The Hyacinth Bean
My Friend Wendell, Dogs, Bangalore Legends, Luvin' in the Kichen, The Ancient Olympic Games and the Hyacinth Bean
Flickr photo originally uploaded 4 October 2005
by brownpau
About a year ago - last Spring certainly - my friend and horticultural mentor Wendell Burgess mailed to me an envelope of the most beautiful seeds I'd ever seen. They were, of course, more than seeds. Beans. Hyacinth beans. (Dolichos lablab.)[1] These were a species unknown to me. "Plant 'em when the soil gets warm" he said. "These make a beautiful vine with orchid-like flowers."
Plant them I did and Wendell was right. They are beautiful.
Wendell died in the fall. I miss him. I've written about him before: Wendell Burgess, Rest in Peace My Friend. I'll never think of the Hyacinth bean without a thought for the guy… but this little bean makes me think about other things too.
Hyacinth Legends | Bangalore Kings | The Hyacinth Bean and Apicius | Danger Poison! | Running with Tepees and Pergolas | Notes | Sources
Cocoa & The
First Big Snow
Flickr photo originally uploaded
December 2, 2006
by The County Clerk
The image above is a dog. One of my dogs, one of the spice girls. Cocoa. I mention her because dogs are among the first things, other than Wendell, that come to my mind when I think of the Hyacinth bean.
In truth, dogs are never far from my mind. My dogs. Dogs I've known. Dogs I'd like to know. I'm clearly a sentimental fool to begin with, but I'll never, ever be able to explain what dogs are to me. And since my divorce began (still ongoing two years later by the way), I've spent hundreds of hours alone, talking to my dogs.[3]
I think I formed this association between dogs and the Hyacinth bean when Christine, at My Plate or Yours, commented that in her family tradition they plant lablab seeds to memorialize two Labradors with whom they once lived. That's nice.
Lab-Lab
Cocoa
Flickr photo originally uploaded 15 April 2007
by The County Clerk
I like to think of a vine named lablab. And contrary to what some might believe, dogs and gardens go together.[4]
I realize that I have, on several occasions, gone off the hook with The Language of The Dirt. It is my habit to jump into a name and roll around awhile. Hyacinth bean. Hmmn.
I've written about Hyacinths before, Lake County Extreme Gardening, so I feel that I'm familiar with the lore and (some of) the botany. But honestly, I do not understand the "Hyacinth" thing at all (in connection with this vine). These things are, to me, more "orchid-like" than Hyacinth-like. And I don't see the floral connection. And I don't see an oiled-discus-catching connection.[5]
"Hyacinth bean."
I don't connect with this name, and so I don't think about the vine in those words… especially as there are so many other associated words to think about… like Bengalūru.
Bangalore to Tekal
Train Journey | Weekend Shoot
Flickr photo originally uploaded 2 July 2006
by C Y B E R S C O R
P I O N
Bengalūru, or Bengaluru, is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. The anglicized version of the word is the one I know: Bangalore.[6] I'm an anglicized guy, progeny of anglicized Scots, brought up in the Anglican Church. I am what I am. In other words, I can't help it. (Though I try to expand my universe, I fear it's borders will be forever fixed for me.) The word will be forever Bangalore to me… and so will the beans.
Bangalore beans.
There is a story that Bangalore (or Bengalūru, or Bengaluru) is named for the bean of the Hyacinth bean vine.
"The story goes that many centuries ago, a Hoysala king lost his way in a forest while hunting game. Tired and famished, he stumbled upon a little village where a family offered him boiled avarekaalu beans and a place to sleep. Grateful for the hospitality, the king named the village as Bendada Kaalooru -- or the place of boiled beans -- and from then on contributed a lot to its expansion.
The story may be apocryphal but it’s hard not to be swayed by the romantic undertones. The British, however, either didn’t think it as romantic or their significantly colder tongues found the vernacular too much of a twister.[10] So, Bendada Kaalooru became Bangalore."[viii]
Bendada Kaalooru becomes Bengalūru, which is anglicized to Bangalore.
The place of boiled beans.
Hyacinth beans
Flickr photo originally uploaded
26 September 2006
by flyingcamel
I've seen versions of this tale get very specific. According to the Wikipedia Bangalore site the "lost" king was "the 11th-century Hoysala king, Veera Ballala II.
This is interesting only because the Hoysalas were interesting. They are remembered primarily for their surviving temple buildings, for example Chennakesava Temple at Somanathapura, Chennakesava Temple at Belur, and Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu. Gorgeous structures.
Marvels.
I need to go there and touch one of them. It is on my list.
Hoysaleswara Temple
at Halebid.
Flickr photo originally uploaded on 5 July 2006
by mattlogelin
What I mean to express is this: the Hoysala tale of boiled Hyacinth beans is interesting because of the Hoysalas, NOT because of any element of truthfulness. There is no truth to it.
The story is completely bogus.
Not beans. Not Hoysala.
See, the earliest reference to the name "Bengaluru" can be found a couple of hundred years earlier (before the Hoysala) on a 9th-century Ganga Dynasty stone inscription. "In this inscription found in Begur, "Bengaluru" is referred to as a place in which a battle was fought in 890. It states that the place was part of the Ganga kingdom and was known as "Bengaval-uru", the "City of Guards.""[ix]
Honestly, I have an easier time with Bengaval-uru becoming Bengalūru than with Bendada Kaalooru doing so. But who cares? The point is that these beans have been growing in India for quite awhile… as food. (I've seen this species called Priya Papdi beans[11]… though this may refer only to the green varieties.)
The Hyacinth Bean and the Apicius
Some scholars recognize the Hyacinth Bean in the Apicius - which is the ultimate Roman cookbook. I'm no foodie, but the concept of a Roman cookbook piques my interest in a big way.
From the wikipedia entry on the Apicius:
"Apicius is the title of a collection of Roman cookery recipes, usually thought to have been compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century AD and written in a language that is in many ways closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin. Apicius is a text to be used in the kitchen. In the earliest printed editions it was given the overall title De re quoquinaria ("On the Subject of Cooking"), and was attributed to an otherwise unknown Caelius Apicius, an invention based on the fact that one of the two manuscripts is headed with the words API CAE. The text is organised in ten short books which appear to be arranged rather like a modern cookbook:
- 1 Epimeles — The Chef
- 2 Sarcoptes — Meats
- 3 Cepuros — From the garden
- 4 Pandecter — Various dishes
- 5 Ospreos — Peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc.
- 6 Aeropetes — Fowl
- 7 Polyteles — Fowl
- 8 Tetrapus — Quadrupeds
- 9 Thalassa — Seafood
- 10 Halieus — Fish
The contents are messed up, i.e. some of the recipes should belong in some other chapter. Some recipes are there in two versions, some are clearly truncated, sometimes one line must be missing."
There are some good references in the article: cookbooks, translations, etc. If you are a foodie, you should check this out. By the way, the name "Apicius" is also associated with another ancient Latin cookbook: Apici Excerpta ("Extracts from Apicius"). This one has been attributed to Vinidarius… who wasn't a Roman at all, but an 8th century Goth.[12]
I searched for cookbooks related to the Apicius and found a wide choice. I'm considering purchasing a few and putting them in my kitchen. I may even dog-ear some pages and spill some spaghetti sauce on them. I may even throw one of Pliny's volumes of the Naturalis Historia in the mix (maybe Book 16: The Vine or Book 30: Magic - though I couldn't stand to intentionally damage them (check out the whole list)). The idea is that perhaps some female might someday step into my kitchen.
I'll have some cool strainers and things strewn about (or whatever it is that cooks have) - I'll go to Williams Sonoma and load up.
She'll surreptitiously scan the scene and take in the cookbooks.
"Oh, you cook?" she'll ask… maybe in an accented voice… perhaps Hungarian.[13].
"Not really," I'll honestly answer
- honesty is everything after all -
"I'm more interested in the history of cooking. This, my dear, is a dish from the Apicius, the cookbook of Imperial Rome."
And then I'll uncover a pot of something delicious and offer her a taste with my finger.
She'll lick my finger clean while staring in my eyes with a look of insatiable animal hunger.
"Delicious," she'll coo…
Right about then, something French will begin to play on the stereo and I'll pour a couple of glasses of fine Bordeaux, which has been decanting within reach but out of sight.
Then we'll make sweet, sweet monkey love on the kitchen floor.
-
This is the plan anyway.
There are a few details to work out of course…
…like all of 'em.
And I'll probably have to start talking to people again.
And I'll have to actually invite someone over.
And… well… I'll have to stash some pillows in the pots&pans cabinet… I'll also have to mop the kitchen floor… and move the dog bowls… and maybe do some sit-ups… and shave… and I'll need a haircut too… and probably some new underwear… yep, definitely… and maybe one of those chef's hats (I'm not sure).
OK. This is a big plan.
But every plan begins with step one.
In this case, step one involves selecting the right books. What do you think? Which of these titles has the greatest "monkey-love-on-the-floor" appeal?
Apicius, a Critical Edition With an Introduction and English Translation (Hardcover) by Christopher Grocock (Author), Sally Grainger (Author), Dan Shadrake (Illustrator) Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today (Paperback) by Sally Grainger (Author), Andras Kaldor (Illustrator) The Roman Cookery of Apicius (Hardcover) By John Edwards Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome (Unknown Binding) By "Apicius" Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome (Paperback) By "Apicius" (Author), Joseph Dommers Vehling (Editor) A Taste of Ancient Rome (Paperback) By Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa (Author), Anna Herklotz (Translator) |
---
As a tangent, Apicius was ALSO the name applied to at least three Roman epicures:[x]
- The first lived during the Roman Republic
- The second and most famous, Marcus Gavius Apicius, lived at the time of the emperor Tiberius
- The third lived at the time of the Emperor Trajan
In fairness, the Hyacinth bean may or may not be mentioned in the Apicius. But Broccoli is in there for sure. I've written about Broccoli before… I love growing the stuff.
It seems that the first thing I ever read about Dolichos lablab is that it is poisonous.
Invariably, the next thing I read is that it is food.
This is where the boiling comes in… repeated boiling with numerous water changes. Apparently the toxins can be boiled out of the bean.
I won't be eating these, though the Center for New Crops & Plant Products at Purdue University lists them.
There is even a posted study (by Robert G. Anderson, Sharon Bale, and Wenwei Jia) about the Hyacinth bean and the Flower Business: Hyacinth Bean: Stems for the Cut Flower Market.
They are beautiful. Why not?
Dolichos lablab
Flickr photo originally uploaded
September 17, 2006a>
by The County Clerk
It seems that most botanical poisons I read about seem to have a medicinal upside. Dolichos lablab is no different. Apparently (when used properly) the various parts of the plant can be used as an aphrodisiac, a laxative, a diuretic and/or a dysmenorrhea.
Galen wrote about Dolichos lablab in his medical works… and it is from Galen that all such things come. His de alimentorum facultatibus (on the properties of foodstuffs) is a fixed point of knowledge in a sea of obscurity. While it is sort of a major book purchase, Galen: On the Properties of Foodstuffs (Hardcover) (by Galen (Author), Owen Powell (Author), John Wilkins (Foreword)) is a serious and important work… I ordered it several months ago…
and I am still sort of...
uh...
...staring at it.
It is a beautiful book from the Cambridge University Press. But it is… uh… more of a reference. I'm having my challenges with it.
EVERY TIME I start to feel smart and competent, I get a book like this one to knock me back down into the mud of my mired-everyday existence. So it is with me.
But it might be good in the kitchen.
"So Hank, you read Galen, ja? I vant to slazer honey and raspberries all oborst you."
Or something like that. I'm flexible.
Yumminess!
Flickr Photo Originally uploaded on 2 May 2007
by Dosha
(I quite obviously have quite a problem... and I apologize.)
I found a PDF of the "frontmatter" of this book (22 pages or so). Take a look if you like! (Galen-frontmatter.pdf (294.3K))
I don't know the proper way to medically use the Hyacinth bean, but I'd bet James A. Duke does. He's an ethnobotanist in Maryland who apparently teaches a "Mini-Course" in Medical Botany. No kidding… a "Mini-Course." Thoughts of orange golf balls and spinning windmills come to mind.
It seems to me that "Medical Botany" is probably an in-depth sort of study. I'm not sure where a "mini-course" fits into the big picture. I'm not sure I want to find out. But I will add one more tidbit: Dolichos lablab falls under the "Arabic" rubric of Duke's syllabus… and Lablab is a masculine Arabic name for ivy.
And this takes us back to the binomial name… Dolichos lablab… and ancient Greece.
Running with Tepees and Pergolas
According to the Greek geographer Pausanias, in the early Ancient Olympic Games there was but one event, a foot race… a running race over about 190 meters, "measured after the feet of Hercules."[xi] This distance was called a "stadion." The building and track to facilitate this race was built of an appropriate length so that the race was a straight line, beginning at one end and concluding at the other. This is where we get the word stadium… a building to facilitate the stadion race… a building built at a length of one stadion.
Over time other events were added, some of these were longer foot races.
For example a foot race "there and back" (length of two stadia) was added, where the runners finished at the starting line. This was called the diaulos. And then there was a much longer race (probably 24 stadia) called the dolichos.[14]
Dolichos lablab.
Dolichos means long. And this bean vine is certainly that! No doubt this is why Theophrastus and Pliny used the word to describe the kidney bean. LONG.
kidney bean
Flickr photo originally uploaded on 7 August 2006
by rainoo
The Hyacinth bean vine is also very long. Just take at look at it on a pergola at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello!
Hyacinth bean
pergola
Flickr Photo originally uploaded on 24 September 2006
by intheburg
But who needs a Pergola when a Tepee is so much better?
Hyacinth Bean Tepee
from A Gardening Year
Take a look at this magnificent Hyacinth Bean Tepee that "Old Roses" put up on her fantastic gardening blog: A Gardening Year.
I'll be building one of these very soon.
[1] There seems to be some confusion about the proper binomial name for this species (and genus). (If one cares, there is a nice article on Wikipedia for Linnæan Taxonomy.)
The Dave's Garden Plant Files list the Hyacinth Bean as Lablab purpureus, not Dolichos lablab, as I call it. However, Dolichos is listed as a synonym… which defeats the whole purpose of binomial nomenclature. Whatever. But then, the same plant file lists the botanical family as: Papilionaceae - which isn't a botanical family at all. It is a subfamily of Fabaceae (beans and peas). So… this makes me wonder. It is a credibility issue.
Wikipedia lists the Hyacinth Bean as Lablab purpureus as well, but it isn't much of an article.[2] And let's face it, anyone can write anything on Wikipedia. I've written dozens of articles there and I freely admit that I'm generally clueless. I wouldn't believe me. I wouldn't dream of expecting you to believe me either. That's why I use footnotes for sources. I generally prefer the Wikipedia articles that have been argued over a bit, but this one hasn't gotten much attention. So again, I don't know… another credibility issue.
As a last resort I looked at the envelope in which the seeds arrived. This is only a last resort because, in my experience, seed envelopes are rarely any help at all… unless they come from J.L. Hudson, Seedsman… which my recent batch did. The seed envelope reads: Dolichos lablab.
Hudson Seeds
Flickr photo originally uploaded March 28, 2007
by The County Clerk
I know I've written about J. L. Hudson several times before, though I can only point you to the Moluccella laevis essay at this moment. I'm loosing track of what I've written. But it doesn't matter.
What does matter (to me) is that I find Hudson to be very credible. I think El at Fast Grow the Weeds introduced the Hudson catalog to me, and I find her to be very credible too.
The J. L. Hudson Catalog - The 2007 Ethnobotanical Catalog of Seeds - is something quite special. No phone. No glossy photos. "Just 100 pages of amazement." This is, in my opinion, a "must have" seed catalog. Thanks El!
J. L. Hudson, Seedsman
P.O. Box 337
La Honda, California
94020
My stance is this: if the Hudson team uses the "Dolichos" nomenclature, so will I.
In the meantime, I will await the online publication of the latest (Vienna version) International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, due online any day. (Does anyone have any idea how I could get a hard copy mailed to me?... or better yet, how I could go to the next conference?) - back to text
[2] The Lablab purpureus nomen is credited, somehow, to both Linnæus and Robert Sweet (an English Gardener/Botanist). I'm not wholly clear on this… and I hadn't read about Sweet before. But when I did, Christopher at Tropical Embellishments came to mind: a gardener botanist (as opposed to a botanist gardener). Sweet worked in Nurseries and Gardens instead of attending postgraduate botanical classes. And one day he started writing about what he'd learned… including five-volumes on the Geranium which took him ten years to complete. His other works are a fascination because of their relevance. One doesn't have to be Linnæus to know what his Hortus Suburbanus Londinensis is all about. One day I expect to find that Christopher has begun writing his Hortus Suburbanus Lāhaināsis, followed by something on the Carolinas. I'm waiting. Get cracking! - back to text
[3] The communication between my dogs (Cocoa and Cinnamon) and myself has stepped up to another level. I'm sure they always paid attention to my every move and expression. That is what dogs do. But now I'm paying closer attention to their signals. It's getting good.
Sometimes I turn off the music and just listen to the symphony of two dogs snoring. It is wonderful. Il mio cane rosso and Il mio cane negro are with me almost all of the time now.
I received a very kind email the other day from a particularly brilliant person I don't know very well who also lives alone except for the company of dogs. She wrote:
"I love my piece of land, my dogs make me enormously happy and I have so many things that engage me."
Yes. Dogs make life full. - back to text
[4] Pam, at Tales from the Microbial Lab, put up a nice tale about dogs in her Ode to Cauliflower (I couldn't make that up). There's a bona fide ode there… to Cauliflower… but there's more. I'm referring to "Adam and Eve's Dog" by Richard Garcia (published first in Notre Dame Review and then in Best American Poetry 2005). It is worth reading. It will make you feel good… as will the ode. - back to text
[5] Oiled-discus-catching - yep. This is the heart of the Hyacinth legend. Lots of oil on naked bodies. Lake County Extreme Gardening. Frankly, I don't need any encouragement to think about oil on naked bodies. And I don't really need to go there… it is but a short leap from naked oiled Greeks throwing the discus to… uh…
One day I will be divorced and will be able to pursue solutions in that arena, but not today.
Hank's Axiom of Baggage Reduction: Finish one thing. Begin the next thing. Expect same. - back to text
[6] I first came across the word "Bangalore" in another context: The Bangalore Torpedo, which is an explosive used by combat engineers to clear minefields and defenses and such. The Bangalore Torpedo is mentioned in many of Stephen Ambrose's American histories - to which I have given countless hours of my life and which are marvelous tomes despite the absolutely disgraceful treatment of the author at the end of his life.[i] It is a shame that his reputation was tarnished. His Lewis & Clark book, Undaunted Courage, is a remarkable work on a spectacular subject. His D-Day history is, in my opinion, required reading. Band of Brothers is a significant work about a generation we are losing rapidly now. And Eisenhower is a fantastic place to start if, like me, you knew very little about Ike. I'm not really a "war history" guy. I believe that wars themselves are not as historically interesting as the causes of those wars.
But Ambrose tells such compelling stories....
When preparing this little ditty I first came across the word "Bengalūru" I thought that I'd found a connection to another word I knew little about: "Bengal." You know: Bengal Tiger, Bengal Cat the Cincinnati Bengals... but those things are named for another place… a placed (oddly enough) actually called Bengal.
"Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast of South Asia. Today it is mainly divided between the independent nation of Bangladesh (East Bengal), and the Indian federal republic's constitutive state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous kingdoms of Bengal (during local monarchial regimes and British rule) are now part of the neighboring Indian states of Bihar, Tripura and Orissa. The majority of Bengal is inhabited by Bengali people who speak the Bengali language."[ii]
I had no idea.[7] Bengal. Bangladesh.
[7] My knowledge of the history on and near the Indian subcontinent is appallingly limited and even then almost purely anecdotal. I'm only now (at very, very almost 40 years old) beginning to read anything meaningful about the Indo-Aryans, and feel that time is running out and I'm inexorably behind… Though I am awaiting India: A History (paperback) by John Keay (because the Indo-Aryans were relatively late arrivals to the area). There is more I should learn. But one must begin someplace.
I have no real understanding of the cultural and economic history of life there, which is a travesty because in many respects what started there went everywhere. The Indus River is a "cradle of civilization" waterway.
In other respects, what started there simply disappeared.
A figurine from Mehrgarh, c. 3000 BC (Musée
Guimet, Paris)
from the Indus
Valley Civilization (Harappan Culture)
I'm referring to the Harappan Civilization, sometimes called the Indus Valley Civilization or IVC.
Never heard of these people?
You aren't alone. Less than a century ago, no one knew about them.
"Although IVC might have been known to the Sumerians as Meluhha, the modern world discovered it only in the 1920s as a result of archaeological excavations."[iii]
See, the big problem has to do with words. In Mesopotamia there are readable written inscriptions dating as far back as the Sumerian period in 3100 BC. The important word there is "readable." We find these ancient scribblings or inscriptions… and then figure out how to read them… and then figure out what they are. This is how we know about early Mesopotamia.
Same thing in Africa. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing appears on Naqada II pottery vessels (3500 to 3200 BCE). We know about Egypt.
Turtle shells with markings reminiscent of ancient Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty have been carbon dated to around 1500 BC.[8] We know a little about ancient China.
But the Harappans didn't leave us many written artifacts and we can't figure out what we've found.
"there are no written records from the Indian subcontinent before the third century BC except the Indus Valley seals, which remain by general academic consensus unreadable despite occasional claims to the contrary."[iv]
Chew on THAT.
No written records before the third century BC. WOW. That's relatively recent. Alexander the Great invaded India 100 years BEFORE this time. The Ancient Olympic Games had begun, run for almost 400 years and passed into history for a hundred years by the third century BC.[9] After all, the third century BC isn't as ancient as one might imagine… this was the time of Euclid, Hannibal and Eratosthenes. Homer (whose "written records" are taught in school today) lived half a millennia BEFORE this time). The earliest (Sumerian) versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh come from almost 2000 years BEFORE this time. The third century BC is not the darkness of our ancient and unknowable past.
Except in India it is.
There is nothing in India… nothing that we've found yet.
Nothing, that is, except for the most mind-blowing archeological site on earth: the Stone Age site, Mehrgarh, ("discovered in 1974 by an archaeological team directed by French archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige,"[v]).
It shakes my notion of everything. You see, in my mind, everything is connected to what came before. We are those who came before us. But Mehrgarh (and the Harappan who lived there) are unlike anything anywhere else on earth.
"At its height, archeologists believe, the Indus civilization included more than a thousand villages, towns and cities scattered throughout 725,000 square kilometers (280,000 sq mi) of territory—an area larger than Texas and smaller than Turkey—that stretched from what is now northern Afghanistan south to Gujarat in India and as far west as the headwaters of the Ganges River. The Harappan domain was twice the size of the Egyptian or Mesopotamian territory of the time, yet the Harappans appear to have had neither conquering emperors nor standing armies to enlarge or defend their homeland. As far as archeological evidence shows, they enjoyed excellent health and freedom from both violence and extremes of wealth or poverty. They developed one of the earliest written languages and built some of the world's first planned cities, complete with individual household water supplies and sophisticated public drainage systems. And, as highly skilled craftspeople and enterprising merchants, they were one of the first major mercantile civilizations to trade far beyond the borders of their own territories."[vi]
Actually, stop what you are doing and go read the whole piece: Traders of the Plain, an article by Graham Chandler, which appeared on pages 34-42 of the September / October 1999 print edition of Saudi Aramco World. There's also an interesting bit on the Harappan language at the bottom, if you care.
And the site itself is unique for another reason. Ahmad Hasan Dani, professor emeritus of archaeology at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, says it better than I can. "There we have the whole sequence, right from the beginning of settled village life." [vii]
Imagine standing there, a place where it began.
The point is that we have an enormous hole in our history. - back to text
[8] The Shells were carbon dated... not the ink or the writing. (Something has to have been alive to be cardon dated.) Not that this matters. The point is simply this: fixing dates to things is a tricky business. I was once in the Amazon basin looking at Petroglyphs with a shaman. (Another goofy life-phase - don't ask.) The point of that particular exercise was to investigate the meaning behind these carvings - the original meaning - the original INTENDED meaning. But all I could discover is what they have come to mean. And the date of creation is unknowable. We can date the granite but not the carvings on it. Anyway... the turtle shells are old. - back to text
[9] The rise of Alexander and the end of the Olympics are related. The unification of Greece under the Macedonians (Alexander and his father) made the city-state competition obsolete. - back to text
[10] "Significantly Colder Tongues" ???? What is THIS all about? This HAS TO BE a mistranslation of some sort…. doesn't it? - back to text
[11] Again, I'm no foodie but in preparing this little missive I've come across a blog that may be of interest to some of you who may be foodies: It is called Veggie Platter: Vegetarian Dishes from India and Around. The stuff looks pretty good actually. - back to text
[12] An 8th Century Goth? What the heck? While it is difficult to definitively date the "Fall of Rome," we can fix dates to the several occasions when the capital was actually sacked:
From: Wikipedia Sack of Rome Search:
We can safely assume that Imperial Rome had been long-fallen by the 8th century. So, this cookbook by a Goth in the 700's - while perhaps valid on a scholarly level - is not a "down home" collection of authentic recipes from daily life. - back to text
[13] Many, many, many, many years ago I almost married this incendiary Hungarian woman. It wasn't a love thing. It was green-card thing. (Yes - I recognize the moral bankruptcy… but she was really quite lovely.) She was a little older and I was young… just out of the Navy… in one of my more ridiculous life-phases. (Did I mention she was beautiful?) She spoke very little English and I speak no Hungarian. I simply didn't care. I just watched her talk and imagined she was saying what I wanted to hear. But in the end, she knew enough English to cut me loose:
"You go too much Jazz-Bar, no thank you wedding nice nice Hank."
A kiss and that was that.
It was probably for the best.
I eventually met the beautiful and funny woman who would become my bride. It all works out.
Except when it doesn't.
Either way, it's a big adventure.
Whatever. What's next?
[14] This is not to be confused with the Marathon (which was not an ancient event). Though inspired by the 490 BC Athenian Victory at the Battle of Marathon, the first Marathon race was not held until the first Modern Olympic Games in 1896 AD, in Athens. - back to text
[i] Take a look at this transcription of this Jan 11, 2002 New York Times article entitled "As Historian's Fame Grows, So Does Attention to Sources" - back to text
[ii] Wikipedia: Bengal - back to text
[iii] Wikipedia: Indus Valley Civilization - back to text
[iv] Wikipedia: Aryan Invasion Theory - back to text
[v] Wikipedia: Mehrgarh - back to text
[vi] Wikipedia: Traders of the Plain - back to text
[vii] Wikipedia: Mehrgarh - back to text
[viii] from The Bangalore Bean A nice little essay - back to text
[ix] from Wikipedia: Bangalore - back to text
[x] from Wikipedia: Apicius disambiguation - back to text
[xi] from Wikipedia: Ancient Olympic Games - back to text
Hey Hank: I was just checking in to see how the nursery bed was coming. This post looks interesting (as usual), but it will have to wait until this evening or the rain chases me inside.
Posted by: Ellis Hollow | May 20, 2007 at 06:48 AM
You probably already know this, but: Hungary produces the best paprika in the world. I don't know if knowing that will be of use as you move toward the nexus of, um cooking something up in the kitchen with someone, but I figure it can't hurt.
To laugh and learn simultaneously has to be one of the greater pleasures available to human beings. Thank you, sir, for granting that pleasure to your readers.
Posted by: John B. | May 20, 2007 at 01:59 PM
To start, thank you for the information about and links to the Hyacinth vine. Anything that looks capable of taking over the world, may have a chance of actually growing in my current garden.
Next: I've never seen monkeys do it, but for some reason I don't imagine it as "sweet".
I voted "none of the above" but if I come across one I think would be better, I'll let you know.
As Johh B more or less said: "you're funny and brilliant".
Posted by: anna maria | May 20, 2007 at 04:09 PM
This post makes me rethink my entire kitchen design for my new home. In a very good way... :)
Posted by: Pam | May 20, 2007 at 10:06 PM
I think you will have a better chance with the tepee than the kitchen floor! Can you pipe some music in there?
Posted by: layanee | May 21, 2007 at 09:26 AM
I just bought some hyacinth bean seeds this year, and now I'm really optimistic that they'll grow! It's probably a good thing that the "holideck" on Star Trek isn't an actuality...I think you could spend a lot of time in a place where fantasies become that "real"! Although it can be rather excruciating to meet and talk to new people face-to-face, it's a necessary prelude to "sweet monkey love on the kitchen floor" (unless you just call a hooker, but that's kind of cheating). BTW, I don't think an interesting Roman cookbook will get you laid, but it can't hurt!
Posted by: Lisa | May 21, 2007 at 09:48 AM
You're quite welcome, Hank (it was me). Yeah you've stumbled most importantly on one of my biggest peeves of the internet world: the wiki-ization of places like Dave's Garden. Any Yahoo (think Swift not the company) can put any info. up and not have it fact-checked. Not that you're a Yahoo, necessarily. At least you know your limits, and actively set about unlimiting them.
Happy birthday to Linnaeus, too. Now there's a fact-checker for you.
Did you know most measures that we use are anthropomorphically based? That factoid pleases me to no end.
And then Jefferson. Genius AND a farmer. And a father of slave children, but I suppose we all have our downsides.
I would aim at throwing a few more pedestrian cookbooks in that kitchen, too, and...well, use them. I'm not so sure I'd want to be feted by some Roman dish, necessarily.
Posted by: El | May 21, 2007 at 10:06 AM
I'm with El on the Roman dish. But then I'm not a hot Hungarian blonde, so maybe that's okay? I'd want something spicy. Something meant to be tasted in small bites or dip your finger into... that opens up a whole world of possibilities... *grin*
I think that I am completely addicted to your blog, by the way. Nowhere else can I laugh, feel someone tug at my heartstrings, and learn so damn much about everything from Roman soup to foxglove nuts. :)
Posted by: Kim | May 21, 2007 at 05:22 PM
I always wondered if Hyacinth beans were edible. Now I know! With such a beautiful pod you would think that would be edible too.
Posted by: Ki | May 22, 2007 at 08:04 PM