Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael PollanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I've finished reading Cooked by Michael Pollan and I am busy re-examining the section on bread. I know I said that I wasn't going to review this summer's non-fiction. There was such a formidable stack of large tomes on the shelf and I knew that each one was going to be a four-star experience.
I do want to tell you this, however. I had a dread of Michael Pollan. He is an activist, after all, whom I had already become acquainted with in the Times and around and about. Yet, this very reading experience has led me to join an internet breadmaking group and to follow a few names on Facebook. And it has also made me think.
What if a person simplified her cooking/shopping/dining routines and experiences to fit within the confines of the topics in this book? Wouldn't that be a wonderful full-year project in living alone yet eating only the most thoughtfully prepared dishes made from the freshest ingredients grown in the very best places which are somewhere near home?
Couldn't Cooked become the foundation for a wonderful creative experience/hobby? Wouldn't my inside tract, where most of the circus that is the immune system resides, thank me? Mightn't the food taste better; the preparation become more fun to do?
I'll bet the new regime would continue after the passage of twelve months time. At that point, changes would be happily ingrained.
I think I'll spend this year hounding local experts, gathering any equipment I need, making decisions about my repertoire - how to become, in the last quarter, a singularly unique cook. Different from most others. Espousing my own, definite, point of view. POV they call it on Next Food Network Star.
Less will become more.
Pollan's fire, water, air and earth remind me of Thai cooking. In Thailand my birthdate identifies me as earth. According to the weather, the season, and the time of day, I should be cooking and eating this or that much spiciness, sweetness, acidity, or sourness.
The technique is similar to a form of Chinese medicine/food combining that I've been adapting to and adopting in the past few months. I won't lose that experiment - I'll simply merge the two.
So, here I go again. I'll check back with you concerning my progress on the blog. I'll be writing about how my experiment is going - whether or not I feel eccentric, zany, or just plain better than ever!
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