Speaking of food...

"Two Fat Ladies" is out on DVD (available at Amazon and your local retailers).  For those of you who never caught them when they were shown on the Food Network, The ladies were Jennifer Paterson (right) and Clarissa Dickson Wright, who maundered about the English countryside on a vintage motorcycle with a sidecar visiting wonderful locations and making food that would cause Ellie Krieger's head to explode.  Everything was game or meat cooked gleefully cooked with loads of lard, butter and salt.  You might be thinking "But Pansy, this is Paula Deen with an accent and a twin" but you would be wrong.  The Fat Ladies used fats long and lushly, but would never have been caught dead using whipped toppings or Cheez-whiz.  For them everything was scrupulously farm-fresh and free-range, a decade before that became every supermarkets bastardized codeword for "slightly more expensive".

Part travelogue, part comedy-duo and part lessons in historical English cuisine, this is a cooking show that takes for granted that you might just know how much wine to poach a fish in without being told precise measurements.  One that doesn't tell you alternatives if you are leery of eating any of the ingredients and one that thank goodness doesn't amp up the cuteness or down-hominess to 11.

Sadly, in 1998 Paterson was diagnosed with cancer and subsequently died, so there can be no more of this fun, informative, quirky and entirely British series, and that's a pity.  Luckily they're on DVD for us to savor.  Boy do I want some Bubble and Squeak!

Photo: Amazon.com