I eat, I read, I watch #10 — dining solo, New Year’s Eve style
grazing platter to start
Please enjoy the 10th instalment of “I eat, I read, I watch,” my column celebrating solo dining and my reading and Netflix pairings. Try dining solo at mealtime too! You’re worth it. And it’s not hard to do. Missed the earlier instalments? See the list at the bottom of the post.
I watch: Dinner for One
Today’s column is inspired by the 1962 sketch comedy short film called Dinner for One or Der 90 Geburtstag. It’s must-watch New Year’s Eve TV in many countries, including Germany, where it was produced, but not in England, where it was first written for the stage.
The 18 minute video features nonagenarian British aristocrat, Miss Sophie, celebrating her birthday dinner. The action happens in a formal dining room where her butler, James, serves Miss Sophie a four-course meal. Before each course, through James, each of four long-dead male dinner companions toasts Miss Sophie. James gets blotto in the good English tradition. Miss Sophie maintains her decorum throughout and, as she retires up the stairs after the pudding course, seems prepared to engage James in a boozy birthday bonk, if he’s still able.
The humour is straight-up British slapstick: each time James traverses the floor, he trips on the head of the tiger that sacrificed itself for Miss Sophie’s rug; James speaks, first clearly, then garbled, in the different accents of the four remembered guests, including a German accent; and his progressively drunken gait produces several head-long rushes across the room, about which Miss Sophie is apparently oblivious.
What’s funnier than the comedy though is the cult-following the film has in Germany. Wikipedia says over half the German population watch it annually. It’s also aired annually in Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Norway, South Africa, and Australia. And yet, in Britain and North America, it’s largely unknown.
I encourage you to watch for yourself from the YouTube link here.
What’re you watching? In the Comments below please! I eat:
I eat: Mushroom Shepherds Pie
While Miss Sophie eats courses of mulligatawny soup with dry sherry; north sea haddock with white wine; chicken with champagne; and pudding with port, my meals often feature vegetables for the betterment of the planet and my health.
Although I regularly eat alone and can well imagine a time when, like Sophie, I will dine with the memories of friends in the absence of any alive, last week, I served dinner to a friend to celebrate the holidays.
I began with an international grazing platter: Polish-style pickled herring; stuffed eggplants from the Middle Eastern aisle of the grocery store; nduja from an Italian deli with crackers; spicy Italian pepperoni and Polish kielbasa; and pickles and olives, paired with Prosecco.
I followed that with a Moroccan tomato peanut soup, a favourite of mine, during which I opened a bottle of Australian Shiraz. Recipe from Toronto’s Trinity Square Cafe (next to the Eaton Centre, for those who want to check it out). The recipe is online here.
The main course was Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie with pinot-noir infused mushroom gravy paired with a green salad. You can make this yourself from the Vegetarian Times website here.
We closed the meal with mandarin oranges and Sliwka, Polish chocolate covered plums. Throughout we wore the very British paper hats from Christmas crackers.
Prep Time: While I can pull off a good quality dinner for myself in less than 30 minutes, a multi-course meal for company requires the luxury of time. For this one, I puttered in the kitchen for about four glorious hours, making each course taste good and plating it in an appetizing way.
Cost: Unknown since much of it was spread over the year, as I’d purchased elements, like the nduja, for an occasion worthy of such treats.
Tell me about your latest meal for company. In the Comments below please!
I read: About Dinner for One
The success of Dinner for One fascinates me and so I’ve done a bit of Googling about it. As with everything now, the primary source for the quick-n-dirty is Wikipedia. You can read that entry here. Wiki, however, led me into other sources, including an interesting piece from a Philadelphian journal, Phindie, which you can read here: Dinner for One: The greatest cult film you’ve never heard of.
I put the most famous line from Dinner for One - Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie? - into Facebook’s search feature and generated hits from pages like “German is weird” contemplating why the best known English expression is the least known in England; a Norwegian posting Christmas Eve photos of her Dinner for One inspired dinner party; and a Swede’s photo of his Christmas baking, with the famous line as his only comment. There is an Instagram account named “sameprocedureaslastyear.” Even LinkedIn, the bastion of professionalism, generates a number of hits with this search.
Yet I didn’t know this expression and I bet you don’t either!
Can you share any weird bit of knowledge that others don’t know? If so, add it to the Comments below.
Missed the earlier instalments of I eat, I read, I watch? If so, click below:
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