So in love with good food am I that, like Rome just before its fall, I am a walking definition of decadent. I have been reading the most outrageous book about food, which includes chapters on "The Human Harvest," (just what, of ourselves, can we actually eat) and how to stage a Bacchanalian Orgy for a dinner party (which, truth be told, it is one of my life's dreams to attend such an affair).
The book is "Gastronaut: Adventures in food for the romantic, the foolhardy and the brave," by Stefan Gates. He's British. A reviewer called his book, "Brilliant. Deranged, but brilliant." As S2 notes, that's a *very high compliment* in her mind. As it is in mine. So I'm hoping Stefan will forgive me for violating his copyright, as I am most especially in love with the first two resolutions in the following:
"The Gastronaut's Creed
"Food will consume 16 percent of my life. That life is too precious to waste; therefore:
-- "I resolve, whenever possible, to transform food from fuel into love, power, adventure, poetry, sex, or drama.
-- "I will never turn down the opportunity to taste or cook something new.
-- "I will never forget: canapes are evil.
-- "I will remember that culinary disaster does not necessarily equal failure.
-- "I will always keep a jar of pesto on hand in case of the latter."
Seriously, I love to eat food under the most oppulent and excessive circumstances possible. His suggestions for dinner parties -- as examples, The Last Supper and, most especially, the Bacchanalian Orgy -- speak deeply to my love of excessiveness. Bacchus, Bacchus ... if there is reincarnation, I surely once worshipped at the altar of Bacchus with olives, grapes, lamb, honey, plentiful wine and lots of succulent women.
If I had stumbled upon his book a little earlier, I might have decided to theme my little Loft Party as a Bacchanalian Orgy. But then, maybe I'll save that for next year's Mardi Gras. ... Down in New Orleans, my favorite Mardi Gras parade was always Bacchus. More shit was flying off those floats than you can imagine if you've never seen it in person.
OK. I'm falling into a reverie. I need to sign off and go swoon properly. I have something to do that's utterly Bacchanalian....
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2 comments:
I was just recently talking with a friend, trying to justify my new life post-relocation and how I spend my days. The best I could proffer was that now I purchase only fresh food and prepare it mindfully every day - little to no processed food in my house or on my plate, mostly fresh produce and bold recipes.
(Granted, time in a day is a luxury I'm afforded and I prefer to go foodshopping every 2-3 days rather than 1x/month like a soccer mom with a Costco/frozen food fetish so it's easier now,) but I have only recently become the sort of man who can appreciate your post whereas 2 years ago I would have been too busy grinding my teeth and rushing off to do something of little import to understand your foodie proclivity.
Good for you! ... If you think about it, food, water (and let's face it: wine, wine, wine), clothing (in most climates) and shelter are pretty much all we need.
Now that we've got sweatshop labor to make our clothes and municipal water coming through the pipes to our homes constructed by someone else, food is pretty much the only need that we still have to procure and prepare for ourselves (restaurants aside).
XGF was a culinary master, having been schooled in the French method, but she never worked for a restaurant, so I as the main beneficiary of her talents. (And, truth be told, she initially won me over with a tomato soup that sent me into the gourmand stratosphere. I am soooo shallow.)
Now that I've gone off on my own, I'm having to learn to cook for myself. Initially, I was frightened by the prospect because I thought I would be the same lousy cook I was seven years ago. I couldn't imagine going back to that crappy, souless diet.
Turns out, to my great benefit, that I learned a lot in the years I watched XGF prepare dinner every night. It was my duty to stand in the kitchen and listen to her talk about her day while she was cooking, and it seems my eyes were absorbing just as much as my ears. ... It was a gigantic relief to learn I can actually make food that tastes good.
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