Teetotal Vegetarianism - Day 15 May 19th 2009

''This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption... Beer!" - Friar Tuck: Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

Alcohol has been around along time. According to Wikipedia;

‘The purposeful production of alcoholic beverages is common in many cultures and often reflects their cultural and religious peculiarities as much as their geographical and sociological conditions.

The discovery of late Stone Age beer jugs has established the fact that purposely fermented beverages existed at least as early as c. 10,000 BC. It has been suggested that beer may have preceded bread as a staple.’

So it’s possible that people were getting drunk well before they were making cheese toasties. What did they eat when they got the munchies? Many ancient civilisations supped the ale but I’ve always like Egypt so lets see what Wikipedia has to say about their role in the production of alcoholic beverages;

‘Evidence of wine only appeared as a finished product in Egyptian pictographs around 4000 BC.

Brewing dates from the beginning of civilization in ancient Egypt and alcoholic beverages were very important at that time. Symbolic of this is the fact that while many gods were local or familial, Osiris was worshiped throughout the entire country. The Egyptians believed that this important god invented beer, a beverage that was considered a necessity of life; it was brewed in the home "on an everyday basis."

Both beer and wine were deified and offered to gods. Cellars and wine presses even had a god whose hieroglyph was a winepress. The ancient Egyptians made at least 17 types of beer and at least 24 varieties of wine. Alcoholic beverages were used for pleasure, nutrition, medicine, ritual, remuneration and funerary purposes. The latter involved storing the beverages in tombs of the deceased for their use in the after-life.

Numerous accounts of the period stressed the importance of moderation, and these norms were both secular and religious. While Egyptians did not generally appear to define drunkenness as a problem, they warned against taverns (which were often houses of prostitution) and excessive drinking. After reviewing extensive evidence regarding the widespread but generally moderate use of alcoholic beverage, the nutritional biochemist and historian William J. Darby makes a most important observation: all these accounts are warped by the fact that moderate users "were overshadowed by their more boisterous counterparts who added 'colour' to history." Thus, the intemperate use of alcohol throughout history receives a disproportionate amount of attention. Those who abuse alcohol cause problems, draw attention to themselves, are highly visible and cause legislation to be enacted. The vast majority of drinkers, who neither experience nor cause difficulties, are not noteworthy. Consequently, observers and writers largely ignore moderation’

Vegetarian Dish of the Day:

Quorn Surprisingly Versatile Deli Wafer Thin Ham Style

Box Blurb: Ideal for snacks, sandwiches and salads.

I really haven’t got much to say about this. Identical in texture to the Chicken Style I sampled early on in the bet. It has a faux ham taste that your brain reads as ham but then gets a bit confused as to why it did. No bad but then nothing special either.