Metaphorical meal

sir – Entre la poire et le fromage. This is often taken to mean “casually” or “without going into too much detail”. Nowadays it is a dead metaphor, but originally it referred to the moment at the dinner table when serious discussion gave way to trivial matters.

Thus, the 17th-century English learnt from the French that the dessert

(la poire) came first and the meal ended with cheese (Letters, January 20). William Brooks

Emeritus professor of French

Bath, Somerset

sir – In the 1960s, my mother would take me to Fortnum & Mason for lunch as a treat.

I would have their version of Welsh rarebit with slices of sautéed apple, melted cheese and crispy bacon served on toast. It was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted.

Unfortunately the recipe wasn’t in Tom Parker Bowles’s Fortnum & Mason cookbook.

Susan Sang

Petersfield, Hampshire