1 III~I.21UI !_rU~<br > DIET<br >"his diet is not a course of punishment for being too fat- it is instead a<br >~xurious low calorie regime. If you want to lose weight， you have to<br >educe calories， but you can do that without weeks of martyrdom<br >hrough the medium of crispbread， diet margarine and undressed<br >alad. Moderation and restraint aren t dirty or unpleasant words:<br >vhat harm ever came from a small lobster or a half bottle of<br >hampagne?<br >3ood plain food<br >n Casino Royale James Bond treated his companion to dinner at the<br >;avoy. She ordered caviar， rognons de veau， pommes souJllees<br >mdfraises des bois， and turning to Bond asked Isn t it shameless to<br >~e so certain and so expensive? It s a virtue; the gourmet spy replied<br >md anyway it s good plain wholesome food. Bond was perhaps<br >~lightly ahead of his time， as until very recently luxury was more likely<br >o be associated with superabundance and baroque complexity rather<br >han purity and simplicity.<br > The luxury foods of the rich have not remained constant. In a<br >;ociety where scarcity is the rule， abundance is the hallmark of the<br >)ig-wig s dining table. Vitellius， least notable of the Roman emperors<br >md classical glutton par excellence (when faced by a revolt of the<br >~raetorian guards he fled with his cook and pastry cook)， gave a<br >)anquet at whick seven thousand game birds， two thousand fish，<br >md bizarre concoctions of pike livers and flamingo tongues were<br >;erred. In nineteenth-century Russia the aimless and wilfully per-<br >terse behaviour of the idle ruling class is well observed in Pushkin s<br >tescription of Eugene Onegin s bachelor dinner:<br > Before him roast beef red and gory，<br > and truffles which have ever been<br > youth s choice， the flower of French cuisine;<br > and pate， Strasbourg s deathless glory，<br > sits with Limburg s vivacious cheese，<br > and ananas the gold of trees.<br > More wine he calls to drench<br > the fire of the cutlet s scalding fat. <br >