Transference

Dan Chaon is a multi-award winning author. I haven’t read a single one of his books. My bad.

What I have read is an essay about chili he wrote for a book called “Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant”. I’ve been reading food theory for over a decade. I have shelves full of the stuff. Not once have I ever made anything from any of it. Never bothered, never wanted to.

So why did I spend hours today chopping three kinds of peppers (and onions, and a whole head of garlic, and cilantro and oregano, et al) into teensy tiny micro-bits to make a ginormous pot of chili? The first time I read the essay, it didn’t make an impression. Then I reread it over the weekend, and bam (sorry, bad foodie pun) now I’m wielding my Henckel like an obsessed Benihana reject.

The irony is that I will never taste the stuff. There’s four-count’em-four pounds of meat in it. Luckily I have company coming tomorrow (Hi Scott!) who had better be hungry when he gets here. Otherwise, let me know if you want leftovers. Robert says it's good.