2010 August | Kitchen Butterfly

Don’t be deceived by the food porn you see in my regular KB posts: that’s not how I regularly serve my ‘food for eat’. Call me what you like (food pimp even) but I love everything about food – the components, the assembly and the presentation. I enjoy experimenting with colour palettes and taste palates, textures and light. I love to highlight the net skins of cantaloupes and the bum cheeks of peaches, almost as much as I enjoy sushi and (cooking with) wine. I love highlighting the beauty of a dish but that’s not always real – the pretty food you see on this blog represents a tiny portion of my food reality – please don’t take it as the entire gospel. Many a time, I bite into a juicy peach and barely have time to notice the soft downy skin, or the patches of colour. Sometimes I ignore the pleasure of eye candy and focus on the ‘taste’, enjoying the combination of flavour makers that results in a gorgeous plate.

One thing I’ve always wondered about Nigerian food is ‘Does it sit pretty’? My memories of food at home don’t involve elaborate/delicately styled food. Yes, plates are garnished – slices of tomatoes, onions and parsley greenery are common, as are molds of rice and sauce nested in bowls. Read more…

I wonder if prehistoric men ever felt the thrill of foraging for food. Perhaps they, in that ancient manner of men viewed their hunting and gathering with purpose and nary a hint of frivolity: to sustain and to provide for themselves and family.

These days and modern times, we forage, not for sustenance but for the love of it. For the thrill of picking your own fruit or vegetables and transforming them into some delightful (or not so ) dish. We adore the essence of it, learning food history and gardening techniques. Discovering when to pick fruit and where, not by the road side where the skins are covered in soot, smog, dust and other unpalatable veneers but to go deep in the forest, walk alongside that deserted road and find your treasure. Read more…