Parisienne japonaise－－パリのご隠居さん

食いしん坊の「本の祭典」

2005-10-17T14:28:00.000+01:00

この週末は本の祭典だった。
　パリのあちこちで、筆者を囲む会、講演、詩の朗読会などが開催されていたが、知より食が大事な私は、まず「食の本」祭りに出かけた。円形の商品取引所は、食に関する本が分野ごとに分けて平積みされ、自筆の料理本を前にした筆者のテーブル、コーヒーやチョコレートの試食コーナーでぎっしり。生産者保護団体マレンゴのコーヒーを試飲して、カカオ豆がチョコレートになるまでを、実物を前にして説明してもらい、産地の異なるチョコレートを試食し、目の前で焼かれたクロワッサン、パン・オ・ショコラなどを食べていると、これが「食の本」祭りだったことを忘れてしまう。食いしん坊がやって来る「食の本」祭りはこうでなくっちゃ。２週間ほど前、ロンドンのポートベロー通り近くにある「ブックス・フォー・クックス」に行ったが、ここも、食べもの本の専門店とはいえ、奥の小さなカフェでおいしいお菓子や昼食が食べられるのが人気の秘訣なのだ。

　ここでの収穫は、カカオ、チョコレートに関する知識を舌で味わったこと。チョコレート、砂糖などの成分が同じでも、グアテマラ、マダガスカルなどカカオの産地によって味がずいぶん違うのだ。カカオ豆からカカオバターを分離し発酵させただけの粒状生カカオはコクがあってとてもおいしく、料理の最後のフリカケに使えるのではないかな。チョコレートの本を出したばかりの名パティシエ、ピエール・ヘルメ氏が生カカオの横にどっかりと座り、本にサインをしていた。体型に似合わず、愛想のない人だった。

　次は、「１８世紀のパリ」がテーマの国立文書館へ。
　マレ地区の文書館の中庭に入ると、三銃士がチャンバラをし、西洋人力車が子供を乗せて走りまわっていた。18世紀の衣装を身に着けたナベ売りや野菜売りが、革命前の下町の雰囲気を盛り上げている。中に入ると本の装丁や古地図の修復の実演をやっていた。私たちはまず、「解放された女性」の講演会へ行く。革命前の18世紀フランスは、貴族に代わってブルジョワジーが台頭し始め、それに伴って精神も変化したが、その変化のなかに、「性の解放」も含まれていたことを始めて知った。男は常に「解放」されていたから、これは女にとっての「性の解放」だ。しかしまだよくわらかない。この時代の女にはまだ経済力がなく、女が男に従属する時代が終わったわけではない。こうした解放を許す経済的基盤は何だったのだろう。講演者オリヴィエ・ブラン氏の本「レ・リベルティーネ」を読んでみなくっちゃ。

　このあと、マリオネットをやるので、子供には悪いけれど、先に席をとっちゃおう、と部屋に入ったが、最後まで子供が入ってこない。あとでわかったことだが、これはボーマルシェの「ジャン・ベート」をおおげさなセックスシーンで脚色した、大人向けのマリオネットだった。操り人形のスカートをめくって、よくもやってくれました。フランスでは、愛と性は同義なのだ、と改めて認識・・・。結局、詩や哲学まで手が回らず、もっとも根源的なテーマ、「食と性」で私たちの「本の祭典」は終わった。

A memory of Ethiopia -- by a sinful traveler

2004-10-22T15:20:00.001+01:00

One day when we picnicked under a big eucalyptus tree during our trekking in the Simien Mountains, village children started to gather to see us eating. There wasn’t a slightest sign of a village in the area and I wondered from where they came. Since they knew they were not allowed to come close to us, they sat down very quietly as if they were posing for a group photograph. Our simple picnic must have looked a gorgeous dinner to their eyes. Dry hard bread -- we had been in the mountain for more than a week--, macaroni with packed cheese probably carried from France and a cup of weak tea….in short, those are what I would not touch in town. Most of us were eating with their back against the children, uncomfortably. We cannot give them food nor stop eating; there is no other way than continuing being travelers. They all are more than skinny in worn-out, torn-out clothes. Some wore a blanket on their head, which recalled me a photograph by Sebastiao Salgado, a picture of a family standing still in the deserted land during one of the biggest famines hit in Ethiopia…. There is no big famine now, but food shortage is an everyday affair in this remote area.

2004-10-22T15:20:00.000+01:00

Posing for pictures

2004-10-22T15:08:00.000+01:00

Those who eat and those who watch those who eat.

2004-10-22T14:58:00.000+01:00

After the picnic, I felt like visiting their village, making use of time assigned for a nap. I walked about 30 minutes to find the village with children guiding me. The village was actually a Muslim village, in this one of the oldest Christian countries, with about 10 shacks around a relatively more solid-looking shack which turned to be a mosque.
Approaching to the village, dozens of children ran to me, saying “give me a pen, give me a pen”. This is a kind of their greeting to foreigners. As I said “No pen, sorry”, they stopped asking me. Instead of giving pens, I showed them on my digital camera screen a short moving picture of Blue Nile Waterfall in the center of Ethiopia -- I was sure they had never seen it --and they all got excited, exclaiming ” TV, TV!” Then I started to take pictures of the children, which made them hustling and jostling to see the small screen. All the children posed for me to see their own picture on the screen. I had never seen such frolic children in this country. Children here are forced, or considered natural to work as shepherd or firewood collector the moment they start to walk. They don’t spend “childhood” as we call it. I was moved to see such crude curiosities and expressions of joy in those children having a hard life, probably no chance to find out how different life could be.

2004-10-22T14:57:00.000+01:00

Donkeys, vital support for trekking

2004-10-22T14:53:00.000+01:00

After this short visit, I got back to the trekking group and we set off to the next camping. Several children kept following us for 3 hours till we arrived at a gentle slope for the night sleep. Our porters were already setting up their tents, while all the donkeys, having been liberated from our big bags, were leisurely grazing. I had no idea what those children wanted but finally it occurred to me that they followed us because I had told them that my medicine bag was in my big bag carried by donkey (in English with a lot of body language and sketches on the ground), when a villager had asked me to give him some medicine for headaches. I couldn’t have imagined they wouldn’t mind 6 hours round-trip to get a package of aspirin! I will never forget their delighted faces when they physically earned what they needed for one of their neighbors.

2004-10-20T20:42:00.000+01:00

Parisien: Cette photo doit etre prise a Amsterdam, on vole tout la-bas. Amsterdammer:Tu as tort, en fait, c'est a Paris, a la sortie du metro. Parisien: .............

2004-10-20T19:40:00.000+01:00

Rainy day. Who left those umbrellas?

London

2004-10-19T18:10:00.000+01:00

In London I always go to Tinderbox cafe, near tube station Angel, sitting on one of the stools by the large window, reading newspaper in the morning sun.
This morning I got a beautiful flower on my cappuccino. I sipped it very carefully so that this flower would not disappear.

ロンドンに行くといつも、エンジェルのティンバーボックス･カフェに行き、日当たりのいい窓辺のスツールに座って新聞を読む。今朝のカプチノには、素敵な花が咲いていた。花が消えないようそっとコーヒーをすすった。

2004-10-19T17:17:00.000+01:00

flower on my cappuccino