the iron curtain. The Greeks, Italians and Yugoslays compete in
pickling them. And, yes, even the Frogs are not totally immune. A good rouille will have some chilli. I gave, here, some while ago, a Setois recipe for raw baby squid marinaded in olive oil, red chillies and garlic. Chillies can appear in south-western French omelettes and I once enjoyed, near Avignon, a huge dish of chicken joints fried with whole red chillies and tomatoes.
Since we are dealing generally with 000h-making ingredients: it's not just chil- lies. There are the mustards including the fiery English and Japanese mustards; Wasabi — Japanese green horseradish; snorting black Spanish radish and our own horseradish. Not the stuff in bottles all liquidised in artificial cream sauce, but long knobbly roots which do more good than a sauna when you peel them and sets the most obstinate and entrenched catarrh on the run. Just the thing with beef but also with pickled fish, smoked fish and fresh 'Good heavens, Charlie, the bottom has dropped out of Teddy Bears.' The girls — of both sexes — who refuse `hot things' are not rejecting the second- rate Vindaloo at the nearby Taj but the cuisines of most of the world and an array of 'hot' ingredients. They should go into hiding for the rest of Lent, get used to proper food and not join civilised company till they can eat properly.
In case a few do not immediately take such obviously sensible advice and lest we be forced to eat their food, chaps who like their oomph are advised always to carry with them a phial of the most versatile blend, a judicious mix of roasted and ground dried red chillies with ground black pepper, which Mrs A refers to as Stendhal — ideal for defensive and offensive pur- poses.
Digby Anderson
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