Traces

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Been thinking about memory over the last couple of days: a perennial topic for me in so many ways. Being possessed of an almost eidetic memory myself, I tend to recall in detail stuff that happened to me and in which I was involved many decades ago, which has a curious flattening, compression-of-time effect which collapses my time spiral [referenced here] in my personal historical visualisation. Pictured is the very-much-thumbed and abused copy of Madhur Jaffrey's wonderful book, which I bought the week we moved here from Birmingham, forty-five years since. Although we have never really scratched the surface of the recipes contained within its pages, it has proved to be the inspiration for not only my learning how to cook, but also the basis of thousands of meals we have cooked in the decades since. The weirdest thing is, though, is that because of the aforesaid timeline compressive effect of my eidetic recall, I still feel a form of imposter syndrome when it comes to cooking, as it seems to me to be only yesterday when I could only just about boil water or make beans on toast...

Comments

  1. Anonymous20 November 2025 at 13:43

    Never a truer word my friend. I started my culinary learning in my 'previous life' because I got sick of eating the same pre-prepared stuff week in week out. Long road but oh so worth it.....and the change in life was/is a world away from the old one! Thanks be to the current Mrs Smith. Cheers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sideways20 November 2025 at 18:31

      Cheers, Steve - and my forty-five year quest to replicate a Brummagem Madras continues to this day - Balti? Wasn't such a thing in our day!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous22 November 2025 at 14:11

    Good point on the Madras; similarly there is wide variation here in Yorkshire and I had one once that had a thick coconut sauce......what's that all about?

    ReplyDelete

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