Archive for December, 2008

Bouillabaisse - the history, and a modern recipe

There are many poor people’s meals that have been transformed into haute cuisine, with expensive restaurants and celebrity chefs vying for the right to claim that they are the only ones to offer the real thing at outrageous prices. Bouillabaisse is one of the better-known.
Tradition places the origins of bouillabaisse with the Phoceans, an ancient [...]

Vendée Globe - textbook rescue of Yann Eliés

The Vendée Globe organisers’ faith in the experience and competence of the Australian Navy when it comes to rescues in the southern ocean was fully justified.
Rather than wait for a naval doctor, the frigate Arunta set out with a civilian.
Knowing the conditions and the forecast, and mindful of the difficulties of using a helicopter to [...]

Figgy Dowdy - pudding and well

Up on a hill in Cornwall, beside the road from Redruth to Lanner, there’s an ancient pagan well called Figgy Dowdy’s Well. It has a beehive stone roof and steps down to clear water, and used to be a favourite place for little girls to christen their dolls on Good Friday. The iron gate is [...]

Vendée Globe - Yann Eliés fractured left femur

Yann Eliés fractured his left femur while working in the bow pulpit, when the boat decelerated rapidly from about 18 knots. Initially, he crawled back to the cockpit and radioed for assistance. Later, he managed to get below and into the navigator’s bunk to immobilise the leg. He was unable to reach the medical cabinet, [...]

Vendée Globe - one stretcher case, three limping wounded

Mike Golding, having proved his tactics by taking the lead after LoÏc Peyron dismasted, has now lost his own mast. That makes three battered boats sailing to Perth, and one is still pretty flaky. Local workers created a steel structure to allow the keel of Temenos to be held in place and allow a small [...]