I'll Have The Murgh Worcestershire, Please

Tom Jaine reviews three books on what we eat and why for The Guardian. The most interesting of the lot seems to be Londoner's Larder: English Cuisine From Chaucer to The Present, by Annette Hope: "Hers is a practised hand, having done the same for Scotland in A Caledonian Feast. She hangs her chapters on the biographical hooks of famous London authors: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Pepys, Johnson, Dickens, Wilde and Virginia Woolf, using their writings and plenty of contemporary sources to give depth to her account, both of the style of eating, the ingredients, the markets and most importantly as the book goes on, the restaurants and public provision of food for eating-out."

Among the quotations in the book is one by Amitav Ghosh on "English Indian" food: "...the usual taste of spices transformed by stock and cream and Worcestershire sauce. But the food was delicious in its way."