Titchmarsh visitors

[johnalison]

I seem to recall from my distant rural Essex upbringing that Squab Pie was a seasonal delicacy, along with Rook Pie. We had a large rookery in the wood in front of the house and they culled them annually when the young were old enough to leave the nest but not yet flying so were easy targets.

I imagine that you also partook of rook and raspberry ripple?

 

[Leighb]

I imagine that you also partook of rook and raspberry ripple?

Not that I recall, however with my dear mama’s cooking anything is possible!

 

[johnalison]

Not that I recall, however with my dear mama’s cooking anything is possible!

I'm afraid that I find it very hard to look a rook in the face without remembering the restaurant sketch from the Two Ronnies. R C and his lady go to a restaurant called the Rookery and start to order from R B, the waiter. Declining the starter of rook soup, they are presented with a choice of mains, something like roast rook, casseroled rook, rook pie etc. RC and his companion look at each other and decide to pass on that too and ask what the desert is, to which RB replies in his best offhand manner "rook and raspberry ripple".

 

[Leighb]

I'm afraid that I find it very hard to look a rook in the face without remembering the restaurant sketch from the Two Ronnies. R C and his lady go to a restaurant called the Rookery and start to order from R B, the waiter. Declining the starter of rook soup, they are presented with a choice of mains, something like roast rook, casseroled rook, rook pie etc. RC and his companion look at each other and decide to pass on that too and ask what the desert is, to which RB replies in his best offhand manner "rook and raspberry ripple".

We love the Two Ronnies, but must have missed that one!

 

[Chalk]

I seem to recall from my distant rural Essex upbringing that Squab Pie was a seasonal delicacy, along with Rook Pie. We had a large rookery in the wood in front of the house and they culled them annually when the young were old enough to leave the nest but not yet flying so were easy targets.

Branchling (not nestling) rook pie. Very tasty. ?

 

[Gin]

We have a bird here in Ibiza I cannot recall seeing in the UK. It looks very much like a small pigeon, but it has mostly brown wings. Have you any idea what it is?

Could it possibly be a turtle dove? Doesn’t really fit the bill but those birds in Menorca are very muted in their colouring and at a short distance their marking were in distinct. Otherwise, I expect you are familiar with Collared Doves, which are smaller birds than pigeons and are light brown in colour