Mon, Aug 16 2010

A simple feast

This blog post is about food. If you came looking for writer support, forgive me. I had to think about food a lot this past weekend and I had to either write a culinary blog post or put more food into my fiction. (That latter option isn't a bad one, of course.)

We had lunch out last weekend at a little place just inland from here. It was full of old world charm and antiques, vintage glass lamps inside and adobe styling outside. The menu was short and simple and the food was simple and satisfying, but not boring. How is it that some cooks can take the most basic ingredients and come up with food that rivals fancier dishes and still make you feel pampered and special?

I also made cookies yesterday, using a recipe we usually utilize at Christmas. We shared them with friends and I was reminded of how silly it is that we tend to cram all the goodies into a few weeks at the end of the calendar year. The cookies were not surrounded by six other varieties and were the star of the occasion, dusted with a little powdered sugar and enjoyed for their own merits, instead of being part of a cookie buffet.

I'm going to put this in the food category of the blog, but the truth is that it still makes me think of writing fiction. Fiction, skillfully presented, gives a certain satisfaction to both writer and reader. It comes out much the way a good sculpture begins with a block of material and elements are taken away until it has just the right form and dimension. It may be part of an intricate thought process, but the experience we get from sharing in its story feels complete, authentic and maybe even inevitable.

posted at: 21:39 | category: /Food | link to this entry