Salmon: You’re Fired

May 7th, 2013 | 0 comments

PLEASE PACK YOUR BAGS & LEAVE THE KITCHEN

I stopped eating eggs once. For quite a while. Then they got all organic and free range and from the farm. I wasn’t entirely conscious of this - I was a teenager and then into my early 20s and the vernacular at the time was “global village” not “organic lifestyle”. I just started eating them again, and liking them.

Then in my early 20s, the chicken. Using my fingers to pull out fatty deposits under the wings. Or rubbing the breast between my fingers to see where the striations were - why didn’t it feather out? Or peering in dismay as a roast chicken leaked out so much water that it bubbled in the bottom of the pan. I even wrote tirades of how “wrong” chicken seemed. Then the “organic living” movement. And, embarrassingly (as I think my mom might have bleated this info to me) I realised I had been eating .. bad chicken. Not bad, as in the rooster that chases the hens until they are so exhausted they leave the farm (true story). Bad as in gross.

And so - to salmon. From my fishmonger - the same one that a lot of Joburg people use. I used it to make the ottolenghi spicy salmon dish. I felt like there was something wrong. But, you’re not allowed to mock your own food at a dinner party. No one believes you, or it makes people uncomfortable. When I made it again - sans dinner party distractions - I concentrated. When I lifted it from the oven pan, I noticed a rubbery mass - a slightly browned glob. Fat. I poked around the other pieces. More. Not marbled. Glubs of it.

This from a person who orders a sheet of crackling to go with the roast pork and crackling. Obv the fish was farmed, and I didn’t ask. But the problem with salmon - really - is that it has to SWIM upstream. So really I guess, u can only eat wild? And I don’t know who to trust any more. The whole thing about swimming upstream is that the meat is oxygenated. Its exertion, its pumping blood is what makes the muscle nicer and the meat tastier. It’s almost like without its fate - swimming to its death - it doesn’t taste like it should. Its true calling* - i.e. my stomach - has been mired.

  • You don’t honestly think fish are sentient do you?

So. No more salmon until the food-auditors get on this. Luckily I can’t eat cheap sushi anymore. Unluckily, my sushi flavour kicks are now gotten (yes gotten) at a proper Japanese restaurant and it’s way way expensive.

PS - I haven’t even got into the bacteria of farmed sushi. It’ll turn your stomach into two. And is te reason why pregnant women shouldn’t risk sushi. er, cos it’s like poison.

Things I’ve learnt: Manners

March 28th, 2013 — Kathryn White | 0 comments

As you may know, my last book, Things I Thought I Knew, was premised on, er, yes, that. That idea that there are some things that you DO know, and there are some things that you can never be sure about. The story is about the big stuff - like fate and love and sanity and reality.

So, some of things I do know, the small stuff. Manners. Use them.

They are basically a code. And they aren’t difficult to learn. And they are totally moveable. Like eating with your hands.

Tables: if you finish eating before others, don’t close your knife and fork. Well, you can. And you should. But, in SA, your plate will be taken away immediately if you do. When in actual fact your plate should be cleared when everyone at the table has finished eating. It’s rude to leave a person eating by themselves, so rather opt for the open knife and fork until everyone else is finished. And do tear your bread roll. It tastes nicer.

Anyway, these are actually irrelevant. What is important isn’t etiquette, it’s manners. And it’s how you feel. If you go sailing and you have never been sailing before, take your shoes off before you get onto the boat (we’re assuming you don’t have boat shoes yet). What if you don’t know this? Well, then someone tells you and you take your shoes off. Do not feel insecure about the codes you don’t know. Just adopt them. Simple. This is how manners can get you further in life. You find out what they are, and you use them. And if you don’t care, then that’s good too. But you should probably let people know that you are rebelling, otherwise they’ll just think you are rude.

Positivism, Relativism & a whole bunch of History

March 5th, 2013 | 5 comments

I decided I wanted to study. Quite suddenly. I looked up the Fine Arts and the School of Arts courses. They seemed like fun. My aim: to create texts that are supported by installations. Installations can include museum pieces, painting, photos by other photographers, anything really. And I’ve figured that any type of writing that supports this, is writing.

Really tho, I want the libraries. U may or may not know (but of course you don’t) that I have been trying to move to Bathurst, for a few months, for a few years. To get to the Rhodes library. To get information on ghosts.

I then noticed the creative writing course. But apparently you have to sit around in a circle and discuss each others work. Bwhahahahah. No, definitely no to that.

THEN I noticed the history course. The Honours curriculum, to be exact.

So I am …. an occasional student. In the Honours class. Part time. Hahahah. YEs. I am only allowed four books a week. I shall not write a 25 000 word dissertation this year. But this has given me what I want: the libraries and access to all-ll the journals I can possibly lay my hands on. And access to brains - lots and lots of new people who are specialised in a way that I am completely ignorant.

I have been writing my first critical essay - positivism, relativism and historical objectivity. And, thankfully, I know this stuff. It seems researching your own novels and making notes and doing self study has paid off. My last book was mostly about anamnesis - the very first page titled On Certainty.

So far, my essay style is far too tonal, possibly chatty. But I’ll clean this up as I get the hang of it. Now, to see what my marks are like. And to get feedback on how precise you need to be in a 5000 word piece. Likely, much more precise than I am, or ever will be, said the novelist to the historian.

number9dream

December 29th, 2012 | 0 comments

The name of the book comes from John Lennon’s song.

NUMBER9DREAM

The main girl loves Debussey.

CLAIR DE LUNE

Cloud atlas is mentioned inside number9dream. It’s also the name of a piece of music by Yoko Ono’s first husband. Read the Paris Review here. Possibly we can guess that Mitchell feels a kinship to Lennon, marrying into a new culture.

How could Tom Hanks be placed inside Cloud Atlas. How very awful. But they did choose a song from an album called HurryUp, We’re Dreaming.

M83 OUTRO

Is hot and messy in Cape Town summers. The traffic is jammed and wind is hard and the setting is unbearably beautiful, in so many ways. Outside, the yelp and snarl of a Sea Point street and the sea is inked blue, far out and quiet.

I like what the neighbours are cooking. Last night was roast chicken. Tonight I think they might be having crumbed pork chops, fried in shallow oil. I eat a giant chocolate brownie, drink rooibos tea drawn from a light blue teapot. I am slightly sunburnt and there is still salt on my skin.

Food Memoirs

November 28th, 2012 | 0 comments

READING & WATCHING FOOD STORIES BEFORE FINISH OF FIRST DRAFT

Watched Heartburn (1986) last night for research. Written by Nora Ephron (who wrote the recipe-memoir-book, as well as When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle), directed by Mike Nichols, has Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson in, Carly Simon did the score, Kevin Spacey is on screen for three minutes, Jeff Bridges has a bit part.

The best part is that it is so 80s i felt like I was six years old, watching “the adults”. The clothes are fan-fn-tastic (esp the wedding scenes), with really good lines and fabric textures that I haven’t seen in years. NY is a mess. The recipes are hilarious: pork chops and mustard cream, key lime pie, clams in white wine (which is probably clams vignolle). Tres 80s.

Was also watching it to see the detail depth of the memoir: ‘the breakup of Ephron’s marriage to Carl “All the President’s Men” Bernstein.’

ABOUT AN EDIT

I love timing in movies: gentle pauses. I consider it the real stuff that happens when you are living in the day of the world. Watch a recent movie and see if you can count to two inbtw a scene change or a cut. Mostly you can’t.

DEVIATION FROM FOOD

Having said that actually - have you seen The Beginners. What a fantastic script. And the same director. Also watched Moonrise Kingdom (albeit on the plane). Am a huge anti-fan of anything cool or contrived, but I do like me a bit of Wes Anderson. Which is about as cool and contrived as you can get. And yes, it is that. The space in this movie is indulgent and unnecessary even though the art direction is great.

A SONG FROM HEARTBURN, THE MOVIE

Incidentally,recently, one day in Mexico, when the sun had become too much and cable beckoned, I watched Postcards from the Edge. That’s Meryl Streep doing Carrie Fisher, w a soundtrack by Carly. Also a Mike Nichols flick. If I could change the title of this post I suppose it would be called Mike Nichols.

Right. Take it away, Carly.