Posted on 10/26/2010 2:53:15 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
You may never know which meal will be your last.
It could be one chosen by a caretaker or hospital staffer, served to you in your sickbed. Perhaps your last bite will be a deliberate choice, such as the vegetable soup that Adolf Hitler sipped before killing himself.
Or, it may be a random meal that you don’t expect to be your culinary goodbye — such as the Dover sole and champagne that Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed were served at the Ritz Hotel in Paris before a car crash took their lives.
Final meals hold a special fascination for Andrew Caldwell, a chef and historian who lives in Orlando, Fla. His book, “Their Last Suppers: Legends of History and Their Final Meals,” chronicles the last flavors savored by a host of historical figures and contemporary celebrities.
“Most things in life are written down. Even the Romans wrote everything down,” said Caldwell, who visited many of the death sites he writes about in the book to ensure accuracy.
“Finding out what people ate, it’s like looking over their shoulders, seeing how they lived,” he added.
Abraham Lincoln, for example, was “a simple guy. He liked chicken fricassee, oxtails, apple pie. He liked good home-cooked grub.”
Before going to Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, to see “Our American Cousin,” Lincoln feasted on a Good Friday dinner at the White House. The menu: mock turtle soup (with oxtail), roast Virginia fowl with chestnut stuffing, baked yams and cauliflower with cheese sauce.
He was shot that same night in the theater and died the next morning.
Other last meals, according to the book:
(Excerpt) Read more at wickedlocal.com ...
“
‘Their Last Suppers’ documents last meals of celebrities
“
Occassionally I have to respond to the “you shouldn’t be eating that”
dessert or other goodie by relatives or liberal associates...
by saying
“If I walk out of here and get hit by a bus/car, I’m going to spend
eternity in heaven/hell asking myself...Why didn’t I have that chocolate brownie??
The world is sadly full of well-meaning moralists that haven’t
a FREAKIN clue about enjoying the short time we have on the third rock
from the SUN in this insignificant solar system.
OK, just my opinionated point of view......
Since she passed, I really miss my Mom’s fried chicken, blackeye peas, collards, and cornbread. My wife makes a good substitute, but nobody can cook like Mom could.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.