Friday, April 10, 2009

Marcovaldo potato soup


an excerpt from Calvino's collection of stories about the bumbling, dreamy, poor Marcovaldo:

The joys of that round and flat vessel, or lunch-box, known as the "pietanziera," consist first of all in its having a screw-on top. The action of unscrewing the cover already makes your mouth water, especially if you don't yet know what is inside, because, for example, it's your wife who prepares the vessel for you every morning. Once the box is uncovered, you see your food packed there: salami and lentils, or hard-boiled eggs and beets, or else polenta and codfish, all neatly arranged with that circumference as the continents and oceans are set on the maps of the globe; and even if the food is scant it gives the effect of being substantial and compact. The cover, once it has been removed, serves as a plate, and so you can begin to divide the contents.

Well, I never ate potato soup of out a lunch-box, nor any weenies out of a thermos, thank heavens for that, but nonetheless I cannot deny feeling a certain empathy for poor Marcovaldo well up inside me when I plow my way through endless leftover bowls of potato soup. This cream of potato (and cheese) soup congeals completely under refrigeration, and it is only by the action of reheating it with some additional cream that it returns to life, again and again.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This looks absolutely delicious!!!! i found your blog because I saw your awesome poem drawings in Noojournal 9. I love food! and i love pictures of food. nice.
-Sierra