Food, Glorious Food

Oliver nothwithstanding, food is not only central to our lives (without it, we'd slowly starve to death), it's created, destroyed, celebrated, abused, misused, sexualized, and disposed of (don't shake your head now-- we've all fed the dog, put it in our pockets to throw it away later, or held our food in the back of our mouth and then visited the bathroom to "upchuck" so that Mommy and Daddy think we *really* ate those yummy brussel sprouts or whatever the hell it is we ain't eatin'!).

One thing I enjoy about food is eating it, but I also have come to learn to like cooking it. As a bachelor, I took pride in the fact that I could cook at least five to seven different things, as opposed to the cartoon stereotypes of the daddy who only knows how to cook frozen waffles or some other whatnot, and has pizza delivery on speed dial. I admit having Pizza Hut or some other equivalent around was handy at times, but once I didn't have to bach it anymore and started cooking for two (or more, for dinner parties, guests, and the like), I've taken a certain pride in cooking. While my repertoire doesn't yet resemble Julia Child's, I have appropriated certain cuisines and recipes as my own. As I get familiar with a dish, like all chefs, I can't resist the urge to experiment. Tonight I played around with chili a little bit, adding this, subtracting that. While it was tasty (and I like to think I make a mean chili), it wasn't what I had envisioned. Back to the drawing board...

Someday I'd love to learn how to make tamales. My mom made them when I was little, but she stopped years ago. I suspect it's partly because making tamales is time and labor intensive; in Mexico (and I would guess other Latin American cultures as well), the tamalada is when you have tamales. This is a tamale-making party, and is usually at Christmastime. Here, the top dog in the kitchen will assemble a cooking chain gang to assemble the tamales, so that many can be made reasonably quickly. I love the traditional chicken and pork tamals, and beef is pretty good too. But last month I found this great restaurant in Marina del Rey, Tamara's Tamales. This is a tiny hole-in-the-wall just blocks from the marina itself, but it has the tastiest tamales I've had in a while. Lots of variations too. There were even dessert tamales, including a chocolate one.

Leftovers are a world of their own. Yesterday we had Chinese, to celebrate Chinese New Year, and I polished off the remains at lunch today. Some foods are great for leftovers; Chinese isn't necessarily one of them. Last night we decided to eat fairly close to home, so we went to Chin Chin in Beverly Hills. It's a reasonably good Chinese restaurant at decent prices (yes, you CAN eat in Beverly Hills without using your platinum credit card, or hocking the family jewels). They have an especially tasty garlic eggplant dish. An authentic Chinese meal would require our driving downtown to Chinatown, or to Monterey Park, but I didn't feel like braving rush hour during a weeknight.

Afterwards, we found we had just enough time, so we dashed to the Arclight Cinema on Sunset at Vine, and caught "House of Flying Daggers." It was pricier than I expected ($11 to see a movie?!), but the seats were *very* comfortable, the seating was stadium style, and the movie was something else. It's in the vein of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero," but I thought it was better than "Hero." As in "Hero," the various scenes were keyed by colors and moods, but as in CTHD, the story was well developed, and involved romance and tragedy. The cinematography, costumes, and set design in the first twenty or so minutes were just outstanding, and I kept murmuring to myself, "My god, that's absolutely gorgeous." Despite the fact that I'm not that crazy about northern Asian cuisine (possibly because of the heavy use of soy, which is NOT something I like), I thought to myself, "If life was that beautiful in China back then, I wish I could have been there." Typical historian/time travel enthusiast comment. *grin*

A plus was the fact that the movie was subtitled, so we could pay just like everyone else and not feel we were missing out. If you have a chance to see it on the big screen still, I encourage you to go and catch it while you can. Otherwise, I understand the street date for the DVD is sometime in April.

There aren't any leftovers in the fridge I think, so I'll have to figure out what to pack for lunch tomorrow. There are still some strawberries left, so maybe I'll dice some up with an orange, and have that as a side to a sandwich or something similar. I went to farmer's market last Thursday (and forgot to go today, dammit), and the first strawberries of the season were out. At least two stalls had them, including the seller I usually frequent, so I decided to get a batch. Thanks to the heavy rains we had back in early January (and another storm is supposed to come through tonight/tomorrow.... yippee... NOT), part of the crop was damaged, so prices were a bit high even for the first crop of the season. Still, when I tasted the sample, I was sold. Artichokes, asparagus, and other signs of spring abounded, so I know we'll be getting our gummint-reccomended servings of fruits and veggies for some time to come. It's difficult when you're unemployed and the money isn't exactly rolling in to buy what you need, but I refuse to skimp on quality produce.

Pretty soon it'll be time to make a new menu and I can then fit all the spring vegetables and fruits into meals. While I hope never to be as hungry as Oliver Twist was, as I think of leafing through my cookbooks, the lyrics bounce around my head, while I close my eyes and imagine...

Food, Glorious Food
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