shy English background). The chap is intentionally wimpish, the french rail ticket in his pocket tells you where he is, the red-white and blue cravat, could be English, could be French. However on the obscurity level I think it ranks a 7 from a possible 10 and if you got it, you must be a genius, congratulations!
'french kiss'
A NATION DIPPED IN BATTER AND DEEP FRIED
By John Sunderland,
the Yorkshireman in New York
A recent menu item at Life Café Bushwick has been the beer battered fish and chips.
I regard myself as something of an English aficionado of fish and chips, and I must say the Bushwick version are pretty damn good and come close to the original English item from half a century ago.
You know people say that memory gilds the truth. Well that may be the case in general, but when it comes to the fish and chips which our local chip-shop served up back in my Yorkshire village in the late nineteen fifties, the memory doesn’t need gilding. Those fish and chips were truly golden!
So what made them so special? Well of course the quality of the fish and potatoes. But more than that, it was the batter the fish was coated in and the fat they were fried in.
Now I’m talking about the time before we got health conscious in respect of what we put into our bodies. (Yes even that has happened in England now). In post war Britain (I was born in 1950), we had rationing until 1953. Believe me by then we were all very hungry and I think we’d have eaten pretty much about anything. In fact no one spoke about health issues when it came to food. Which, conversely is why the fish and chips were so wonderful. There was none of this erogenated fat blah back then mate. It was all good artery-clogging killer stuff, and nobody worried!
The fat that was to be melted down to cook the fish and chips came to the chippy in the shape of huge great boxes of white lard. This was cut up in lumps and dropped into the friers, which were the gas-heated frying pans the size of small bathtubs half full of golden bubbling boiling liquid fat.
The fish was then battered in a gluey white egg and flower paste and slipped into the boiling fat, which had been brought up to certain critical temperature. Later the raw potato chips were tossed in naked, to swim around and keep the fish company.
What happened in the frier was shear alchemy, because what the lard had been rendered down from imparted to the fish, chips and the frying batter, a wonderful and unique flavor.
Now, I’d like to say it was the rare and special ingredients that made the fat so good, but the opposite was true. Rather it was made from all the parts of animals that they couldn’t find any other use for; in fact from all the fatty bits that a civilized and health conscious human being should have run away from.
However, it may have been rendered from virtual animal waste products, but that fat cooked the batter just right, to a light and crunchy golden taste-delicious melt-in-your-mouth angel fodder, which I’ve never tasted since. And what made them smell and taste even more delicious as you poured it over the frosting of salt on your haddock and chips, was Malt Vinegar. So if you try our golden delicious fish and chips, don’t forget to ask for the vinegar and splash it on, you never know, you might be about to eat a golden memory.
New Riddle Raffle @ Life Cafe 983
Can you guess what menu item this represents? Come in and submit your answer and you may win a bottle of champagne or other prizes.
Life with… Figit & the Weed
New Riddle Raffle – Life Cafe 983
