Every city has its share of old books stalls. You never know what you will find in these treasure troves. Of course a lot of footpath space is now taken up by the numerous pirated books available at throw away rates. I keep giving unwanted advice to young friends who are tempted to buy these.

Many of the bookstalls have disappeared, but new ones spring up.

I have found some great stuff at Blossom bookshop at Bangalore. Travel books, fiction including long lost favorites, comics of all kinds. But the best finds were a series of books published by the Modern Library, on Food. One of these from which I am trying to read at least one essay per day, is a collection of essays from 60 years of writing in Gourmet magazine, edited by Ruth Reichl, editor in chief of Gourmet and editor of Modern Library Food series. A feast for the soul, the essays range from description of bistros in Paris, to mouth watering and unheard of flavours of chocolates, in fact, haute chocolaterie, to haute couture, Maxims, the vegetable market from which the great chefs in Paris source their greens and fruits…  There is another book in the same series called Katish- I havent read it yet, but it seems to be about Russian cuisine.  Another called Endless Feasts–I can hardly wait to start on that one! Once you get started on one of these books, you have to either make a beeline for the fridge or else put on an apron and start cooking. There are bits of verse, some recipies, ingredients for exotic dishes.. Now whenever I enter a bookshop I search for more of these. As good as reading ‘Chocolat’ or ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’.

I saw the movie first on a very boring Sunday when the name caught my eye in the TV listings for the day. And then I found the book. Fried Green Tomatoes even has some great recipies at the end of the book, all centred around, of course,  Green tomatoes.  Ive always added chopped green tomatoes to salads when I get around to making them, but this book opened up so many new possibilities.

Salads are good therapy when life is too hectic and you need to unwind. You can’t really think of anything else, when you are busy chopping tomatoes and red cabbage and white and red radish and green and red and yellow peppers, trying to keep the pieces evenly sized and conscious that you have a family member whos been a trainee chef and who looks down her nose at veggies not properly chopped or diced or whatever the exact terminology is.

Sometimes I think I enjoy the making more than the eating. The pleasure in creating the perfect dish is immense. Or maybe not so perfect, but still getting you rave reviews from a hungry family and from freinds happy to get at taste of home food.