A Chinese film about cooking proved to be poetic and inspiring. Photo: Pooja Chaudhary

Finding poetry in the mundane everyday

The other day I watched a Chinese movie (it’s a long story) – it had quite bad subtitles but it had a focus on food (hence I kept watching it). The subtitles were actually very good when it came to the food part of the movie and I have to say, I loved it (not the movie but the way they spoke about food).

So basically, a young girl with a great talent for cooking tried to bring friends together (at least I think that what the aim of the movie was) – and don’t we all love being with people we love while sharing good food?

Apart from the food being nothing like we find in Chinese restaurants in Europe (no mention of chop suey), the way the girl spoke about the food while cooking (according to the subtitles) was inspiring.

It got me thinking if we might be too technical about food and cooking. For example, she cooked sour gourd (a bitter melon) that apparently no one really liked (I have never tried it but if I do, I will follow her instructions) but she paired it with salted egg yolk and her friends fought over it (maybe because they got paid – can’t pass judgement until I tried it). “Bitter gourd wrapped in salted egg yolk can neutralise the bitter taste, the effect of dispelling fire.”

Not sure about you but I have never used ‘dispelling fire’ to describe a dish. Have we lost the poetry in cooking? Are we too serious about the process or have we lost the love for sharing food with our loved ones?

JP McMahon of Aniar in Galway (a chef I greatly admire) used to write short poetry on his social media feed – not food based but beautiful poems. When you look at his cooking, you will see a lot of skill but also love for the produce.

When we are cooking at home, time and financial restraints can make it difficult to be poetic about your cooking and let’s face it, mostly we just want to eat.

Great poets like Jonathan Swift have written about food and his cooking poem ‘How shall I Dine’ is a celebration of mutton. I am not sure how his culinary skills were and if he did any cooking himself but whoever served him mutton made him so happy that he felt obliged to write a poem.

Have you ever been so happy about a meal that you wanted to write about it? I have been – hence being a food writer but my writing has no poetry in it either.

I just use the boring old ‘delicious’, ‘tasty’ etc to describe my meal – maybe I have to take a page out of the Chinese handbook of cooking.

When I saw the dishes, I have to admit that they looked pretty (their cooked cabbage was actually presented like a flower that opened up when the stock was poured over – can’t see our bacon and cabbage being presented like that) so maybe the presentation of the food has a lot to add. Let’s dispel some fire in the future!