People ask me: Why do you write about food, and eating and drinking? Why don’tyou write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way others do?

They ask it accusingly, as if I were somehow gross, unfaithful to the honor of my craft.

The easiest way to answer is to say that, like most humans, I am hungry. But there is more than that. It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it, and the hunger for it…and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied…and it is all one.”

MFK Fisher, The Gastronomical Me

A Zergütian video by English artist Sam Taylor-Wood

As soon as it stops raining, I am doing this...

Happy New Year

By Jean Baptise Mondino for Lavazza...

A Fellow Scrap Sister...

An anonymous lady from a far off place recently subscribed to this blog. Out of curiosity I looked through some of the images in her photo stream which revealed to be a gorgeous world of sultry, acutely sensitive food photography. One of her images of an impromptu lunch felt so familiar-- it doesn't take much to have an elegant meal, even if the ingredients are bread, cabbage, and cheese.

In her case she writes, "Lunch today: bread, cheese, and half a cabbage that desperately needed to be eaten, wokked with a little oil, sambal oelek, and soy sauce. Better than it sounds, I promise. It's something we used to eat on lazy days..."

Inspiration

Love love love! I would seriously wear this.

Photo and design by Yeonju Sung, an artist based in Seoul. Thanks Smeerlisa for showing me this...

An Urge to Bake

I've always identified myself as more of a savory lady. I've told myself that baking is for the mathematical and calculated -- and cooking, for the experimental and bold. Sweets are lovely, but I have always preferred to seek them out rather than prepare them myself.

As a New Year's resolution, I'm going to try push my culinary horizon and hone my measuring skills by learning more about this practice. Imagine how fabulous to be the kind of person that can "whip up" a madeleine? Or perhaps quickly bake a fig tart?

Just you wait...