#100 Books over Manhattan

 

 

Close your eyes for a second. Now try to mix mix Bullets Over Broadway with Pulp Fiction. Transition yourself from the competitive world of playwriting to the even crueler world of books and publishing, and you get an idea of the great reading joy I had with Martha Grimes book Foul Matter.

Thanks to Pat L. I met Martha Grimes’ writing. The first book, sad and disturbing in its well-written plot, was great; the suspense, the guesswork of identifying the killer, the humanity vs. the monstrosity of different characters. Good reading indeed, much better and less predictable than the Grishams, of the world. So it’s no surprise that on a recent Sunday visit to B&N, I ended up with another book of Ms. Grimes. To my surprise, this one is as far removed from the previous one as one could not expect. No longer in England, this story takes place in Manhattan.

You may have forgotten how Pulp Fiction starts. It starts with the definition, “PULP (n.) g 2. A book containing lurid subject matter, and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper”.

Foul Matter is “Waste matter – any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted. Yet there’s a publishing definition too; “…manuscripts and typescripts of works, corrected galley and page proofs, drafts of book designs and other…”

By the end of the book it all makes sense. One successful author wants to use his power to clean the publishing arena of one of its more ruthless publishers. The way he chooses to do it though, while creative, generates the much ado about nothing that makes this book so funny and juicy while sensitive. From the loving assistant editor through the writer who is blind to this love, from the frustrated poet through the low-self-esteem editor.
We are not surprised when hungry writers or thirsty poets commit suicide. The idea of assassinating one on literal grounds is what makes this book such a great (light) reading. Go, Read.

My copy is available to the interested reader.

 

 

#92 Back from the Past (January 2006)

Food Politics

(Try: http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2003-05-21/eatbeat.html)

Food Politics – Interesting concept, isn’t it? One Marion Nestle, doctor from NYU, wrote a book titled exactly that, Food Politics. As I add soymilk to my morning coffee (ran out of cow milk with the previous cup), I can’t help wondering about what’s REALLY better, soymilk or the “made by a cow” one? No worry, this is not intended to be a nutrition session. I enjoy both. However, truth to be told, the coffee tastes better with cow’s product.

So, what is “food politics” and why should one care about it? Food companies, just like the cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, or any other commodity manufacturers, routinely place their need to make money over the considerations of public health, OUR HEALTH specifically.

The disconcerting thing is that much of what the food companies do in order to create a favorable sales environment for their (fat/cholesterol/sugar/food additives) products – lobbying, marketing, engaging the services of renowned nutrition experts – is conducted behind the scene, away from our hungry consuming eyes and bellies.

This goes to the extreme that the political system and the nutrition experts that some of us religiously follow, are harnessed to encourage us to eat more of THEIR “preferred friends’” products, whether or not healthy. The author, Marion Nestle (talking about promoting Food…) shares her experience chairing a USDA committee dealing with nutritious recommendations, in which on her first day on the job, was told by the big Kahuna that she can recommend anything, as long as her recommendations will say nothing about avoiding beef. The cow farmers have a very active bullish like lobby; one that believes that what is good for the National Cattlemen’ s association is moooooooch more important than our health. The cigarette companies lost the battle, the food guys however, are still feeding of our malnutrition.

And if you care for a big, cholesterol (& fat, & sugar) rich meal, here’s the place to go.

 

 

 

 

Out for Lunch

True, real people’s lunches cannot compete with the millennia long lunches of the staff of the Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy, but it doesn’t mean that real people cannot have experiences in their on little galaxy. The Deli lunch in New York is what made the 2nd Avenue Deli, Carnegie Deli, Katz’s Deli, Stage Deli and many other the landmarks what they are – must visit spots that make many diners, Jews and non-Jews alike, very cholesterol-happy.

On a recent Saturday, I was guided to another local “institution”, Harold’s NY Deli (http://www.haroldsnydeli.com)!

Should be a heart shape, not an apple, considering the fat, cholesterol and all…

Cheesecakes and chocolate cakes (one foot high and 40 pounds heavy), 19-ounce pastrami sandwiches, matzo balls (kneidalach) the size of oranges and two-pound super-size éclairs—food for giant appetites.

We shared a roast beef sandwich for lunch, and managed to consume only half of it, the other half provided great sandwiches for another two days. Two weeks later, having to share this amazing experience, I brought my parents in. The three of us shared one sandwich and one potato pancake (Latke) the size of a frying pan. One order, 3 diners, and we had a problem finishing our meal. Admitting to the enormous size of their dishes, one is encouraged to share, with no extra charge. The scary thing though, is how many diners don’t. America XXXXL.

#99 4 AM, can’t sleep

Wake up @ 4 AM in the morning, and for a change, avoid the computer. Avoid thinking. Skip trying to fall asleep again. What’s the alternative? TV. Brainless, effortless. Just be there.

Sometimes good things can come out of time fillers.

First, the music got my attention. Electronic, but not the monotonic, mind numbing kind; not techno or the one that one may associate with meth, speed or ecstasy.

Things only got better once I started watching.

Flashback: visualized music for me means exactly one thing, Fantasia!!! It was part of my childhood, and Fantasia 2000 was an updated flashback (saw it in Hong Kong’s IMAX, just as it came out, with Chinese-speaking narrator).

The instrumental sticks and figures fill the screen, and I am amazed with the imagination of whoever the creator is. Quick search results in one Wayne Laytle.

Dear Wayne first got the vision to produce this audio-visual experience as an undergraduate music and computer science student in 1982, before the necessary technology was even available. A long-time musician, Wayne studied classical piano performance as an undergrad before the (inevitable) switch over to computer science. Don’t you love convergence? Music and computer science.

With 2 DVDs out, and who knows how many contributions to graphic animation projects, I have respect for this guy.

And in his honor, this is the day in which I learn how to upload music/video files. Never wanted to learn HTML, and when forced to take a course in my MBA program, if it wasn’t for Ilona, I would be still whining and bitching about it. Ilona, without Nike, Just did it.

A 13 minutes effort, and 3 failures later, and here you go; click&listen.

 

#98 How do you say amba in English?

 

Amba: Spicy mango pickle sauce. Primary ingredients are pickled mango (maybe dried ground mango/amchur), fenugreek seed and salt; it’s overwhelmingly salty and strong. No English name though.
Origins, my search reveals, are arguable. Morocco, Yaman (yemen), Iraq and India all claim the fame.

So I started with annona, and was challenged by Nava with amba. Not my favorite food for sure. Too lemony. However, that’s not the point. So let’s get couple of things clear. I love food; I love it delicious, fresh, and authentic. Unfortunately for me, I also love a lot of it, whatever it is, as long as it meets the above criteria, and sometimes even if it doesn’t.

Some of you challenged my authenticity requirement and tried to find logical flaws in it. I am not giving up on this one. If one is having food, one should have the food in its best possible form, shape and taste. As close to its origins as possible. Of course, I allow for variety and creativity, but I don’t confuse one with the other. Fusion is not making an Asian dish taste like same old, same old. Fusion means that one is creative and knowledgeable enough to mix two cuisines or more, identify the synergy potential, and take advantage of it, creating something different than the originals, without apologizing.

Dry tomato or black bean hummus for example, represents no synergy in my book; it is the outcome of over-marketing and misunderstanding the nature, the spirit of hummus.

My fusion project of the day happened (Sunday) over my late breakfast. It included jalapeños cheese, soft flat bread (lavash, of Armenian origin), homemade garlic olive-oil, and Pico de Gallo sauce that I buy in CostCo. After wetting the lavash a little bit with drops of water, placing it in the toaster-oven and taking it out 2 minutes later I created a flat surface that is soft and warm enough to absorb whatever tastes it will encounter. Drops of very garlicky olive oil, tops with slices of cheese, covered with lots of Pico de Gallo after I got as much liquids out of it as I possibly could, and… back to the oven. 3-4 minutes later, I laid a large edible rectangular, with bubbling melted cheese and lots of taste and smell to go with on a plate. After slicing it to smaller squares, my fingers could do the rest.

Bon A’ petite