Swans: as cake, and as food

[liuzhou]

Host's note: this and the first many responses were moved from the Gotten any fun stuff lately? topic.

 

 

I didn't buy this so perhaps doesn't qualify as 'gotten', but I had fun looking it in the bakery as I was picking up some bread. 

 

 

It's a cake. I don't do cake. I don't do swan either, after a less than fun tasting about 70 years ago. I only remember being appalled at how bad it was*! Long story.

 

* Also totally illegal!

 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by Smithy
Added host's note after topic split (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

3 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

It's a cake.

Beautiful cake. Somebody did a lot of work.

4 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

I don't do swan either,

Took me a minute to pick up on that. You wouldn't have done well at Henry the 8th table.

[Katie Meadow]

12 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Beautiful cake. Somebody did a lot of work.

Took me a minute to pick up on that. You wouldn't have done well at Henry the 8th table.

I kinda think that cake is hideous, but I'm not totally sure. And I wouldn't have done well at Henry's table either, for so many reasons.

[Tropicalsenior]

2 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

12 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I kinda think that cake is hideous

You are right. I have to admit that my eyesight is going I zoomed the image and it does not hold up under close scrutiny. Although if that is something that is offered over the counter in a small bakery, somebody's put quite a bit of work into it.

[Tropicalsenior]

7 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

And I wouldn't have done well at Henry's table either, for so many reasons.

I don't think either one of us would have even been invited. It is my understanding that he let everyone stay in the dining room reveling and he ate alone in his Chambers. Copiously stuffing his face obviously.

[Katie Meadow]

4 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I don't think either one of us would have even been invited. It is my understanding that he let everyone stay in the dining room reveling and he ate alone in his Chambers. Copiously stuffing his face obviously.

The goal of dining with the king was to keep your head at all times....attached.

[liuzhou]

Eating swans in the UK is decidedly illegal (nothing to do with Henry VIII) - they are protected wildlife birds. 

 

When the UK abolished the death penalty in 1969, it was still reserved for a very few crimes, especially treason. Technically eating some swans can be considered treason, and although all death penalties were finally abolished in 1989, it still technically could attract a life sentence.

 

The reason for this is that there is a precedent that the British Crown enjoys ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water and has done for centuries.

The one I sampled as a schoolboy was definitely mute (on account of being dead) but wasn't in open waters - it was in a sandwich! So, although still illegal to eat, doing so wasn't an act of treason. 

 

I'm not aware of any other foods the consumption of which is still considered treason, although history has many examples of such in times past.  China has many.

 

[Shel_B]

31 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Technically eating some swans can be considered treason

 

This statement got me curious, so I looked up what is considered to be a treasonous act in Great Britain. There are quite a few, but I saw nothing about killing or eating wildlife. Please take a moment, when you can, to describe how eating a swan is treasonous?  I can certainly see it as being illegal ...

[liuzhou]

20 minutes ago, Shel_B said:

This statement got me curious, so I looked up what is considered to be a treasonous act in Great Britain. There are quite a few, but I saw nothing about killing or eating wildlife. Please take a moment, when you can, to describe how eating a swan is treasonous?  I can certainly see it as being illegal ...

 

Because eating the monarch's dinner is not allowed! It is theft of royal property and therefore causes harm to the monarch.

 

Ridiculous, I know, but....

 

That's why I emphasised 'technically'. It has never been enforced in modern times and I think never would be.

 

 

Edited 15 hours ago by liuzhou (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

not aware of any other foods the consumption of which is still considered treason

Are there special penalties for killing the Ravens around the tower?

[liuzhou]

Just now, Tropicalsenior said:

Are there special penalties for killing the Ravens around the tower?

 

Yes. But you don't want to eat them. Don't ask me how I know!