Julia Julia
Oct. 28th, 2014 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pen_gruntI was watching more Julia Child last night--she helps me get to sleep when I'm impossibly tired, but can't. Maybe I'll even subconsciously absorb some cooking technique.
So I was listening to the soup episode (yes, there are SOUP EPISODES!) wherein Julia was preparing leeks for French Leek Soup. She was perfectly chipper and matter-o-fact as she explained her choice of kitchen knife:
This is a Japanese knife I got from my sister in law. You use it for hara-kiri or it works perfectly well for chopping vegetables. It really depends on what sort of mood you're in.
She then looks at the camera with a kind of mischievous half-smile. I had to replay it to make sure I heard her right. I did. You know--because sometimes you're in the mood to chop veg, and sometimes you're in the mood for ritual suicide. Oh, the perils of being the 60s housewife.
Upon reflection--though it was meant innocently enough--it was also sort of vaguely racist in the 60s I-don't-really-understand-the-Japanese kind of way.
That's also the episode where she makes watercress soup and finishes it with two egg yolks, cream, and a shit-ton of butter. That doesn't even sound like it would be remotely good. Though, you know...butter. So. Maybe?
So I was listening to the soup episode (yes, there are SOUP EPISODES!) wherein Julia was preparing leeks for French Leek Soup. She was perfectly chipper and matter-o-fact as she explained her choice of kitchen knife:
This is a Japanese knife I got from my sister in law. You use it for hara-kiri or it works perfectly well for chopping vegetables. It really depends on what sort of mood you're in.
She then looks at the camera with a kind of mischievous half-smile. I had to replay it to make sure I heard her right. I did. You know--because sometimes you're in the mood to chop veg, and sometimes you're in the mood for ritual suicide. Oh, the perils of being the 60s housewife.
Upon reflection--though it was meant innocently enough--it was also sort of vaguely racist in the 60s I-don't-really-understand-the-Japanese kind of way.
That's also the episode where she makes watercress soup and finishes it with two egg yolks, cream, and a shit-ton of butter. That doesn't even sound like it would be remotely good. Though, you know...butter. So. Maybe?
