Epicure's Almanack

"The epicure's almanack of 1815 was the first British 'good food guide,' designed to point the reader toward places in and around London where he might 'dine well, and to the best advantage,' whatever his budget. Working alone and on foot, Ralph Rylance visited and described some 650 establishments, ranging from City chop houses, ancient coaching inns, and London's first Indian restaurant, to humble tripe shops and oyster rooms, dockyard taverns, and village pubs. He concluded his tour with a comprehensive account of London's markets, a catalogue of merchants stocking everything from anchovy sauce to kitchen ranges, and an 'alimentary calendar' directing both cooks and diners to the best seasonal ingredients. Annual updates were promised, but never appeared: a publishing failure in its own time, the Almanack was neither continued nor reprinted, and two years after publication all unsold copies were destroyed. The present edition is designed to make this engaging and informative text more readily available, and to provide a commentary on the book and its author, and on the wider topic of eating and drinking in London at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The extensive notes to the main text include brief histories of the principal establishments mentioned, whenever possible making use of contemporary notices and advertisements, and details from a contemporary map of London allow the reader to follow in Ralph Rylance's footsteps as he explores the city's streets"--Front flap of book jkt.