Large Fierce Mammal

“An acquired taste is an appreciation for something unlikely to be enjoyed by a person who has not had substantial exposure to it.” ~ Wikipedia

Of this very subject, I once wrote:

“I like fruitcake. I also like marinated herring, Danish blue cheese, scotch whisky, anchovies, the smell of a good cigar being smoked – even though I don’t smoke myself — and Peter Thompson. That they are all acquired tastes does not diminish the fact that my sensibilities are in some way gladdened by each of them, in spite of my propensity to swear at Thompson as often as by him, and in truth, my liking for a thing that is best when soaked at length in fine spirits, and is dense enough stop a bullet, has some interesting parallels to our friendship.” ~ A Long Winter’s Night – Holiday Density

Most of you already understood all that, but I offer it in recognition of that portion of my Goode Readers for whom language their first English may not be.

Food and drink have figured prominently in these pages over the years, taking forms ranging from the mouth watering through the contentious to the abjectly disgusting. Presented in chronological order absent any effort on my part to define where each may fit in the above stated and admittedly subjective spectrum, the list would include such selections as:

• The Sandwich With the Dragon Tattoo
• Dark Sentiments 2011 – Day 13: A Study in Consensual Cannibalism
• Sunday Brunch Pre-Warning
• A Long Winter’s Night – Holiday Density
• A Long Winter’s Night 2014 – Day 9: Revisionist Lobster
• Dark Sentiments Season 7 – Day 12: Fading into the Distance
• The French Will Eat It

There’s your homework should you choose to accept it. Now, on to the meat of tonight’s matter.

Tasting History is a delightfully debauched YouTube channel that romps through the culinary sins and delights of our more earthy ancestors with eyes and gullet wide open. For tonight’s Dark Sentiment, host Max Miller rustles us up a taste of Sparta.

Decant yourself some of that nice black ale from last night and let’s get on with it. I hope you brought your appetite.