Stewed Tripe and Toast Water

I know we're supposed to be a 'creative constellation for the arts' since the last University rebranding exercise, but sometimes it feels like working in a giant arty petri dish, where new and exotic varieties of cold virus are created too... it seemed deserted last week, so many SICK cancellations, and those who came in looked quite GREY. So now I've got a cold, the 2nd one this term - cotton wool for a brain again, and 2 lectures to rewrite and a paper for an ESRC funded thing at Goldsmiths coming up...and a PhD to finish before the funding runs out....no pressure there then. Huh! Pressure? Never heard of it...

Mrs Beeton's Everyday Cookbook has got a few suggestions for nourishing recipes, to satisfy the 'cravings of the sick'...hhmm maybe that'll help. She was, after all, the Finest Housekeeper in The World during the Victorian period....

Stewed tripe.
Ingredients: 1/2 lb of tripe, half a pint of milk, spoonful of flour, chopped onion, salt and pepper.
Method: Boil, drain and cut into small squares; simmer for 2 and a half hours and serve.

Toast water.
Ingredients: 1 crust of bread, 1 pint of cold water.
Method: Toast the bread very brown and hard, but do not burn, or it will impart a disagreeable flavour to the water. Put it into a jug, cover with the cold water and soak for 1 hour. Strain and serve as a drink.

Sorry, Mrs B,
It's not for me...
I'll end up in A&E (yes, really!)
I'll just settle for a nice cup of tea.

I saw some tripe once on a meat counter - all grey and undulating, what you might expect from a cow's stomach... I felt quite sick. Sicker than looking at the trays of pig's nostrils in Brixton Market. But I'm sure they all have their connoisseurs...