jamie's 30-minute meals

One of the good things that happened during the Taiwan trip was that i discovered Jamie Oliver. This was totally un-deliberate on my part. It was just that having all that time in the evenings, with nowhere to go because a ten-minute walk in any direction would have taken me down a deserted mountain road flanked by forest with only the stars above for company, meant that i ended up watching TV, something i rarely do at other times, because there always seems to be something else to occupy my attention. But the quiet in the room at night was a bit discomfiting, and having the TV on made it better. So yes, channel-surfing on a Taiwanese mountain led me to Jamie Oliver. Hooray for 21st century globalisation.
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The wonderful thing about Jamie Oliver is that he makes it look all so easy. And it is, really -- there's no big mystery to cooking. Like so many other things, it's all about whether or not you bother. And if there's one thing that comes across in his cooking show, it's that he bothers. In the most seemingly casual, laissez faire way. But the fact is that he cares about food, about how it's prepared, how it looks as well as how it tastes, how it's served, how it makes people feel.
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This all probably explains the big stupid grin that spread across my face when i picked up Jamie's 30-Minute Meals at the library today. Just reading those recipes is a pleasure. Looking forward to trying some of them out.
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