There is nothing like discovering old habits again. Last few days have seen me take up my reading again - perhaps the new atmosphere at home helps. It helped to also get into the habit with a book on a food critic. It inspired many flavours in my mouth, inspired a couple of posts based on food and inspired me to collect a group of people interested in tasting exotic food for a project conceived in the middle of this book.
Garlic and Sapphires started off very well for me. Yet, as Ruth Reichl plodded in and out of exotic and high end restaurants, I started asking myself - well, isn't she getting a bit like the person she did not like as she described in the beginning? I was heartened to see her come to the same conclusion - yet, there was something very flippant and not very respectful tone in the book for a lot of people. I felt a judgement being passed right from the beginning. She also saw me ask questions like "Are all restaurant critics disguised all the time? - it must be a very good target industry for the makeover industry.
So what kept me hooked to the book?
- It was about food.
- It talked about different type of restaurants in New York, different flavours used in the recipes of these restaurants giving a glimpse into what could be grown in each of these countries (perhaps many of the ingredients are same but just cooked differently)
- There was just the joy of looking into the way restaurants are run and different ways in people who enjoy food really enjoy - the conflicting ways of enjoying....
- The possibilities it opens up in cooking and eating - you realize there is a world out there of flavours and smells.... of ways of eating .... (on the first day I started reading about the Japanese food, I went to google to see how I should eat a Sushi - dipping the rice part into the soya sauce - Heavens! That is sacrilege - you always dip the fish part first! What is wonderful is that sushi can also be eaten with hands - clumsy chopstick handling wondering when the fish is going to land on my dinner companion's face could disappear in future...)
- I now have a project ... more about it later.
She also touched on something that has been worrying me for sometime now. My ex-boss/ex-colleagues in my previous company used to tell me how I used to brighten up everyone's day by coming into work as if that was the biggest joy in the world. My good morning smile came as a refresher like Cuticura powder (ok... that was too tempting) and it made everyone relax. I am not sure that is the case anymore. Just as Ruth Reichl asked the question - it also started ringing some warning bells in my head. In a way she did make me think... whether she was talking about steaks and memories colouring the taste of the steak or about going into a restaurant to feel the bean soup in all the food only to realize it was all memories from when she visited the same building as a child when there was another restaurant in the same place. I wonder whether she ever thought it will have that effect on people...
So what book did I take up next? I am into the first few chapters of "The Various Flavours of Coffee" - about a person who starts in the morning for his job related to coffee business, thinks all day about having sex with the person he is working with and in the evening visits prostitutes. The book has so far been all about sex - coffee is thrown in just as a side incident. The author focuses solely on the "sex" related thoughts... and on sex-centric activities and suddenly realises - oh perhaps I should write about the topic in the title - switches to coffee and then is soon back into his favourite topic. He sure must have been a frustrated person. I went to the google to read some reviews on this and all said it is an amazing book. I am waiting for the improvement - I hope that the main character will soon think about some other topic and the author also thinks about other incidents.