Saturday 18 July 2015

The Peshawar Club

"The dining room of the Peshawar Club dated from the Old Empire."
-SM Stirling, The Peshawar Lancers (New York, 2003), p. 41.

So the dining room, and presumably also the Club, existed in our history before October 3, 1878, and might still exist now? See here and image.

From Stirling's novel set in the 2025 of an alternative timeline, we move back to the history of our timeline, then forward into a physically real place in our period. HG Wells wrote one alternative timeline novel and Poul Anderson wrote a few but this particular sf sub-genre is being elaborated and perfected by some of their successors, in this case SM Stirling.

In the Club dining room, Athelstane King eats chicken vindaloo and Khara Masala lamb. For earlier Indian food, see here. On this occasion, the meal is "...garlic nan, vindaloo, stuffed eggplant, cauliflower and okra cooked in aromatic yogurt with chilies, cinnamon, peppercorns, and cumin..." (p. 43), followed by "...the cheese platter, cardamon-scented coffee, and snifters of brandy." (p. 46). To follow our growing food thread backwards, start here.

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