Full of Eastern Promise

I have realised that, having trumpeted this blog being about food and books, I very rarely write about either one. So, I have to report that I made Moroccan Lamb and Chickpea Soup last night, and very nice it was too.

And I further report I am reading "The Case of Spring-Heeled Jack" which features the (alas) fictional adventures of Algernon Swinburne and Sir Richard Burton, which ties in nicely to the Eastern theme as he spent much of his life researching and translating Arabian poetry. Tah-dah! Book and cooking tie in.

Spring Heeled Jack was a peculiar thing. In Victorian London he appears as a cloaked figure, spitting fire and able to leap over walls in a single bound. He attacked several people and in one really scary incident, spat fire at a woman who answered her door when he knocked. Her sister came to her rescue and shut the door in Jack's face. BUT rather than run away, he just carried on knocking....brrrrr...shiver.

Who knows who or what he was? One things for sure, between Jack (both bouncy and rippery), opium dens, Moriarty, and sundry other unpleasant types, Victorian Britain probably wins the "Scariest Time"award; doesn't mean I wouldn't want to visit! In a gesture that can only mean it's true love, the Husband has booked us onto the Jack The Ripper walking tour....I shall have to resist the temptation to correct the host and start looking for blood stains....