Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Nigella Lawson: Eroticising Violence

I was reading this. And it reminded me of the one (and only one) Nigella Lawson cookery show episode I had seen on TV from my hotel room in Ahmadabad. The woman is DISGUSTING. It was unbelievable the way she went on and on and on about 'delicious' baby squids: cutting them up delicately ('leave the tentacles whole, they blossom like flowers when fried') and going on about the merits of handling 'squelchy little baby squids' which is bound to 'relax you at the end of a long day'. Maybe I'm more squeamish about cutting up animals and enjoying it, than I used to be before. But I have seen even the most non-human-animal unloving people recoil in horror from the idea of eating veal. Why should baby squid, then, be such a delicacy? Imagine somebody cheerfully talking about cutting a delicious puppy with tender meat (people do eat dogs you know) or even a kid (a baby goat I mean) and proceeding to do so on television. Would you really enjoy the sight even if the puppy/goat was dead? And I'm not a vegan/veggie ethical Nazi. I completely agree with this, for instance. But this woman took food porn to quite another level altogether: eroticising dead animals. And this cool-cook lingo is sooo ridiculous it is nauseating: this 'robust fish holds the curry up so well'. You 'd think the fish was some kind of bra. And she deliberately uses violent language and thereby promotes the elevation of violence into some kind of art form: 'bruise the lemon grass with the back of a knife to let the juice ooze out'. She is constantly eroticising and exoticising (lemon grass and baby squids aren't the normal staple diet either in India or England as far as I know: so exotic food) violence through the use of language. And it's all somehow supposed to be beautiful and delicious. Yuck! She put me off my food that night.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I love Nigella. And baby aquids too :)

Unknown said...

Oops. Squids I meant.

Madhura said...

huh! beshi chaal baji?! konodino tui squid khashni

At a loss for a blogger handle said...

he can easily have had. Mainland China often serves it in their buffet.
(and would you believe, word verification offers dorde to spell)

Unknown said...

Of course kheyechhi! Onek jaigaye pawa jaye. Any place that has a live seafood counter. Mainland China toh botei. I can even cook squids.

Watch Alton Brown's episodes on how to best cook a squid. ;)

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mojo said...

i have heard squid is good to eat. i wont be a hypocrite. i do love kochi pnatha. but i dont like nigellla lawson. primarily because she is a bad cook. her ranna looks inedible, her recipes are downright weird. ei baby squid er byapar taa gross. kintu amar etaa bolar bodhoy odhikaar nei.
i have washed goat's blood, and handled raw mutton. its always rather disturbing. but since i eat it, i do it. but thats about as far as i am prepared to go. i cant kill a goat and eat it, unless its dire.

Madhura said...

I've heard it's kinda squelchy...at least the way they prepare it in Mainland China