Appreciation For Art & A Berry Tart

Hey there! I have been stuck on this blog for a good few weeks, visiting revisiting between tiring weekends. Here's another try. If you're reading this, I did it! *pats back*

Disclaimer: This is going to be a philosophical one.

I want to talk about the art of expressing our love for an art form. I don't know if that makes sense exactly, but I'm going to try it make sense somehow? We'll find out.

Art For Art

There are art forms and then there are channels of sharing that art form. What you're reading right here? - one of those channels, which in itself is an art form.

The ability to weave stories about art or anything, in general, is an art in itself. Something I've found myself fascinated with always - more so recently.

Let me tell you the exact chain of events that led to this.

🌃 3 am on a particularly sleepless night I come across this article from Eater on Twitter and jump into a rabbit hole.

The subject in matter - YouTube channel 'Imamu Room' - a lady making Japanese bento lovingly for her husband every day.

Hence begins the obsession. I watch video after video and get filled with more and more joy as I watch them. It got to the point where I watched one video every night before bed to soothe my mind and channel that loving and calming energy which seems to seep out of every video on the channel.

The point I'm trying to make with this is the absolutely beautiful and impactful ways people knowingly or unknowingly express their love for art. It's an inspirational and powerful energy and it honestly makes me begin to understand our purpose in life. To create, to share and appreciate the beauty and wonder in things.

This was a Japanese meal (sans bento) I cooked inspired by Imamu's YouTube videos

Sometimes when I'm in the kitchen, certain things capture my attention and have me raptured. This is an exaggeration, but it is also not.

Some of these things I do manage to capture and share with the world, through photographs, through videos, through words. But there are certain things that I can't even begin to capture and convey the feel of, like - the way the process of cooking transforms one thing into something completely different, the way the steps flow so effortlessly from one to the next, the satisfaction of chopping vegetables into julienne and then to tiny cubes, the sounds of rice cooking - boiling bubbles then steaming whistles and finally the gentlest sizzles when it's done, the way the sunlight hits a plate of food and makes it look like some heavenly being shining its light down upon my humble bowl, the taste of savoury with a touch of sweet, the taste of sweet with a touch of savoury, the harmony of textures and flavours and temperatures.

As I'm writing this, to think of it all is a bit hypnotizing and it does feel the same in the moment. These are things I wish I could convey to people at an innate level. And I guess my purpose lies in doing that exactly someway somehow.

Vegetables chopped in preparation of a breakfast platter

For now, here are some low-effort stop motions I've been making to capture the end to end process of things I've been cooking. I've found this to be a super fun way of capturing things and presenting them in quick animations rather than a single photo at a time.

On the art to art tangent, last week I watched Tampopo which is an old school movie about a lady running a ramen shop in Japan and her journey to becoming a ramen master.

It's a lighthearted watch with a beautiful homage to the Japanese ramen and the craftsmanship behind it. 100% recommend.

(Tiny note: It does have some NSFW bits in there, so be warned.)

Last week also marked a berry special occasion in my culinary journey - I baked with fresh berries (other than strawberries)! 🥺

That might seem inconsequential to many, but when I tell you it's my absolute dream to be able to bake with fresh berries all the time, I am not kidding. I love them.

It was only just that I bake something equally worthy to mark this momentous occasion. I spent a good two days sifting through options - a pavlova with luscious whipped cream? Or a floofy vanilla sponge with cream? Or some sort of a tart or galette?

Things worked out in the favour of the tart, which I'd been meaning to bake my all time favourite lemon version of. The berries were an utmost welcome addition to the mix and what a showstopper the dessert turned out to be. I mean, just look -