I watched the Delicious Miss Dhal on TV on Lifesyle Food on Foxtel last Saturday afternoon for the first time. What struck me most was Miss Dhal’s thematic approach to looking at food and in that programme, the emphasis was on Melancholy. Being the literary me, I also took an interest in the quotes featured on that subject especially in the scene when Miss Dahl entered her cosy living area and sat down to read an excerpt from Auden WH, ed. Selected writings of Sydney Smith, London: Faber and Faber, 1967 in a section entitled ‘Letter to Georgiana Morpeth, 16 February 1820?.
I sourced the letter from the internet and it read as follows:
Dear Georgiana,
Nobody has suffered more from low spirits than I have—so I feel for you. Here are my prescriptions.
1st Live as well as you dare.
2nd Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold.
3rd Amusing books.
4th Short views of human life—not further than dinner or tea.
5th Be as busy as you can.
6th See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you.
7th And of those acquaintances who amuse you.
8th Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely—they are always worse for dignified concealment.
9th Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you.
10th Compare your lot with that of other people.
11th Don’t expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best.
12th Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy sentimental people, and every thing likely to excite feeling or emotion not ending in active benevolence.
13th Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree.
14th Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15th Make the room where you commonly sit, gay and pleasant.
16th Struggle by little and little against idleness.
17th Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18th Keep good blazing fires.
19th Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
20th Believe me, dear Georgiana, your devoted servant, Sydney Smith
Miss Dhal mentioned that one thing was missing and that was food. Indeed, comfort food is essential in times of melancholy, especially chocolate and according to Miss Dahl, chicken soup.
I would definitely indulge in chocolate when I am feeling melancholic, be it a dark chocolate bar, Tim Tams or even lamingtons, in short, anything chocolatey.
Miss Dahl suggested melting orange flavoured milk chocolate and topping the melted product on vanilla ice cream. I would instead go for dark chocolate and pour the viscous elixir onto a piece of chocolate brownie or the good old ice cream and drizzle it with chopped nuts. Oh how decadent!
In summing up Miss Dahl’s quote that read: ”In a state of melancholy all you notice is the sludge in the river, children falling over in the snow, the unfairness of it all’, when one has had the perk-me-up comfort food, one tends to ‘realize it’s a little too indulgent, your head’s been in too many bowls of chocolate sauce. At that stage it’s good to get up, leave your house, get into the world and you realise as you walk across the bridge, the river’s not just sludge, there’s light dancing on it, the child that fell over in the snow is being helped up by another child and life just isn’t so bad’.
Yes, life wouldn’t be as bad when at some point, you put a stop to indulging in decadence and guilt prompts you to get out of the house to take in some fresh air, smell the sweet scent of roses that lingers in the spring afternoon and watch the clouds drift languidly across the sky, making strangely recognisable patterns like abstract art on mega-sized canvases.