23 December 2008

I've lost my cooking mojo

Coconut pastries. Ben Thanh Market, Saigon, Vietnam


Got my Mojo working but it just won't work on you
Got my Mojo working but it just won't work on you
I want to love you so till I don't know what to do
I got my black cat bones all pure and dry
I got my 4 leaf clovers all hanging high
I got my Mojo working but it just won't work on you
I want to love you so till I don't know what to do

"Got My Mojo Working" 1956 - song written by Preston Foster


It left me. I'm not sure when, but it's gone. And I'm devastated.


While travelling in South East Asia for a bit over five weeks I read food books, the Good Weekend Food edition, Saveur Magazine and even a cookbook. With no cooking to do, no food shopping or cleaning up to wade through, I thought excitedly about what I would cook on our return.


But when we came back I stood like an idiot at the South Melbourne Market, perplexed as to what to buy and blindly sought staples.
I scratched my head when it came time to cook something and plumbed the depths of my soul, but nothing was forthcoming. I overslept and missed my usual Farmers Market. That's just not like me.


I looked at food porn. I glanced at cookbooks irritably. Looking at food blogs left a dry taste in my mouth. I watched Nigella and was not enthused. I found it more interesting to count the myriad of ways that the production team had devised to use her fake house to disguise her broad hips and stout legs.
Nothing helped me. The magic was gone. My cooking mojo had disappeared into the ether.


Usually when I cook it's as though I'm under a spell, that's why I think of it as my mojo. It flows out of me with no conscious thought. It is intuitive. I don't need to measure ingredients, evaluate time Vs temperature or follow a recipe - it just flows with no conscious thought. As though invaded by the spirit of another, cooking just comes together for me in an almost trance-like fashion.



What's happened?
I am managing to cook, though lacking inspiration - and it tastes fine - but it's taking me way longer to do and I am strangely also losing my appetite. Bizarrely for me, when we went to The Press Club for my birthday celebration I was defeated by the size of the servings of the Symposium (degustation menu). I - who can happily wade through Greg Malouf's gut busting multi-course extravaganza's - left duck confit and sundry items on my plate at George Calombaris' temple of modern Greek gastronomy.


In spite of channeling George's mother with the imagined words "...eat..eat!!" and Mr Sticky putting on a Italian Mama falsetto and saying "Eat! Eat! You're too skinny!" I could not rise to the occasion. I was embarrassed.



The food blew my mind. It was clever, and unlike some fashionable venues, not so obviously tricked up that the modern techniques became the star over the produce. This was definitely no case of style over substance, rather an intelligent working of flavours, textures and techniques used to deliver a concept that had incubated in Calombaris' mind.


The idea of what a dish could be - at its best - was at the core of each course with the inspiration explained by the waitstaff on presentation. At the end of the meal, a digestive of mastic and sugar on a teaspoon was hardened in a shot glass of water to form a sticky toffee. It was a sensation, with just a hint of clove oil that cleared the palate and settled the stomach; m
agic.


Ordinarily my annual 'big night out' would have been enough to get my mojo on track again, but it failed. Where's the spark gone?


I can only presume that something within me has changed. Could I have overstretched my palate?



We delighted in some spectacular restaurant meals on our travels, especially in the former Royal town of Luang Prabang in Laos. We sat in orgasmic raptures hunkered humbly on tiny roadside stools beside food hawkers, and overdosed on sweets at The Hanoi Sofitel's Chocolate High Tea. We ate at Restaurant Bobby Chinn and later, I read my autographed copy of his cookbook on the beach in Thailand with a smirk, when I came upon lines of text lightly censored in silver ink at the behest of Vietnamese authorities.


Could I have overdosed by indulging my senses too readily?


And now at Christmas I am thankfully not responsible for preparing the traditional family meal, but again taking Mr Stickyfinger's Chargrilled salad, Luv-a-Duck's Peking duck party pies and Noisette's garlic loaf - with whole garlic cloves submerged in the dough that roast to sweetness in the baking - along to his family's gathering. And I am making edible gifts for them. But I'm doing things so ingrained in me that they have become staples in our diet, no mojo required.


The gifts are things I think everyone should make for themselves regularly, but have instead become replaced by processed convenience products that lack the depth of flavour and texture. I have made lemon scented olive oil to use in
my home-made lemon mayonnaise, which will go in a simple pack with a large bottle of my vinaigrette, which made properly, does not separate. They're practical gifts reflecting the need for home comforts in the face of economic gloom, instead of the usual clutter destined for eBay.


And so I continue to cook, albeit apathetically.


Like a lover deserted, I feel as though I have paled without my passion. If you're out there Cooking Mojo, please come back.
I beg of you...



13 comments:

purple goddess said...

Ah, lovie.. it WILL come back. You've just got a dose of the Bah Humbugs.

Spend a few days eating nasty take-away, or trolling the **ahem** Food Hall in a local shopping centre, ingest a Macca's breakfast **ahem** omelette, and your mojo will come scurrying back!

stickyfingers said...

Thanks PG ... fingers crossed ... and you gotta love an excuse to get nasty!

HAPPY FESTIVUS!
Or as Gearoge Costanza said,
"Festivus for the rest of us!"

Anonymous said...

Hi Sticky, sad to hear your mojo decided to go-go.
As PG suggests go eat some swill masquerading as good food.
Failing this get aan A-frame board & a town cryer bell & forlornly call for it in the middle of the Burke St mall. Having said that you could dress up like those girls in 'Picnic & hanging rock' & call for your mojo instead of calling for 'Miranda'?
I find that I get 'menu-block' sometimes & what I do to burst the dam of inspiration is to go back to the basics, revisit things that I used to love & which I learned a long time ago. Often this will reignite my enthusiasm.
Dont worry it will come back!

Anonymous said...

Its simple. You have been in the arms of one of your cultural cuisines where everything is natural and in sync. And now you have gone to another level. Dont worry you are just getting a better perspective. The sad part is that it wears off and then you just have to go again into the arms of the your real ancestral home for a re-charge.

Rita said...

Hi Sticky - so sorry to hear about your loosing your mojo, and I totally empathise. I lost mine a few years back and have never quite managed to regain it, unfortunately. What you described rang so many bells for me, and I was extremely interested to read it as experienced by someone else.

My love and passion for cooking was as you described, whereby I just cooked and produced with little or no thought to measuring or timing. It all simply came together perfectly, complete with the wow factor. I lost it over a period of time whereby I didn't have to produce such regular and prodigeous amounts. I assumed I would regain it, but never have.

It has left a huge void in my heart and life which will never be replaced. I mourn its loss, but have now been forced to accept and live with it. I cook often. Recipients of my food still rave about it, but, as you say, the mojo is gone.

I hope yours will return, as for me it feels like a vital part of the expression of who I am as a person is gone, and I feel quite bereft, in that regard.

stickyfingers said...

Thank you all very much for your comments, they are most appreciated. I have been reflecting on this a fair bit and wonder if it has been caused by circumstance, because I generally feel rather cast adrift.

My anchor, Mr Stickyfingers, has been made redundant and will finish up mid January. He has worked for the one company for nearly 30years with no other experience and skills not particularly relevant anywhere else.

Although I expect that I can support us financially, I am in discussion with a couple of companies as to becoming an employee again, just to keep the ebbs and flows of income less erratic. And I think in the back of my mind, I am stressed on my beloved's behalf about the months ahead for him, his morale, and the effort it will require to find him a new calling.

I suppose when I return to the corporate world on a more permanent basis there will be little time to cook - or to blog - as my career path eats into many more hours than most endure. Perhaps this is my body and mind already going into survival mode?

George Biron said...

Hi Ms Sticky

Morello cherries ready to pick at Mt Duneed now. You might find a little Mojo amongst the trees. Details of how to contact Ken Cambpell at the side bar on my site under More Morellos.
I'm going down today.

Rita said...

Interesting that both Sticky and PG's partners have lost their jobs. Is this indicative of the current worldwide financial climate?

Zoe said...

Not just sticky and PG, but Ed too. A plague on the houses of Melbourne bloggers.

I hope things start to flow again for you soon, sticky. All creative pursuits ebb and flow, and anxiety never helps.

A happier new year to you & Mr.

Y said...

Sorry to hear about the loss of your mojo. I'm sure it will return sooner than you think! We all have to eat afterall :)

Ran said...

I get a little that way when i have overeaten for too long. somtimes you just need to eat steamed vegies and rice for a couple of weeks to give your palate a break?

stickyfingers said...

Thank you all for your kind encouragement. I'm cooking and doing the exotic fare as well as the plain, but still no mojo.

Waiting, waiting...

...and in the meantime the kitchen's seen Paella, Zarzuela and tapas made, traditional Vietnamese dishes, stuffed zuccini flowers, Cantonese fare, pavlova's, souffles, mousses and dishes composed of home grown vegies. I wait in earnest and try to de-stress....aargh!

Two fit and fun gals said...

oh they look so cute!