Appetite, literally..!

To eat to live or to live to eat, that’s never an ambiguity for me.

In the past week or so, I have picked couple of books on food, to read. One a small compendium, titled, ‘A Cook’s Companion’ and the other ‘It must’ve been something I ate’ by Jeffrey Steingarten.

‘A Cook’s Companion’ is a typically neat British publication (Robson Books) on gastronomical trivia. It contains some wonderful little tidbits on food history, science, and facts/fiction.

Sample this trivia,

During wartimes, inside the rationed environs of a warship, the once a day complete meal used to be served in square plates, hence ‘Square Meals’.

And this quote,

There are two things in life I like firm, and one of them is jelly. – Mae West

Or this anonymous limerick,

There was a young gourmet of Crediton
Who took pate de foie gras and spread it on
A chocolate biscuit
He murmured ‘I’ll risk it’
His tomb bears the date that he said it on.

Nice, isn’t it?

The book has hundreds of such entries. And can be a delightful companion on a lazy Sunday afternoon or a lonely train journey (as I found out).

I have just started reading ‘ It must have ..’ and from what I have read, Steingarten writes with a very understated dry self deprecating humor which is hard to not grin at while reading. I will post a bit more once I am through with the reading.

A typical food related book would be a collection of recipes, more often than not. However, if you lay your hands on books which go beyond just recipes, they offer a reading with a new taste. Food is such an integral part of our daily life in times of mirth or misery. It is no surprise that there is so much to write about than just recipes.

S has been reading books by MFK Fisher and found them as relishing as a plate of home made festive savories. I got to find a way to dig into her fare. I have in my shelf an autobiographical book that I haven’t read yet, ‘The Devil in the kitchen’ by Marco Pierre White – a celebrity chef and on top of it, a Brit. (A British cook, makes you wonder, what a nice time pass profession that it would be, given the fact that there is nothing so much called British cuisine!). The point I am trying to make is that while there is so much to read generally, there is much more to read on food, specifically. I guess it will be a genre which can offer a lip smacking fare page after page.

Getting back to where I started: To eat to live or to live to eat, that’s never an ambiguity for me.

;-)!