Dan Perlman's Blog, page 11
August 27, 2015
Dining In in Trujillo
Colombia and Ecuador behind us, it was time for a visit to Henry’s family in Trujillo. Things have come a long way since my first time nine years ago. (Here, here, here and here.) Bit by bit, Henry has been helping his family out (technically, it’s his property to begin with, inherited from his grandparents) – the house that I showed pictures of now has either concrete or tile flooring throughout, a roof over it, doors and windows, running water and electricity (with actual outlets) 24/7 (sti...
August 24, 2015
Six “Cozies”
There’s a whole genre of “literature” that is referred to as “cozies”. Wikipedia defines it as: “a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community. The term was first coined in the late 20th century when various writers produced work in an attempt to re-create the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.” Most “gourmet” or “chef” mysteries fall into the category.
I enjoy them in g...
Six “Cozies”
There’s a whole genre of “literature” that is referred to as “cozies”. Wikipedia defines it as: “a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community. The term was first coined in the late 20th century when various writers produced work in an attempt to re-create the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.” Most “gourmet” or “chef” mysteries fall into the category.
I enjoy them in general; they’re light, easy reading, perfect for, say, a vacation. I’d say they usually fall into one of two styles – either where the detective him or herself (almost always him, but that may just be reflective of the odds in the profession) is the gourmet, and food is an integral part of their existence – oft-times it plays into the solving of whatever mystery (almost always a murder) is at hand. The other style is chef oriented, and usually involves a chef in a small cafe of some sort, a caterer, or a food writer, who steps outside their daily tasks and gets heavily involved in the solving the crime (again, almost always a murder) – it’s a bet that at some point a) they (almost always a woman) will be regarded as a suspect by the big, bad detective (still almost always a him), usually because they either discover the body or were the last person to see the victim alive (think Who’s Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?); b) will get themselves into deep trouble and have to be rescued by same detective; and c) will end up in some sort of personal relationship with same detective.
Pure serendipity, I ran across a sextet (with a seventh on the way) of these that have made for good vacation reading fare. By Lucy Burdette, they’re set in Key West, and the protagonist is a budding restaurant critic.
Fun, enjoyable, swift paced read. Pretty much follows my outline above to a “T”. Wannabe restaurant critic becomes the suspect in the poisoning murder of the girlfriend of her ex-boyfriend. Much brouhaha and back and forth. Supportive friends who bizarrely encourage her to investigate the murder on her own because… mean detective. Someone tries to kill her. No one seems to really believe her, including her friends who now aren’t so sure that she isn’t making it all up and maybe she shouldn’t be investigating on her own (you guys talked her into it!). Lots of food descriptions, even some recipes. Gets herself into hot water with the actual murderer as she closes in on the solution. All the pieces fall into place. Resolution. Happy, happy. I know I’m making it sound trite, and on some level it is, but it’s not supposed to be anything more than a fun, easy read, and it fulfills on that.
I’m not going to review each individual book in the series, although the details change, there’s a certain sameness to each one. I’d like to say that over the course of the six books (seventh being released soon), our protagonist developed from an intrepid to an experienced food critic, and while lip-service is paid to that idea, if you pay attention, there’s really no evolution of her abilities, food knowledge, or much of anything. She repeats the same mistakes, over and over – on a personal level, constantly going for supporting the suspect (who, of course, in the end, turns out not to be the murderer, vindicating her gut feelings), over the counsel of family, friends, and most importantly, whichever gentleman is her current love interest – leading to romantic dissolution, repeatedly.
It’s in the food area that things fall most short – she’s got a palate that’s straight out of Lady’s Home Journal cerca 1968, and presents recipes that likely found their way into the typical church social group annual recipe books of the same era (pimiento cheese dip is apparently the pinnacle of sophistication). She rolls her eyes and makes snide remarks about “those wine people”, apparently not familiar with the term sommelier, or the possibility that knowing something about wine might be part of her job as a restaurant critic. She sneers, well, the word choice is “snickers” (more times than I care to count, really, this woman just walks around snickering all the time) at the use of any unusual ingredient or technique (apparently no one but a few pretentious chefs has any interest whatsoever in the world of modernist cooking, no diner would actually eat that food), opining that no normal person would be interested in eating, tasting, or knowing about anything other than the safe choices of everyday fare.
I’d say that this comes down to one of two situations – either the author wants her principal character to come across as a rube – unthinking and uninterested in learning – basically presenting her as a brand new, wet behind the ears, budding food critic who has absolutely zero interest in becoming better at her job, expanding her knowledge base, or, really, anything but dispensing opinions on topics which she a) freely admits she knows nothing about and b) is completely confident that despite her lack of so much as a shred of expertise, is right about; or, and more likely, it’s a reflection of the attitudes and grasp of the author.
Does that make them less fun to read? No. Though for someone who is intimately involved in the food and beverage world, it’s moderately annoying at various moments.
August 22, 2015
Quito. The Movie.
I’ve basically said what I had to say about Quito, I’m sure we’ll be back at some point. So, on to the movie.
August 21, 2015
More Plates of Quito
Definitely more interesting food in Quito than we’d had in Medellin, a mix of traditional and modern. Surprising to both of us, Ecuadorians seem to be even less enamored of the idea of picante than then Colombians. We both expected the food to be more similar to Peruvian, and many of the dishes even have the same names, but are completely different. And what passes for hot sauce in Quito, at least at the half dozen or so places we tried, makes cocktail sauce look fiery.
Lunch at La Choza,...
August 18, 2015
First Quito Plates
So, Colombia is behind us, and we’re on to just a few days in Quito, Ecuador. It wasn’t part of our original plan, but we added in a stop here because Henry had met a folklore dance group a couple of years ago at a big conference and workshop in Cordoba, and wanted to meet up with them. I had hoped to meet up with someone whom I’ve been in touch with for years online, but after an initial, “sure, let’s meet and I’ll show you around”, I haven’t heard from him again. Ah well.
So first off, Quit...
August 17, 2015
Meh-dellin
Oh, let me just be upfront. We, I, didn’t particularly like or enjoy Medellin. It’s a big, bustling, noisy, dirty city, with way too much traffic crowded into way too little space. There’s a small section of the city in the south, El Poblado and immediately surrounding it that’s got lots of greenery, fancy apartment buildings and hotels, and bars and restaurants. Basically, it’s the area where tourists are generally recommended to stay, and it’s the home of the local and expat wealthy communi...
August 14, 2015
Medellin Bites
Oh boy. This is what happens when I take a break to talk about something else. Now I’ve got two days worth of food (let alone sightseeing) to catch up on. Not that, of course, I’m obligated to post everything, nor you to read everything, but it feels like a sort of shadow handshake contract between us. It’s probably just my imagination, but then, some of you keep encouraging me. I should say, several people promised us recommendations for places to dine in Medellin, but no one came through. T...
August 13, 2015
Friendly Books
A little interlude in the stream of vacation consciousness. I’m sitting here on the 16th floor of a high-rise in Medellin, Colombia, looking out over the El Poblado neighborhood. It’s early, really early, and I thought it’s about time I finish this post which I’ve been poking away at on and off for a bit. I have friends who like to write. There, I said it. And some of them have actually published books. Usually, not always, I end up getting a copy, though I tend not to review them, because, i...
August 12, 2015
Cartagena, City of Tourists
It may seem like I’m giving short shrift to Cartagena, where we spent roughly 3-1/2 days, especially in contrast to the number of posts that I did on Bogotá. A few reasons – we didn’t do nearly as much – we really only had three “activities” that we did, one each day; we put in a fair amount of “down time”, either at the beach or pool; we didn’t eat out as much – Henry kind of reaches his limit of restaurant dining after a week or so, and so I acquiesced to a number of meals in the hotel.
Ov...
