I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ALPHA MALE TEA PARTY-“I Haven’t Had A Lunch Break Since Windows Vista Came Out” (2014).

I found this band by accident and was curious about their name (they had the potential to be so unpleasant).  It also seemed like a pretty apt band and song to tie to this book.

Turns out Alpha Male Tea Party plays a kind of prog-rock/math-rock/heavy (mostly) instrumental style of music.  I’ve listened to a bunch of songs and thought that they were all instrumental, but there are lyrics on some of the songs.

This track is instrumental and opens with a quiet guitar opening and thudding drums.

After a minute or so it shifts gears into a rocking drum-filled section (that might be in 12/4).  The middle section alternates between some chugging riffs and complex guitar line before jumping into a heavy rumbling off-kilter headbanging section.

There’s no chorus or even verses that I can tell.  In fact their titles are mostly just humorous tags for complex instrumentals.  And that’s fine if you can back it up, which they can.

The end of the song (and the album) builds to a surprisingly cathartic climax before throwing in a little riff at the end that makes it sound like there should be more.  Presumably that means listening to the record again.

[READ: November 27, 2019] Meal

I bought this book while C. and I were in Philadelphia.  The spread of books at Atomic City Comics was just amazing and I saw so many books I wanted to get for family members.  Because we were heading into a show a few minutes after leaving, I didn’t want to burden myself with a lot of books, so I only bought this one.

This book was released by Iron Circus Comics, a publisher I am totally unfamiliar with.

But what attracted me to the book, aside from the delightful color palette on the cover was the tagline: Dream. Love. Entomophagy.

The story: Yarrow is a young chef determined to make her mark on the cutting edge of cookery with her insect-based creations.  But when she tries to get a job working at a soon-to-be-opening restaurant which specializes in insect-based food, the chef of the place dismisses her out of hand.  What gives?  Shouldn’t they be a natural fit?

The book opens Yarrow talking to Milani.  A (slightly confusing) flashback (when was it?) shows how they recently met.  Milani helped Yarrow move in when she explained she can “only watch a twiggy girl struggle to unload a van for so long.”

Yarrow invites Milani up to her place to make her a meal.  They start prepping when Milani notices that Yarrow has a container of worms in her fridge–she believes something has gone seriously bad.

Yarrow explains that they are meal worms and that she harvests and eats them.  Now, it might be a bit of a fantasy that Milani didn’t walk out right then, but she stays and agrees to try Yarrow’s meal worm curry.  Yarrow explains how cultures all over the world have been eating insects for generations–they are a great source of protein and were really only dismissed by Europeans.

A nifty trick in this book is that every time someone eats a meal with bugs in it, they are transported back in their memory to a specific moment.  For Milani, it makes her think of a bar that she ate comfort food at.  Milani is amazed at how good it tastes.  later, Yarrow transports people to her the part of Japan where her family is from where they ate more insects than fish.  Yarrow herself is later transported to Cambodia when she tries a A-Ping, lightly fried tarantula.

For you see, food is tied to culture in way that contemporaries foodies may not always appreciate.  Something may be trendy and cool, but for the creators of that food, it has much more powerful meaning.  That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t eat it, but they should be respectful of its origins as well.

Yarrow reveals that she moved to this city because a major chef of the insect-eating culinary world is opening a place in this town (in Minnesota, apparently).  Milani asks if she moved her just to eat there.  Yarrow says no, she wants to cook there!

Yarrow heads over to the restaurant and meets Harris, a guy in the back who is setting up a dehydrator.  He is a fascinating character and everyone in the book has theories about him.  (I’m only sad that we never really learn enough about him, because the author built up so much intrigue–“he can MacGyver any machine but he’s here scrubbing pans.  I bet he’s on the lam for like, industrial espionage.”).

Yarrow goes inside and we meet the principals at the restaurant Soledad, Gonzalo and Santiago.  They are preparing for the grand opening and the local block party that precedes their opening by a short time.  They are all very nice to her, but when Chef Chanda Flores enters, and says she’ll be interviewing Yarrow, Chanda instantly dismisses her for having the wrong attitude.   Yarrow asks for chance and Chanda says if she can make a taco, a simple taco, for her she will reconsider.

Yarrow spends the next few days coming up with a recipe until Milani points her in the direction of the market where most restaurants have their suppliers.  Perhaps she can meet Chanda’s supplier too.

Milani is a fun character as well.  She is an artist and. while she is not the focus, we do get to see a little of her work and her own insecurities as she tries to make art more of a hobby.  There is also possibly more than friendship brewing between her and Yarrow.

The story was an easy read and quite enjoyable.  There wasn’t a ton of hostility (phew) because the real message was about the food and family.  It was really interesting to see that eating insects was common for people around the world.  I also loved the diversity of characters in culture, attitude and body size.  Wherever this is in MN, it seems like a great place to live.

The end of the book has a few recipes as well as instructions on how to raise you own mealworms.

The recipes:

• Meal Worm Curry
• Tacos de Chapulines
• Pan -Fried Tarantula Roll
• Bee Larvae Honey Drops

The essay by Soleil Ho talks about her first experience eating an insect–a scorpion in a lollipop.  She didn’t like the freakish nature of the whole business.  But as she talked to more people she learned that insect cuisine is not just a sideshow, there is  so much more to it–and it’s quite delicious too.