French - Italian Connection....



Photo Courtesy of http://cafemobility.blogspot.com/

I went to lunch in "House of Lasagna" located in J. Abad Santos, San Juan with a good friend of mine a food connoisseur Mr. Cafemobility to satisfy my cravings for pasta, well it did fairly and my taste buds says it’s nothing special. That day I was also looking for a healthy alternative, a "Chicken Lasagna" but we were told its not available so instead I went for their house specialty "Beef Lasagna" only to learn later that "Chicken Lasagna" could have been available if we waited for more time as we have all the time to spare anyhow since it’s our day-off. Now where's the courtesy in asking their customers first? 

So I was just compelled to eat the house specialty though it’s been quite a while since I started practicing the "No fours diet", means avoiding red meats from a four legged animals. I was lately made aware by a discovery of implications about what we eat, in particular red meats. Now this just for the trivia, they say that red meats produce sialic acid that sticks like an antigen in our cell membranes and binds as toxic bacteria that causes inflammation, this makes humans more susceptible to a variety of diseases. Hey, this is not to scare you guys or ruin your appettite(or did I already? sorry), perhaps I was just frustrated that time as I’ve been imposing iron-willed self-discipline not to devour e meat.

Our resto hopping adventure however reminds me of movies with kitchen or cookery themes, the ambiance, the cooking, the plating and presentations, one movie which I just recently watched and the other is one of my favourite animated film. Both reels are with one if not most popular cuisine subject, French Cooking. And the movies, "Julie and Julia" and "Ratatouille"

Though Lasagna is an Italian cuisine, my sudden curiosity about the differences between French and Italian cooking  aroused.

I'm not a food connoisseur or a culinary expert so pardon me for some inaccuracies. As far as my familiarity is concerned both cooking emphasized cheeses and creams as major components in their recipes. Most Italian dishes uses tomatoes and pasta but they say if these two when combined it could be the best in the world. Ah the heck with it, I'll just eat whatever is served as long as its sounds like Italian or French who cares.

Let's just go for the movie "Julie and Julia".



Photo inset courtesy of link.  Here Julia finishes off first in the onion

 chopping contest

This movie is definitely a treat for food lovers. A story about a aspiring writer attempting to cook her way through Julia Child's culture-changing cookbook. And the challenge, 524 recipes in 365 days in a tiny apartment kitchen. Written and directed by Nora Ephron; based on “My Life in France” by Julia Child played by Meryl Streep and Amy Adams as Julie Powell.

The movie evolves in the parallels lives between the leading characters who never met. Their lives intertwine though separated by time and space as Julia lives on 1950's Modern France with a husband diplomat while Julie lives an unfulfilled life on Post 9/11 New York working as some dead-end job of life or insurance coordinator. While both are at loose ends they have their supporting husbands beside who both occasionally and humorously expressed impatience with their writing and gastronomic obsessions.




Photo inset courtesy of link

So Julie challenged herself to cook and blog. We then saw her inevitable trials, burns meals, troubles at work and with her husband. She finally overcomes it and then we see her triumphs and victories, making a perfectly poached egg, deboning a duck and an article for New York Times.

I have my favourite, humorous and light-hearted scenes in the movie as well. Julia enrolling in all male Cooking School, crying buckets as she practices chopping mountains of onions as her husband unable to enter the room while rubbing his eyes. The confrontation to her moral dilemma about killing lobsters and is subsequently traumatized while boiling them alive. All Meryl Streep isn't it?, my apologies but she is just a simply terrific actress still with her brilliance and beguiling best. She delighted the screen like the food she dishes up, warm and spicy, hearty and satisfying. The men in their lives in the movie could have  brought some dimensions if it was portrayed more with high-spirit but it is well understood as the movie circles around to Julie and Julia. And for Julie, Amy Adams is just cute. I haven't done my research about Julie so I can't really say how Ms. Adams played her character.

In the end, publishing success of course is the happy ending to both tales as both characters are aspiring writers. The celebration of the joys in such triumphs was explicitly screenplayed. Credits of course to the direction of Ms. Nora Ephron, who was once a literary and journalistic star prior being to a film maker, sharing perhaps her own personal joys and experience. With her warm hearted screenplay and delightful direction, "Julie & Julia" worked well.

This reel is finely crafted from start to finish, Meryl and Julia took home the cake of course if so to speak in terms of her character portrayal and star power.

 

Photo inset courtesy of link. Here Remy cooks breakfast for Lou

Remy in Ratatouille on the other hand drives us to the same concept, in cooking and shares the same charisma as Julia did, the difference is Julia is not afraid or concern of what other people thinks unlike Remy. Good lord! Of course Remy is rat(Laugh out Loud). Perhaps one advantage that Remy has though is his rat's powerful sense of smell and taste.

For some or maybe to those who are not hungry they may find "Julie and Julia" uninteresting but for those food lovers and loves to cook they'll surely find the movie appealing to appetite.

And for anyone who desire inspiration in the kitchen — or any other life department, or any of that sort these movies are for you.

Bon appétit....