melancholy in the kitchen or the fundamental interconnectedness of all things
lately i have done a lot of research on different italian dishes. an interesting side effect is that finally i find it useful having learned (some) italian in school because who wants to read italian recipes in german or english? not me.
all the occupation with italy and mediterranean cuisine made me think of how terribly hot it's there in summer which brought back fond memories of ireland and led to the usual melancholic state i invariably fall into when i imagine how nice it would be to have a cup of tea at (the old) bewley's (before it was converted from a nice coffee house into a mainstream-italian-influenced-cuisine-restaurant), to read a book sitting in the park on merrion square, to buy good smelling stuff at lush and to have a vanilla malt at eddie rocket's or dinner at govinda's.
but of course that was not enough, when i do something then i have to do it properly. so more melancholy it was. childhood memories specifically. when i was a kid, i would usually stay a week or two at my aunt's weekend house in styria together with my grandmother and a bunch of other aunties. we went gathering berries in the nearby forest and when (pretty soon) i had enough of that i would paint patterns on my arms and knees with the juice from mashed blueberries and build houses and boats with pieces of bark, leaves and blades of grass. we often made heidelbeerstrudel from all the blueberries we had picked and ate it fresh from the oven with lots of whipped cream that melted on the piping hot strudel. mmmh
the result of all this is that now i have to make pasta alla norma, have a cup of tea (well maybe not only one... or maybe a pint of guinness) and i am afraid i have to buy frozen blueberries to bake heidelbeerstrudel... *sigh*
note to self: next time you are in dublin at least have some breakfast or lunch before you visit the jameson distillery and the guinness storehouse on the same day because after your complimentary whiskey and pint of guinness you felt a little dizzy...
