The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[vinteuil]

Covering a spit with samphire leaves is a way to madness, and not much better if it's the lark so covered, which is what I assume was meant. Samphire doesn't have leaves and even with the bacon to hold it on to the lark I question how successful it would be, especially if the spit were rotated. I suppose that's why one has staff - their problem... Would the gin-soaked crouton end up flambe given that the toasting would be over an open fire?

.

... I did wonder about her use of samphire. Of course there is a problem in knowing what she meant - we here might mean -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salicornia_europaea

which is I think what we might buy in specialist shops or encounter in restaurants, but she might have meant -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crithmum

as encountered in King Lear - or again, as it was Sarah Bernhardt she might have meant -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_samphire

.

[oddoneout]

Sarah Bernhardt has a recipe :

"Pound in a mortar the flesh of two larks; add some butter, some chopped samphire, some breadcrumbs soaked in milk, some Malaga raisins, and some crushed juniper berries.

Stuff a third lark with the mixture and roast it on a spit covered with samphire leaves and a strip of fat bacon.

Serve on a crouton soaked in gin, and then toasted and buttered."

Yummy !

Covering a spit with samphire leaves is a way to madness, and not much better if it's the lark so covered, which is what I assume was meant. Samphire doesn't have leaves and even with the bacon to hold it on to the lark I question how successful it would be, especially if the spit were rotated. I suppose that's why one has staff - their problem... Would the gin-soaked crouton end up flambe given that the toasting would be over an open fire?

[Sir Velo]

I think that rather like the stocks of pheasant and grouse that litter the British countryside there is an inexhaustible supply of lark in the BBC larder.

[vinteuil]

Well they are running down the (admittedly ample ) stocks of Larks with one more Ascending even as I type. ..

Sarah Bernhardt has a recipe :

"Pound in a mortar the flesh of two larks; add some butter, some chopped samphire, some breadcrumbs soaked in milk, some Malaga raisins, and some crushed juniper berries.

Stuff a third lark with the mixture and roast it on a spit covered with samphire leaves and a strip of fat bacon.

Serve on a crouton soaked in gin, and then toasted and buttered."

Yummy !

[french frank]

Well they are running down the (admittedly ample ) stocks of Larks with one more Ascending even as I type. ..

In Wright's time, two claims were made to explain how Radio 3 differed fundamentally from Classic FM: we play works in full and we don't operate a 'playlist' (oh, halcyon days when that was true). Technically, the music to be played was the 'running order', not the playlist.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Yes, you don't want too much inventory "laying" (sic) around the place, do you?

Well they are running down the (admittedly ample ) stocks of Larks with one more Ascending even as I type. ..

[Serial_Apologist]

Another from the non-existent playlist, although having a restricted playlist is probably cheaper in some way - an argument that will go down well with managers who come to the BBC from a commercial background.

Yes, you don't want too much inventory "laying" (sic) around the place, do you?

[french frank]

Heigh - ho . Another day , another Breakfast , another l’Île Joyeuse. Enough already - other Debussy piano pieces are available. Good playing though ….

Another from the non-existent playlist, although having a restricted playlist is probably cheaper in some way - an argument that will go down well with managers who come to the BBC from a commercial background.

[french frank]

Oh dear, Anton...

...have you been cancelled?

Yep, I'm quick on the trigger! But that was yesterday, today I may pause or reverse what I decided yesterday. Or enter into negotiations with anton

[Ein Heldenleben]

Heigh - ho . Another day , another Breakfast , another l’Île Joyeuse. Enough already - other Debussy piano pieces are available. Good playing though ….

[antongould]

Oh dear, Anton...

...have you been cancelled?

Decades ago jc

[Old Grumpy]

Listening midst the bird song of the pit heaps to Petroc’s last Breakfast, sounds to me at least like a fitting end to a wonderful period. I have to admit I wasn’t a fan of his but I have come to very much appreciate him. I may be wrong but feel he was pushed as he refused the cheap day return to Salford.
As to the show itself I feel it has really changed very little over the last nearly 20 years - the short warhorses, long adverts, too many requests debates will continue no doubt.
If I ran the BBC I would give Petroc his 12 weeks in Cornwall and 12 weeks cycling through London and do the rest from Salford and do a similar split with Essential Georgia and...???

Oh dear, Anton...

...have you been cancelled?

[antongould]

Yes, I've been at pains here to point the finger at an anonymous "R3" rather than an individual presenter. Though presenters have been known to give up rather than compromise. I feel there's a fundamental dishonesty about somehow suggesting that there is something 'purer' about R3 compared with other popular purveyors of classical music. If only it were so. As to whether R3 is now at 'rock bottom', I'm sure it can and will descend further into the abyss under the current management . It's no argument to say that accusations of 'dumbing down' have been around for years. It just means the dumbing down has been going on for years.

Listening midst the bird song of the pit heaps to Petroc’s last Breakfast, sounds to me at least like a fitting end to a wonderful period. I have to admit I wasn’t a fan of his but I have come to very much appreciate him. I may be wrong but feel he was pushed as he refused the cheap day return to Salford.
As to the show itself I feel it has really changed very little over the last nearly 20 years - the short warhorses, long adverts, too many requests debates will continue no doubt.
If I ran the BBC I would give Petroc his 12 weeks in Cornwall and 12 weeks cycling through London and do the rest from Salford and do a similar split with Essential Georgia and

[french frank]

To be fair it was probably the producer who decided to play the single variation ..

Yes, I've been at pains here to point the finger at an anonymous "R3" rather than an individual presenter. Though presenters have been known to give up rather than compromise. I feel there's a fundamental dishonesty about somehow suggesting that there is something 'purer' about R3 compared with other popular purveyors of classical music. If only it were so. As to whether R3 is now at 'rock bottom', I'm sure it can and will descend further into the abyss under the current management . It's no argument to say that accusations of 'dumbing down' have been around for years. It just means the dumbing down has been going on for years.

[LMcD]

Virtually all the classical music enthusiasts I know like and know a huge amount about other genres e,g Jazz , musicals, heavy metal, world music

I like, without necessarily knowing a huge amount about, a lot of classical music, most jazz (traditional and modern), 1950s and 1960s pop music, the Great American Song Book, musicals and loads of instrumentals and songs from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.