18.10.07

Al Green curry


This is not about Thai food, about which I know nothing, but a song of love to the long gone and much missed mix tape.
Don´t get me wrong, I´m not a machine smasher. I´m very glad to have Mp3s, and technical advances, and how much awsome music is only a click away. But in the flurry of new things, the ability to choose went away, I think. Mix tapes had twenty songs, and those twenty were chosen with care. Now that you can have everything, 20Mb in your phone, even, why choose?
Playlists just aren´t the same. They´re ok, they´re great, but they don´t have the love that used to go into a tape.
Yesterday I dug out an Al Green tape I´d made long ago. Ten songs, one side, was all it took me to make a beautiful chicken curry for tonight´s dinner.
The tape had been well made, and went from slow tracks that helped along meditative and tearful onion chopping, to more sprightly ones that allowed for some wooden spoon flourishing and mike-miming. It was fun.
By the time the first side rolled to its clunky end, the onions had softened, the spices had been added, the chicken more or less browned (de-pinked would be more precise) and the coconut milk and tomato sauce poured in. It just needed to simmer very very slowly for another half hour. Instead of setting a timer, I just turned the tape. See? Easy.
iPods are great, like a big pot of stock, but a mix tape is like a well-reduced, long-simmered sauce.

7 comentarios:

Anónimo dijo...

Oh how I miss my tapes! Years ago someone broke the window in my car, and guess what they stole? My tapes. It was the only thing they took, and they took all of them. I cried when I got back to my car. They took all my high school memories in one fell swoop. I've never really recovered from the loss. You're so lucky to still have yours!

xps dijo...

Me ha encantado. las cintas y el curry.

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) dijo...

Oh, I know just what you mean. I have some early CDs that I made specifically for cooking, just the right number of songs, the right mood. I am probably the last person on earth without an iPod! I miss my old tapes, too.

lobstersquad dijo...

ann: that´s like my worst nightmare story! what a horror, I´m so sorry.
xps: y tú bien sabes de eso
lydia: I don´t have an iPod either!!! twin souls.
marquesa: o yes, we cling, you bet. I haven´t thrown away anything, ever, it seems

Anónimo dijo...

What a fine analogy, makes me want to dig some of my old tapes out. I've been reading for a while and thought I'd finally say hi!

LE BLOG dijo...

me flipa el dibujo

Anónimo dijo...

I am still a tape person..and a ludite I guess though I'm joined at the hip with my new laptop..
Tapes are/were wonderful!

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