Abe at the Dept.Life is full of surprises.Today, a total stranger walked into my life (via telephone). I thought he was a spy.Hahaha. Would not you if a total stranger called you up and knew so much about you (the truth was, he had spoken to my Boss who gave him my contacts! Kelakar?). Abe is from South California. Originally from Romania (but born in the USA).
After 2 hours' chat on the phone (and a character check on the net), Abe came across as a genuine travel writer (focusing on gourmet).Tapi soalan2 dia memang menyangsikan.Apa ke jadah tanya pasal Islam, Muslims in Msia and Indonesia, Msian identity, etc. But then again I thought it's good to engage in a discussion like this.Lebih baik dengar dari Muslims sendiri than have Islam defined by others.So we enjoyed talking to each other.Ada masa I 'katuk' dia balik dengan stereotypical perceptions dia. Anyway, I promised to give him a recipe I discovered in Melaka (masak utk 46 people,dengan bahan2 yang mudah dicari in the west, he said) Whaaaat??? Masak utk sorang pun no time! But resipe ketam black pepper senang nak buat.I had tried it and it tasted good. :)) Will I be famous? Nak ambik gambar ke Abe? Hahaha. Ada kamera, jadik! :)) Just kidding. But my Dept will invite him to speak to our students and help inspire them to be writers (macam dia). He'll be in KL for another 2 weeks.
Something on Abe, taken (without permission) from http://katinkalot.wordpress.com/2008/06/:
Abe Opincar’s Fried Butter is not the first food memoir but came 5 years before Eat, Pray, Love and other books that heightened the status of food. While Opincar may not be writing of long lost love or soul searching as openly as other authors do, his writing is refreshing. He does not whine. He appreciates his life and all of its obstacles. He pines for the sadness in life over the happiness because that is where he grew the most. His writing is not just a story of his life. Opincar intertwines a history of food. Each chapter is about a dish or an ingredient. He explains the history of items while revealing a story of himself. He does not seem to be longing for anything in life. Except for the ingredients and the memories attached to each.
Opincar’s story is not riveting or a page-turner because of suspense or compassion. Instead, his stories provide the reader with something they can relate to. Turning the page means learning more about oneself than about Opincar.
I especially appreciate Opincar’s stories because he is Jewish and he inserts anecdotes that I can appreciate. He picks up the Jewish relationship between spirituality and food.
I do not recommend Fried Butter for people looking for a good memoir of life and adventure. I do recommend it for people who appreciate food for its history, the memories it creates, for the emotion and for food itself. It is a simple story of a man who has seen the world but holds all his memories in ingredients not in material items or places. I particularly like the chapter on turmeric and how you can use replacements for ingredients in recipes but somehow it is not like the real thing. There are certain things in life that you can have replacements of and never know that it is different from the real thing until you have the real one.
One of my favorite quotes: “Either there is a G-d, of Judaism is the cruelest joke that’s ever been pulled on any people in the history of the world!” (123).
After 2 hours' chat on the phone (and a character check on the net), Abe came across as a genuine travel writer (focusing on gourmet).Tapi soalan2 dia memang menyangsikan.Apa ke jadah tanya pasal Islam, Muslims in Msia and Indonesia, Msian identity, etc. But then again I thought it's good to engage in a discussion like this.Lebih baik dengar dari Muslims sendiri than have Islam defined by others.So we enjoyed talking to each other.Ada masa I 'katuk' dia balik dengan stereotypical perceptions dia. Anyway, I promised to give him a recipe I discovered in Melaka (masak utk 46 people,dengan bahan2 yang mudah dicari in the west, he said) Whaaaat??? Masak utk sorang pun no time! But resipe ketam black pepper senang nak buat.I had tried it and it tasted good. :)) Will I be famous? Nak ambik gambar ke Abe? Hahaha. Ada kamera, jadik! :)) Just kidding. But my Dept will invite him to speak to our students and help inspire them to be writers (macam dia). He'll be in KL for another 2 weeks.
Something on Abe, taken (without permission) from http://katinkalot.wordpress.com/2008/06/:
Abe Opincar’s Fried Butter is not the first food memoir but came 5 years before Eat, Pray, Love and other books that heightened the status of food. While Opincar may not be writing of long lost love or soul searching as openly as other authors do, his writing is refreshing. He does not whine. He appreciates his life and all of its obstacles. He pines for the sadness in life over the happiness because that is where he grew the most. His writing is not just a story of his life. Opincar intertwines a history of food. Each chapter is about a dish or an ingredient. He explains the history of items while revealing a story of himself. He does not seem to be longing for anything in life. Except for the ingredients and the memories attached to each.
Opincar’s story is not riveting or a page-turner because of suspense or compassion. Instead, his stories provide the reader with something they can relate to. Turning the page means learning more about oneself than about Opincar.
I especially appreciate Opincar’s stories because he is Jewish and he inserts anecdotes that I can appreciate. He picks up the Jewish relationship between spirituality and food.
I do not recommend Fried Butter for people looking for a good memoir of life and adventure. I do recommend it for people who appreciate food for its history, the memories it creates, for the emotion and for food itself. It is a simple story of a man who has seen the world but holds all his memories in ingredients not in material items or places. I particularly like the chapter on turmeric and how you can use replacements for ingredients in recipes but somehow it is not like the real thing. There are certain things in life that you can have replacements of and never know that it is different from the real thing until you have the real one.
One of my favorite quotes: “Either there is a G-d, of Judaism is the cruelest joke that’s ever been pulled on any people in the history of the world!” (123).
2 comments:
Salaam Dr,
I've recently created another blog to post some of my poems which I've written last year.
So far there are 3 poems posted. If you are interested to have a look at them feel free to visit here:
http://invisibleability.blogspot.com/
Congrats! I liked what I read.Keep up the good work.Have you thought of combining photography and poetry? (or doing a short on your poems?)I've seen it done (suara latar, some music,film)
It's something I wanna do too but time...again.
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