A week ago while reading ‘Norwegian Wood’, a novel by Haruki Murakami, I stumbled across a pertinent quote. The character of Midori in the novel is an eccentric university student from Tokyo, who also happens to be a terrific cook, of traditional Kansai (Kyoto-Osaka region) fare. She taught herself to cook on her own, from a book:
“Well, it’s kind of a long story,” she said, eating a slice of fried egg. “My mother hated housework of any kind, and she almost never cooked anything. And we had the business to think about, so it was always like ‘Today we’re so busy, let’s order out’ or ‘Let’s just buy some croquettes at the butcher shop’ and stuff. I hated that even when I was a little kid, I mean like cooking a big pot of curry and eating the same thing three days in a row. So then one day–I was in the third year of middle school– I decided I was going to cook for the family and do it right. I went to the big Kinokuniya in Shinjuku and bought the biggest, handsomest cookbook I could find, and I mastered it from cover to cover: how to choose a cutting board, how to sharpen knives, how to bone a fish, how to shave fresh bonito flakes, everything. It turned out the author of the book was from the Kansai, so all my cooking is Kansai style. (Murakami, Norwegian Wood, p68)
The reason I found the above quote particularly interesting was because the description of Midori’s reason for learning to cook is very similar to my own. In my family while I was growing up no one was really interested in eating the things I was interested in eating, let alone being interested in cooking them. I have an overwhelming interest in food–eating, food culture, learning about new cuisine, sharing it with others, cooking–but have not really mastered cooking to the extent that I would like to. I can cook reasonably well, but would like to improve my cooking skills. Since literature is my other great love (that and Mr. Pants!) I came to the natural conclusion that I could teach myself how to cook from books. Just like Midori did, and many other characters before her; fictional and real.
So, as a woman of leisure (not THAT kind, I have some free time is all) I am embarking on this particular journey; reading about food, cooking from books and having this site as an inspiration to write about both.
With my head full of stories and a stuffed belly, I figure that I will hardly need anything else!
Tags: Haruki Murakami
