A cooking life

Author: Marcus Samuelsson

Having read the first chapter, I can now guess that the book cover has Berbere spread, in which the title is written in perfect alphabets. Its a touching search for his mother who passed away when he was 3. I almost teared up at the end of first chapter.

As I read the wordy letters of some dishes, I am reminded that Ikea food too is from the place where the author grew up. The author's first encounter with management of pantry began at his grandmother's house.
Before jumping into cooking dream full time, the author had another dream- soccer. A playground which looks down upon underbuilt even if skilled.

Its the professional kitchens where the interns and the novices are to bow a 'Yes, Chef' for everything, that the title of the book is derived from.

The division of the book into three chapters boy, chef and man says it all. That it’s a bildungsroman. By the end of his boyhood, he owned a coveted set of cooking knives and a kitchen boy experience at a restaurant. That’s telling of where the boy is headed. Geographically, he wanted to get to France. In the meantime, he went to top restaurants in Switzerland, NY.  While in NY, he took the place in. The diversity of NY expanded his palate. From his mentors he learnt how to meld international flavours into existing traditions. With his focus on learning as much as he could, by the age of 24, he became the head of a three star kitchen. He arrived.

Having reached his goal, hurtling through a pregnancy and two funerals that he couldn’t attend, at a QA with cooking students, ‘What are some of the modern cooking trends in Africa?’ was the tipping point. His search to find his roots became his diving board into manhood too where the self he had made until then had a hefty price attached to it as it was under another person’s tutelage. Everywhere he goes, he cooks to show ‘honor, respect and love’. His food was appreciated by awards, TV show win, preparing state dinner. His restaurant ‘Red Rooster’ is about letting the past and present speak from the same place. Just like in his life where he embraced his past by taking up the responsibility of his natural father's family from another marriage.

Chef Samuelsson’s life is similar to the others in the hours that he had to put in scut work. His life is different too from other chefs. We hear how it is tough for chefs to have a life. The author got around it by getting to the top fast and then found time to tie up the lose ends in his life – finding identity, building family bonds.

In the kitchen, he learns of the rituals where mentors let the best stage at other famous kitchens. Demographics in there.

Pig feet Mary

American trait

Author: Jack Hitt

Gungywamp was sought out and placed in history by an amateur.

The author began the book with Ben Franklin and ended with it. Towards the end we are introduced to Claude-Anne Lopez. Her life story summary is interesting enough that we don’t ask why we need to know about her until we recall after few pages that the lady we just read of is a biographer of Franklin. The author is skilled at story telling.

There is a conflict in the book between trying to be exhaustive about a topic – rare birdwatching, race, skywatching and not to forget that all this has to be viewed with the lens of amateurism. The subtitle ‘a search for the American character’ is a catchall for the variety of the book. For the amazing content, I can overlook the ‘the case of curious title’ as miscataloging (who would have thunk that there’s no need of a u).

The first chapter looks at Franklin Vs John Adams that goes like Frederick Vs Voltaire each at odds with the others behavior. When I caught sight of ‘Ivory bill’, I couldn’t brace myself to read about it.  When there is a talk of this bird, fuzzy is not far. It is not clear if this bird is alive or not. The proof is a grainy video which has been questioned by many amateurs. In each chapter the author talks of the reigning theories and the dents made in them by amateurs.

The book is result of Immersive journalism. Where the author follows amateurs – birdwatchers in chase of ivory bill, extracting DNA using cleverly rigged gadgets instead of the expensive equipment used in lab, astronomers in search of a good ‘seeing’ and making lenses with them.

In the race chapter, the author questions flimsy claims and has a paragraph that lists all the biases that we could be prone to while analyzing data. Kennewick man is shown as one such multi-biased case and an example of how floating symbols can be weaved into different cultures to support their ‘manifest destinies’.

Amateurism is not only about clever individuals but collaboration among many of them on a scale made possible by the today’s ‘open-source’ – bioweather maps, Galaxy zoo.

The author has a way of keeping a thread running among the chapters – the power of myth in the Gungywampers case, Native American origin tale involving ice, the myth of Ivory Bill’s continued existence. That said there are some leaps in the narrative that we can overlook for the book’s far reach.

To live in a world where another discovery changes our history, but do we all recalibrate ourselves with that new knowledge? Before I heard of the Clovis, I thought that America was very young and with the pre-Clovis and a harmless T-rex, I can imagine a story with a T-rex in an unlikely friendship with another animal but with the man, we will probably keep looking for an evidence that explains all the migrations of the Neanderthal man or we’ll just look up to the sky until we meet our future – ET.

Hail the people with DIY in their genes!

Becoming of a curator

Author: Darcy Lockman

When we follow famous legal cases, sometimes we hear that the defendant was deemed unfit for trial. It is interesting to know of the procedure used to reach that conclusion. While the author is sharing her experiences in an internship at a hospital, she also supplements the branches of psychiatry with their history.
Most of the book is about evaluations of a patient's mental status. There are two kinds, one which the author calls the talking cases where you talk to the patient to see their readiness for discharge and their assessment of the situation. In the other as a consultant liaison, we learn of cases where the CL has to assess how the mental health of the patient is affecting the medical treatment the patient is undergoing. In some cases, the book does seem like retelling of what happened as an advisor looking for more analysis in the notes complains.
I find that sarcasm being a sign of intelligence in a mental evaluation, points to how our complex talk can reflect the working of our mind.
Throughout the internship, the author is enraged that psychoanalysis is not given its due. She decries the use of meds as they don't make a patient capable of independent life.
An internship is a before-after experience. True to that expectation, when the author enters the Kings County hospital she feels ignorant but at the end of it she realizes that she can make a difference.
The books format of snapshots of the cases leaves the reader looking for closure for each case which does not arrive in all the cases because of the nature of the hospital where discharges happen without psychiatrist's goodbyes.
But what of mind is ever simple and organized, thus goes a memoir like a montage of myriad ways heads can go wrong. Quotes on the mental states by some authors is not surprising considering the inordinate amounts of time they spend thinking about the human condition. I hope the quotes are only for comment sake and not part of the `treatment plan'.

In Indian

the Vietnamese girl

would be called

Meenakshi

-eyes of a fish.

***********

Bunny is a cute cat

with slightly round face

easy to figure skin colors

black and white.

Not the stripes,

no angular face bones.

Humor has its hike boots on

Author: Hape Kerkeling

I have some idea of the pilgrimage to the end of the world from 'Off the road: A modern day walk down the pilgrims route into Spain' by Jack Hitt.
This traveler is having way too much fun - staying at hotels, taking off from the walking for a movie. I have to follow the journey of his self discovery.
He is down to earth in terms of spirituality. Oh oh! This route aint easy with mischievous people giving wrong directions. Now that I have seen the scallop symbol, I will recognise the path. Butterflies as trail markers. whatever works.
I am now lined up with the date at the bottom of the page.

read by June 21, 2010

4/5

After liking this book, I was interested in  reading 

It wasnt captive.

A motley expression

Author: Kristina van dykes

Ladislas Segy, an expert on modern and African art writes in his book African sculpture, that for a background of it, one needs to explore a dozen different branches of science - the history of African kingdoms, archeology, ethnology, anthropology, the study of mythology, folklore, linguistics, ethno- psychology, psychoanalysis.

The objects with their simplicity and unity are well described as for their source and purpose. The fact that contributions are not from a single author goes to show the wide range of expertise required to understand African art.

Kuba cups and Divination pestle from Luba with pictures of real people and their coiffures showing the inspiration point, show how the art derives from their way of life.

When objects serve as authority or status symbol, the rituals involved are explained.

Shoulder masks. Multi- Figure altar. Caryatid stool. Serpent sculpture. Aesthetically these were totally new to me.

Staff from Kongo is a story in wood.


June 27, 2010


5/5

How food moved from hearth to the restaurant

Author: Adam Gopnik

If you look at the contents, there's many emails to Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Initially I thought she might be an expert whose views are welcomed by the author in to his book like a field reporter back to the TV station or the call to the expert on 'who wants to be a millionaire'. This aspect of the book comes into life progressively. Even with the passivity of a relation between an admirer and his dead literary idol, the dissonance of an irredeemable past and the author's reaction to it pulses the one way communication with human pathos.

The author writes about the history of the restaurant not from when it was a restaurant but how preexisting cafe culture had to be merged into it to thrive. He also breaks myths about WW and restaurant timeline.

All appetites have their illusions, which are part of their pleasure. The author feels that the cookbooks stoke a fire in the readers that they know is not a wave that is success-ably ridable.

Is the mystery of good cooking - talent or a secret ingredient and is the chef willing to share it? Being in the critic business, he makes us see the ambiguity of taste and the writing we use to describe food and wine.
 His entry pass takes him to may places where he learns of the latest in modern cuisine. A NZ study about food miles and energy involved is counter-intuitive. What El Bulli is closing?

When you are cooking, do you find yourself capable of anything else? I find myself going back to the recipe to see if I missed anything.

Like species of plants and animals that go extinct, spices like Silphium too face a similar fate.

I hadnt read of Adam Gopnik except for a line of his quoted in How to cook like a man. This book links us to another food author Lisa Abend.

Out of 'The Great Gatsby' what does a daisy mean?

The myths associated with different flowers and their meanings are the crux of this book. The author writes how the flowers get their meaning by their behavior like the Camellia standing for 'an everlasting union between lovers' as its calyx falls with the petals unlike in other flowers where it stays even after the flower dies or by the games played with the flowers. To make the flowers hold so much charm in them, like the gifts given to Perseus, takes us into a magical world. Imagine every Irish girl of a time always remembering to put clover in her shoes before walking down the aisle.
I didnt like a perfume used by an old lady at the apartment office. I think it was Gardenias. But when I get there I might like it too for its help in treating 'menopausal symptoms of insomnia, depression and headaches'.
Thus reading when I came across Carnation, I couldnt wait for its story and significance. Its like waiting for your Zodiac sign. We had them in our house for our baby's cradle ceremony and befittingly they stand for maternal love.
If next time someone attempts to get you to kiss unwillingly  under a Mistletoe, dont forget to look for the berries.
Up until now I thought only Sunflower did the solar blooming. Its a surprise that many others like Heliotrope, Daisy follow the sun.

St Chad of Mercia

From the tagine land

Today I had chicken Fantasia for lunch. It had tomao sauce around brown rice and chicken all over. Mourad says that when Moroccan food is served in big platters, that is how it is. Sauce all around, vegetables at the center and meat underneath. You work into the center finishing the sauce. The author gets us acquainted with how you eat a plate and serve a guest. The spices used in Moroccan spices are used in many other cuisines, so its not the spices, the author says but how they are used that make a dish Moroccan.

Couscous can be made with hands and at home. Warqa

 Bored with the classics, he came up with zaalouk a different way of cooking eggplants than the Baba ghanoush that we are familiar with. The author is not afraid of stirring up things by trying out different ways, but in the end he goes by what his restaurant patrons like.

The author provides us with alternative ways of retaining the essence by urging us to buy Air Chilled Chicken. Meat lovers will find ways of communicating with butcher, if you follow his suggestions of how to order meat. I hadn't heard of lamb chops until I came to the US and the author explains why it might be so. Next time if you are near a hamaam, check if they have tangias cooking away somewhere.

Icecream with fig leaves?

Basteeya at Aziza.

Presentation: Rolling round thick cheese slices in colorful spices on the side. 

The strange land of babies

Author: Anne Enright

The author goes to literature (Kafka's cockroach man) and painting (Rouault) in her freakish moments of trying to absorb the motherhood quirks.

Pelvis as chalice.

Waiting for the water to break she feels like a Burco boiler  with the tap left open.

The author when slipping into sleeps describes it as 'I have untied my little boat and gone floating downstream'. How relaxing is that. All those days when sleep is hard to arrive, we might be stuck in the dock with many other boats around. This morning during the shower, I imagined myself being in a green forest at that moment.

Kidney dish

The author questions the part played by evolution in the beauty adaptation. His inspiration for the book - a commonality in the song of two different species encourages us to keep scrutinising things that interest us.
The shape of a shell. Even when I imagine it, it seems so luscious.
According to him abstract act opens up art and the possibility of its occurrence in things around us even more like how removing the strict rules of form on poetry unshackles it.

Origins of classic foods

Author: Ann_treistman (also author of 73 Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep. Wow everyone has their 2 cents about how to help a baby sleep.) The link has a slideshow for other foods like sundae, mayo (this is what I like best on MacD's)
This is the kind of question one is likely to ask of deviled eggs. What with the egg white solidifying to form nice little saucers of their whipped up yellows. McDonalds fries start from frozen fries for quality control.
For a long time I had Froffles until at a hotel I used a machine to make waffles. Have you used  pancake machines? The elevator button pressing kids have fun punching in a big number to see the assembly line in action. As much fun it is watching a machine do something for a first time, its fun to watch a person make pretzels. While industrialization has made chicken popular, pretzel making machines and bagel making machines 
put stores selling hand crafted goods out of business.
Popcorn and cotton candy machines at fair. With cotton candy, it is funny to know that they were once made by hand, a laborious process.
With chicken fried steak, a cook mistook the order and made it.
Thomas Jefferson has had an influence on American food thinking of mixing hot with cold (baked Alaska), made waffles popular by bringing a machine from France. So did WWII participants bringing with them all the foods hey liked.
Cereals and their intended audience.
If Key lime pie is so easy to make, why havent I made it yet. Besides anything that involves condensed milk can never go wrong.
When I read of Puda as Indian, I asked my husband if he knew about as I never heard of it. He said its an abbreviation Punjab urban development authority like Huda (Hyderabad ...) (All those boards next to big digs) but now it has merged into HMDA. M is for Metropolitan. Back to edible Puda, from the ingredients, it just seems another name for chile.

Comparing meatloaf in essence to Kofta gives me a new angle to look at the meatloaf recipes with and see if they can work for Koftas.
Imagine the times when sugar was scarce.

cake decoration: More than art

Ever wonder how a tiered cake is made. Its supported with dowels. The piping styles of shell, flower and their repetition on the page reminds me of the time I was learning different type of stitches on a piece of cloth. Its amazing to see how with just the basic shells and some creativity how different effects can be brought about.  Interestingly embroidery styles are also used for decorating cakes. Laces you have seen. Eyelets, have you? Smocking??

Making rose buds, translating a 2D projection into a raised 3D calls for more skills than texturing a painting.

Marzipan shaping into fruits is sculpture and painting at work.

The take your breath away skill is 'bridge and extension work and hailspotting'.

Dont change your mind

After the stove is on. Today I burnt the seasoning for susheela. Reason: My plan was to make poha. While I took out the packet of poha, I realized it was thin poha which is better served fried. So y the time I put that back in the packet and took the puffed rice and soaked it, the seasoning in a hurry got burnt.
Mise en place atleast at a macro level.

Dinner follows menu

Yesterday when I was looking for cilantro, I realized there was spinach in the fridge. Today afternoon, I was all up for making the best of weekend, to make rotis. That spinach image from yesterday subconsciously got married with roti and I said
"We are having palak paratha for dinner".
I have never had it before. Getting a general idea from the recipe, I sauteed the spinach. It finally ended up with so much water, that I didn't have to add any extra. In fact, I kept adding dough to get it to a thicker consistency. While rolling out the parathas, I was amazed at how thin they would roll out and match the pan size. It reminded me of all the gimmicks we used as kids to make soft rotis. Hot water, oil. Like true North Indian style, we had them with thick curds.
The spinach worked into the dough consistently. It was funny in the beginning, a mush feel when my hands encountered soft spinach during the dough preparation.
I am reminded of onion paratha, I used to have 10 years ago (bought from a home kitchen) when I had no kitchen and stayed as a paying guest. Bread and Kissan jam were the go tos.