Garlic & Pearls

What is the quintessential French summer food? Melon, of course, of the orange-fleshed and deeply aromatic variety. In the summer, Muriel explains, the French go into a sort of melon frenzy, chasing the perfect ambrosial experience, and this brings with it the agony of choice. Selecting the right melon is an inexact science, at once thrilling and anxious-making. Weighing up a melon in the palm of your hand is a Gallic ritual as old as time. Melons also come with a rich cultural hinterland: they have long inspired poets and moralists. To the French, there is something subtly existential about the promise of delight and the repeated quest for excellence in a sea of indifferent fruit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can you hear the clarion call of a tinny version of 'Green Sleeves'? That familiar cheery chime is calling us to the ice cream van, plying its way all over the UK in the summer. Suzanne explores its history, its British-American mash-up of creativity, crucial Italian connection, technical challenges and complex regulations. Who invented Mr Whippy? How did the 99 chocolate flake come to be? Who is best at converting an ordinary van into a magical driving machine that dispenses ice cream? And should Suzanne and Muriel consider an alternative career ? The Garlic & Pearls theme tune would make an irresistible chime for their van... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The golden age of topless sunbathing in France lasted a little over a decade, from the 1970s to the tail end of the 1980s. French women pioneered it and were also first to abandon it. But how and why? Muriel retraces the story of a particular aspect of Gallic art de vivre which was highly codified and attempted to recast the social contract between women and society. How natural was it? How cultural? Did it have more to do with feminism – of the French kind – or with fashion? And what would Coco Chanel have made of it? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another case of Suzanne pinpointing the essence of Britain; another first-time taste experience for Muriel! What are scampi fries but fish and chips, pubs and the British seaside holiday all condensed into a tiny mouthful of fishy saltiness. Covering ground from Georgian recipes of Italianate dishes of langoustines to extruded snacks of the 1980s, Suzanne tells the story of how the whole of Britain was fitted into a small crunchy bag. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the wake of the banning of absinthe in France in 1915, a new apéritif was born, redolent with aniseed and liquorice, a taste at once medicinal and full of the joie de vivre we associate with the South of France. But what does 'pastis' mean? Who invented it? In what way did it have political implications? And why is it so central to French apéritif culture? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.