flavour

So Heathrow has loosened its security restrictions somewhat. Passengers are now allowed one small piece of hand luggage each. That's a relief! I was imagining the 20 hours between London and Sydney (scheduled for the end of my travels) with nothing to amuse myself but my pocket-sized wallet, keys, passport and ticket.

Recently I've given my blog address to two people who had never heard of a blog before. I guess the form is not as pervasive as I had thought.
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My palate had a renaissance of sorts at the find bistro "Cru" on West Broadway in Vancouver. I tasted, for the first time, goat's cheese in a sweet dish, cheese cake to be exact. It was sublime. I continue to scrounge for new flavours in the bit of cooking that I do. Last night I concocted a tomato sauce: sauted onions, garlic and mushrooms, tomato puree and vegetable stock. Then I added paprika, red chili powder and grated chocolate. The chocolate gave the sauce a rich, mellow quality, taking some of the edge off the tomato acid. Later I garnished the plated pasta and sauce with goat's cheese, toasted almonds and larger flakes of the same chocolate. A mouthful of all of that, the chocolate and goat's cheese melting together, was a rich experience. Almost too rich, but fascinating, something new and tantalizing.

I've become a flavour fiend, interested, but never satisfied, searching for more complexity, more suprises.

The parallel with music is strong. I respond in much the same way to the flavours in food and the textures, harmonies and rhythms in music (particularly jazz). A musician can be great, the trio melding perfectly and I'm bored, because I've heard the same sound a hundred times before. And then I hear something new (to me): Bill Frisell turning "Tennessee Flat-top Box" upside down through dissonance and electric distortion with his trio.

Why is it that humans continue to seek out perfection (as each one interprets it)? We can't stop creating, layering and rearranging, always seeking something more beautiful and intoxicating.