Daily Archives: September 30, 2012

How good a “five star” food is really?

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A few days ago I’ve posted about a very nice crème caramel I had at Mangiari di strada and I defined it “delicious”.

I started to think how to put in perspective the pleasure I had from it.
It was for sure one of the best, if not the best, crème caramel I ever had, but was it worth driving 30 miles for the sole purpose of eating it?

My answer is no and it’s a relatively easy one ’cause I’m more into appetizers and main courses than into desserts.

My reasoning did not stop there and I continued to think of foods and places evaluations based on the distance I would be happy to travel to taste them.
It’s really the complete package of distance plus direct cost that I take into account.

A few examples:
Once or twice a year Lo Dzerby is worth a 200 miles trip.
Mangiari di strada for me is worth a 30 miles trip (even on a weekly basis, given the great number of different great dishes they offer) as a complete eating experience but the single crème caramel is not. Even if it’s five stars without any doubt.

Da servo di Pannella a figlio libero di Dio by Danilo Quinto

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For an Italian the subject is very intriguing and the book generated quite some noise in the press.

At the beginning of my reading I was a bit surprised and almost upset by the fact that the author was citing the Gospel in a book that is not a religious book.

What was even more strange is that this happened to me as I do read also religious books.
It’s like if I’ve absorbed the idea that God should not be part of the normal life hence not part of “normal” books.

The main take home from the book is a confirmation of the fact that the human beings share the same structure and have both strengths and weaknesses.
The second key point is that the power can, and very often does, corrupt.

It’s a common temptation to finger point the weaknesses of the other forgetting our own or, when not failing (yet) ourselves, believing that we resist because we’re ontologically better than the others.

L’incontemporaneo. Péguy, lettore del mondo moderno by Alain Finkielkraut

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In the past I’ve read a few articles written by Alain Finkielkraut and I’ve appreciated his point of view.
This is my fist book written by him: the subject is what got me interested.

I’ve had the opportunity to listen with great pleasure to good readers reading out loud extracts from some of the books of Charles Peguy (“Le Mystère de la charité de Jeanne d’Arc”, “Le Porche du mystère de la deuxième vertu” and “Le Mystère des saints Innocents”)
Fascinated by the content I’ve tried a couple of time to read the books myself, but without success: it looks like they don’t work, at least for me, on the page but only when listening.

This book was a great opportunity to better understand the thinking of Charles Peguy and also the reasons why he’s relegated in a small niche.
Recommended.

Original title: Le Mécontemporain. Charles Péguy, lecteur du monde moderne