food movies

Celery root: an astoundingly ugly vegetable.



My all-time favourite movie food scene is the climactic dinner in Babette's Feast, as well as the preparation scenes. I've always loved movies that emphasize the sensuality of food, not so much sexual (though Urban Tapestry songs My Jalapeno Man and Sex and Chocolate do explore that side of it :-)) as a feast of the senses.

Some of my other favourite food movie scenes:

- food prep scenes in Tortilla Soup

- fridge scene in 9 1/2 Weeks

- first pear scene in City of Angels

- making omelets at the end of Big Night

Darnitall, I know there are other specific scenes. I must watch Tampopo, Chocolat and Like Water For Chocolate again. How about the rest of you...what are YOUR particular favourite food scenes in movies?

But the whole sensuality thing is one reason I'm enjoying getting a bit back into cooking again. For a very long while, I think I was cooking for pure functionality's sake (must eat else hungry), paying little attention to the process itself. I realize that every meal can't be a feast of the senses, but neither does it have to always be the "open a can or box" routine.

I still order heavier and canned goods from Grocery Gateway, but I'm getting a real pleasure out of shopping for fresh produce myself. Yesterday I walked to St. Lawrence Market for the ingredients to make Caribbean Vegetable Stew, a recipe I've never tried from my new Moosewood cookbook. St. Lawrence Market is a feast of the senses itself, with its rows of merchant stalls full of fresh cheeses, meats, vegetables, and baked goods (including the best bagels in Toronto, from the St. Urbain bakery). All within walking distance of the Metro Convention Centre, by the way, for those attending Torcon at the end of summer.

Anyway, I bought fresh okra, ginger, cilantro, sweet potatoes, cabbage, limes, a chile pepper, a loaf of crusty Italian bread. I also picked out a papaya because I've never had one except in restaurants, when it was already cut up; I took it home, cut it open and ate it like custard, with a spoon. Are the black seeds inside edible, does anyone know? Bought a Forelle pear because I've never tried that variety and because it looked so small and interesting, with its shading of red on one side. And bought a celery root, because it was the ugliest vegetable I've ever seen; I want to find out what it tastes like, after I figure out how to cook it.

The Caribbean Vegetable Stew turned out much better than I expected, I'm happy to report. As I was chopping stuff up and throwing it into the pot, I started wondering at the odd combination of vegetables and flavours. Both Jeff and I really liked the results, however, and I'll definitely make this again.

Thanks to my sister and her family for buying me Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home: Fast and Easy Recipes Any Day, by the way. So far, every single recipe I've tried from this book has turned out wonderfully, and all the recipes are indeed "fast and easy".

RENTED MOVIE MICRO-REVIEW:

Smoke Signals
Wasn't sure if I was going to like this or not because none of the characters appealed to me, and I thought it was going to turn into yet another "Indians good, white man bad" plot. It didn't, and by the end of the movie, I loved all the characters and was bawling my head off. (Thanks, Rand)




Caribbean vegetable stew.

Mar/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ