20.4.06

films that are food related - first reel




















como agua para chocolate

this mexican
alfonso arau film
based upon a novel by his wife
laura esquivel
is one of the best south american films i ve seen
moreover its also one of the best films i ve seen that have food as their main theme
of course there aren't a lot of these films around

the movie depicts how rural family life in mexico
was lived
in the early 20th century

it is a semi fantastical story
in the tropicalist style of writing
many extraordinary things happen when the characters
deal with the situations they face in everyday life
these extraordinary things defy logic and reality and enter the realms of
magic, allegory, surrealism and horror

add that to a story where a beautiful woman uses
her special abilities in cooking to gain her right for forbidden love
and you ve got one of the most sensual mexican tales ever

the novel apparently was split into 12 chapters each centered around a month in tita's
the hot mexican girl's
life
this does not result in a single continous year but in
excerpts from a lifespan
every chapter is started off with a recipe
probably containing in season ingredients with the month in question

the film takes on this structure in a sense and
includes multiple scenes where food is being prepared with the mexican traditional methods

a quail is cooked in rose petal sauce
from roses that the disallowed lover gives to tita
her bitch mother commands her to throw them away
however the whispering ghost of a mother-figure housemaid
who was also into indigenous religion lore
obi wan kenobily suggests to tita to use the petals for a sauce for the quails instead of trashing them out
this makes all the family who dine on this dish to experience intense psychosomatic sexually related feelings
another recipe that was similarly interesting
was for when a wedding meal was being prepared
it included the cleverest of scenes where a dozen of women crushed walnuts
grilled green bell peppers
and split pomnegranetes to make a beautiful plate of grilled green pepper dipped in walnut sauce with pomegranate garnish

i want to have a go at making my own versions of these beauties
a central lesson moral or suggestion on the outlook on food
from the film
was that the secret of tita's cooking resided
in that she prepared all her meals with love

this often overlooked sentimentalism
has more to it than
mere mumbo jumbo

of course fresh ingredients and appropriate combinations are important factors
for obtaining the desired results in meals
however comparing the meals i cook half arsedly and those i cook with genuine interest
i find a lot of truth in this
then again there exists some corporate products that are very good
but then of course who is to say that corporate entities are not capable of love

yours semtinentalisingly

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