I can't eat cheese and Branston pickle sandwiches without thinking of D.H. Lawrence.See, cheese and pickle sandwiches were my staple diet the summer I worked in Barnaby's toyshop, and hungrily read Women in Love, The Virgin and the Gypsy and The Rainbow in quick succesion during my all too short lunch breaks.
Edgar Allan Poe is the scent of overripe bananas. His Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Birmingham Library copy) was squashed at the bottom of my rucksack with the remains of my picnic lunch as I trudged 22 miles across the Malvern Hills on a sponsored walk. (Coincidentally on the same day as those guys landed on the moon.) Neither book nor banana survived the trip.
Ipoh Chicken Rice with extra beansprouts is the flavour of my induction into science writing. I devoured Steven Jay Gould's essays in that shop in Section 5 in between teaching practice observations. (Hmmm ... why do men have nipples? Glad I know the answer.)
A Suitable Boy smells of the calamine lotion I had to dab on when I had shingles.
Many of my more recent reads taste of fishball mee soup from Centrepoint.
Pucuk ubi masak lemak* is going to be the flavour of John Banville's The Sea. I'm doing an awful lot of my reading these days in the canteen of Damansara Specialist Hospital, going for physiotherapy for an achilles tendon that refuses to heal. (Step class goddess no longer.) And the Malay food in the canteen is surpringly good, including this dish which is a favourite.
This information may save some PhD student a lot of time as he embarks on DNA research into the various little stains on the library of the famous Sharon Bakar.
*Tapioca leaves cooked in coconut milk.
15 comments:
That supposedly "pucuk ubi" or tapioca leaves mate. Then sweet potato leaves cooked in coconut milk refer to "pucuk keledek masak lemak".
Nice blog that make me hungry. G'day!
Never thought of associating flavours to my novels. Thanks for opening up this whole new perspective!
9t9 - thanks for the correction - i changed it. My Malay is pretty bad ... Puncuk ubi. hahahah
totally depleted - so - what flavour is the novel you're reading?
Not much flavours to my novels as I usually read them at night in bed but I love the way you associate food to books.
I just realised that you will like Amy's site after you mentioned DH Lawrence, she posted an excellent poem he made about figs in this post.
http://www.beautyjoyfood.com/?p=52#comments
My books are almost devoid of any flavour. Boring, I know. Except for maybe one or two with a bit of coffee smell.
Current novel? Goodbye Mickey Mouse (Len Deighton) - definitely Yorkshire pudding and mince pies.
i now have another reason not to work. i am hungry. yummy yummy.
boo-licious - that is one of the most erotic poems ever ... I came across it during my "Lawrence period" and have never been able to look at a fig in the same way since. A good poem lives inside your head and colours forever the way you see the world.
Food and sex ... now there's a combination ...
totally depleted - it all sounds soooo British ... Mince pies already?
To Bib,
It’s OK. My English sometime got weird too. Wonder that you enjoy that "masak lemak" ;)
My preferred flavor, slightly hot, sweet but less sugar and sometime sour. Not typically Asian and smell like hot chocolate also can.
Hehehe, I love variety of genre... and food too.
Hari Kunzru stuff - chocolate covered strawberries.....slurp
strange, i always felt Edgar Allan Poe was maggot-infested rotting meat.
mine have stains of wickedly delicious melting chocolates, especially in hot the hot summer - i can instantly recognise galaxy, cadbury nuts...
at home, usually, there are stains of thai laksa gravy...unfortunately, these happened to be library books which i need to return quite soon!
Er.. there's supposed to be a smell ? I never notice smells when I'm reading.
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