Daily Holidays - February 5

[betsuni]

3. Happy Birthday to Joris-Karl Huysmans

I love his "Against the Grain":

"In the room ... beer pumps stood on a counter near hams having the color of violins, red lobsters, marinated mackerel, with onion and carrots, slices of lemon, bunches of laurel and thyme, juniper berries and long peppers swimming in thick sauce. The only ones eating were unescorted women in pairs, robust English women with boyish faces; large teeth, ruddy apple cheeks, long hands and legs. They attacked, with genuine ardor, a rumpsteak pie, a warm meat dish cooked in mushroom sauce and covered in a crust, like a pie. He ordered oxtail soup and ... a haddock and, seized with a sudden hunger at the sight of so many people relishing their food, he ate some roast beef and drank two pints of ale. He lingered over a piece of Stilton cheese, made good work of a rhubarb tart, and ... quenched his thirst with porter, that dark beer which smells of Spanish licorice but which does not have the sugary taste."