Hokey Pokey men

chained_bear commented on the word Hokey Pokey men

"Street children spent their few coins on a penny-slice of plum pudding, boiled trotters and pickled tripe, or boiled sweets luridly colored with lead, arsenic and mercury, or on rhubarb, currant and cherry pies -- even a slice of over-ripe pineapple -- all sold in the street from a bit of polished wood or a piece of oil cloth. From the 1840s, the Wenham Lake Ice Company had begun to import ice to sell in blocks to fishmongers, confectioners and wealthy households. Quick to catch at an opportunity, Italian immigrants like Carlo Gatti set up in business in London in the summer of 1850, selling hard, luridly coloured ices made from often dirty milk mixed with cornstarch and luring customers for their 'penny licks' with cries of 'ecco un poco!', ensuring their nickname: the Hokey Pokey men."

--Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 291-292

January 18, 2017