As May draws to a close we have one last food related writing exercise. And this one is less a meal but more of the details. Today, we are going to focus on herbs and spices. It is sometimes easy to simplify and generalize. A family can sit down to a roast and a freshly made loaf of bread. Thee can be a declaration of no meat or animal products, either because the person/family is vegan or because it is a religious celebration/prohibition.
But now I want you to think about those details. Is the roast seasoned with rosemary and garlic? Is the bread a focaccia style where tart grapes have been roasted into it producing a caramelized sweetness to go along with the salty olive oil bread? Is the dip so spicy that visitors leave with runny noses and watery eyes?
Pick one of the meals covered earlier this month. Concentrate on the herbs and spices. Don’t just catalog them like you are trying to create a recipe, let us smell them, taste them. Do they have texture? Bite? Heat, sweet or salt? let us know what they taste like.
Once you have that down, tll us why it tastes that way. Is this a pepper used in every dish and its flavor is what anyone in the world you made thinks of when they think of this people? Is this a plant grandma tried in the garden one year and it grew so prolifically that the family had to find new ways to use it so it didn’t go to waste and ever after became something the family loved and is used through generations? From national, to regional, to family, to governmentally mandated depending on your world. show us not only what it tastes like but why.
As always Happy writing.
Ten til Midnight 