{"id":215350,"date":"2025-11-07T04:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T03:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/?p=215350"},"modified":"2025-12-01T06:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T05:09:20","slug":"theres-something-fishy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/2025\/11\/07\/theres-something-fishy\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s something fishy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

It all begins with the apple. Juicy, slightly tart, voluptuous on the skin (at least that\u2019s how I picture it). That\u2019s how the story goes: the first gastrocrime<\/em> in history occurred in the Garden of Eden<\/strong>, which, in no time, would turn into the London living room of an investigator at 221B Baker Street. There, Mrs. Hudson, the landlady of Mr. Holmes<\/strong> (Sherlock, that\u2019s elementary, Watson<\/em>), lays out meals that are nothing short of literary legend. The two share three meals a day, even beyond the walls of their study: biscuits, capon pudding, oysters, cheese, French wines, all recounted in Paola Alberti\u2019s Breakfast with Sherlock Holmes<\/em>. So it was at the table, then, that the crime was committed! Or at least, well, the sin of gluttony. If the Bible<\/em> is the first bestseller in history, affectionately known as \u201cthe book of books<\/em>,\u201d one could say that the pleasure of food and wine has always existed in literature, often accompanied by a thirst (sometimes quite literal) for knowledge. Let\u2019s put moralizing aside: was it not the tree of knowledge – and then, of course, of good and evil – from which that ill-fated apple was picked? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing could be more natural than detectives, men and women of letters, and bon vivants helping themselves to this or that delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t happen only in England, over cups of tea. Across the Channel, in the land of French grandeur<\/em>, Inspector Maigret<\/strong> (and his creator, Georges Simenon) prefers the comme il faut<\/em> kind of establishments. Simple, hearty recipes can be found collected in Robert J. Courtine\u2019s Dinner with Simenon and Inspector Maigret<\/em>: tomato soup, andouillettes<\/em>, quiche lorraine<\/em>, omelets, often prepared by Madame Maigret, \u201cSimenon\u2019s ideal woman and, in a way, the mother he wished he had.\u201d With another pirouette northward, Agatha Christie \u2013 who was quite fond of the kitchen and its pleasures \u2013 turns food into a murder weapon. As in A Murder Is Announced<\/em>, where a swoon-worthy chocolate cake, well, quite literally becomes to die for\u2026 Or in Sad Cypress<\/em>, where, as her compatriots would say, there\u2019s something fishy, something that doesn\u2019t add up, something that, quite literally, smells of fish<\/mark>. And what if the saying referred to the fish paste used as a vehicle for poisoning in that very story?<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

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