Friday, August 15, 2008

aesthetics



It's all in the presentation baybee. The arrangement, the colors-- the play of light. The empty space.

In an effort to clean up the DVR queue last night we watched Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations"-- the travel foodie show where he occasionally eats the most disgusting things imaginable to the Midwestern palate. Well the Tokyo show wasn't disgusting at all. It did in fact show him happy as a child in a toy shop, which made ME happy. I needed a little psychological inspiration for this Heian feast I am cooking in Sept. Bourdain usually presents himself as a very bitter and sarcastic bad boy of the food world, but watching him admit near incompetence in the prowess/kendo field was "cute" and he was absolutely endearing when he sat down with the Ikebana master and said that his three yellow flowers were "happy".

He opened the show with the following observation--

The ability to look at one thing and only one thing is something totally alien to me, but it is something I most admire and appreciate about the Japanese. A rock, a pond, a single bite of fish, a grain of rice--to know these things and appreciate them.--Anthony Bourdain

1 comment:

Unknown said...

yeah, tony's cynical, seen it all act had really worn on me to the point where i didn't enjoy the show anymore. you know what happened, don't you? he knocked some italian woman up and they're now married and have a baby girl. you know what a baby does for a bitter soul. he's seeing the world through fresh eyes now. it's kind of cute, though i could see how this too, could get old. i like the new, non-smoking tony, though.