How to describe the indescribable? I speak, internets, most specifically of love.
When I teach food writing, the main thing I try to get my students to do is figure out how to describe food so someone who does not know them can figure out if they would like to cook, eat, order, try that food. Delicious, tasty and their endless stream of synonyms food writers generate with such panache do not suffice. Tell me why it’s so good.
And yet, can you ever really relay why you love a specific dish? Isn’t something always missing in the description? I mark the task akin to describing why you love someone. Smart, kind, good-looking, funny, interesting–whatever string of adjectives you come up with are never really specific singularly onto that person. My dashing husband has described the essence of love thusly: we’re in the jungle, I like the way you smell and you like the way I smell. The idea being, of course, that the “smell” component is now unconscious for humans, making the description impossible.
But then someone goes and does something amazing. Something so extraordinary that you think, if but briefly: see, that’s why I love this person.
My charming husband did that last night. See those grilled sardines? When he was done with them the plate was clean. No heads, no tails, no nothing. It’s a move that wouldn’t work with all–or even most of–the ladies, but I found it positively charming. Of course, that might have been the pint of cask-drawn Ruby Mild I was enjoying.
*Dinner was on the house–we were at a press event for the re-opening of Magnolia Gastropub and Brewery. I would have happily paid for that food, however (especially the porter chocolate cake that was really a very grown-up Suzy-Q, and that’s a high compliment from the girl who was NEVER allowed junk food growing up and scraped and scrimped her allowance to buy chips and sweets). The beers were, predictably, out of sight. I was particularly partial to the cask-drawn ales, the Cypress Big Brown being my favorite among them.
molly beers | Start a new day | 17-Jul-08 at 6:14 am | Permalink
[...] http://ballhype.com/story/new_york_minute_1/ …Jerri – http://3f9-jerri.blogspot.com/|||Love and grilled sardines… that was really a very grown-up Suzy-Q, and that’sa high compliment from the girl who was [...]