TABLE TALK #150
One hundred and fifty editions later, and what started as a ramble read by one man and his dog has somehow turned into a bit of an institution.
Writing Table Talk, our celebration of the wonderfully meandering conversations we all have around a dinner table, never really feels like work. It’s our excuse to uncover the oddities of food and culture, to ask questions nobody really asked for, and to share them with you who seem just as curious as we are.
Today, we’re looking back at a cherry-picking of the best editions, from day dot to today.
🍝 MAIN COURSE 🍝
Looking back over the past 150 editions, a bunch of patterns emerge.
You love the stories that peel back the layers of everyday foods: salt once traded like gold, Marmite sparking family feuds, strawberries and cream becoming shorthand for summer. The tales that remind us that food is never just food: it’s packed with history, identity, and myth.
And when it's not food, it’s the sideways detours that capture your imagination - the midnight baseball games in Alaska on Summer Solstice, experiments in living like Luddites, the art of eating tagliatelle while drinking tequila and wearing a toga.
Run of the mill kind of reads...
Choosing our own favourite edit was like picking between bacon and eggs, nigh impossible, so instead of narrowing down to one here's a little cluster that we especially enjoyed writing.
An ode to lost art of standing out, the tale of biscuit town and the humble comforts that never let us down - hello, instant noodles.
The perks of a boring life, the slitheriest fast food and the gloriously weird but wonderful recipes one finds in vintage cookbooks.
And that's just a little cocktail, the back catalogue is mighty, should you ever fancy diving in.
Friendly Fish in a Sleeping Bag Photo Credit: Pillsbury Family Fun Cookbook, 1983
🍮 SWEET ENDINGS 🍮
So here’s to 150 more editions and you, the readers, who make this feel like a shared table rather than a monologue.
Should you ever stumble across a fact, a tradition, or an oddity and think, “this is so Table Talk,” we’d love to hear from you. Who knows, your tip might just inspire one of our next editions.
🍷 WHAT'S NEW
FROM
WEDNESDAY'S DOMAINE? 🍷
This small but mighty collection of country pubs with rooms (plus a pizza shop for good measure) are scattered across the South West and have been dubbed “The Pig hotels of the pub world.”
Luke x
