TO MY friends and relations, it is well known that I am a lover of good food. Enjoyment of sustenance is a strand of the human experiences so deeply pleasurable that it feels like it is a gift from the universe and the higher powers of life that can allow our time on Earth to feel euphoric.
I have written in varying contexts in this column over the past two years about some of my favourite food experiences and in the last lap before Christmas, where food plays such an important role, I thought it fitting to indulge in extolling the virtues of a culinary contender for the heavyweight taste title, the match of which is hard to find. This is the great clootie dumpling. As regular readers will expect, this has been sparked by a recent event in the voyages of MacPhail, and it has a significant history dating back nearly 10 years.