The Cross & Cleaver. From Page to Plate
We are an impressionable species. Just look at the cinema goers coming out of a James Bond movie. Women strut as if they just won big in the casino and give off the vibe of nonchalance, while men assume a proverbial thousand-yard stare and keep their arms such, as if to suggest they carry Walther PPK in the shoulder holster. If either one ended up in the bar, they would likely order a vodka Martini, shaken, not stirred. They will also drink it as if they could tell the difference😉.
My own journey into cooking began by watching one of those shows that offer various takes on a dish or ingredient. Suffice to say that after watching numerous takes on BLT sandwiches, that is all I made and ate for the following week.
Of course, we are not only impressionable about what and when we eat. The whole advertising industry is designed to dictate, entice and downright manipulate. So, how do we deal with that? If we cannot completely eradicate it from our sphere of life, how do we minimize it?
Well… how about we pay more attention to those things that inspire us, encourage us or motivate us? That which awakens in us is not the want and greed, but the desire to know and the curiosity to experience. It is about becoming more of who we are already than some more-or-less unaffordable version of the person on the advertising poster.
The difference is quite simple. One is thrust upon us, and the best we can do is try to ignore it. The other we freely embrace and engage with. So, for the next several months, Nicole and I are inviting you to join us on a literary and culinary journey. By way of having our tables inspired by the text, we will connect with the books’ characters, drama and adventures. We will invite you to take a step…. FROM PAGE TO PLATE 😊.
Nicole and I decided to start with books and authors that celebrate a major milestone. 100 years old “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald already makes me think of jazz, champagne and oysters. Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” will be 160 and I am already planning a magnificent tea party! How can we not look at the dinner parties in, born 250 years ago, Jane Austen’s books. What about table disparity of post-war US and Great Britain in Helene Hanff’s “84, Charing Cross Road”? Can we learn
something from “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain? How about some lighthearted fun and fare from P. G. Woodehouse’s “Carry On, Jeeves”? Would the 150th birthday of a poet and mystic, Rainer Maria Rilke inspire a dish? The list of anniversary names and titles can go on.
We might also invite you to step outside those calendar milestones of books and authors and look at the literature that is considered classic or has a “cult” status. How about the dining experience of the nouvelle cuisine in “The American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis? There is food in Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea,” not to mention the Bible.
So here is an example of such inspiration, alas, from a probably less-known book (“The Following Story” by Cees Nooteboom). Mind you, I added a bit 😉
On a dinner plate, arrange:
-½ can of Heinz Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce … (do not heat up!!!) topped with a large tablespoon of —-Piccalilli (mustard relish).
-1 can of Vienna Sasuages topped with your favourite mustard.
-3 slices of whatever bread you like.
-Serve with hot tea.
DON’T KNOCK IT TILL YOU TRIED IT!
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