154. LIKE WATER for CHOCOLATE

Laura Esquivel 1961
Translated by Carol Christensen and Thomas Christensen

Presented in twelve chapters, designated by the twelve months of the year, this enchanting love story with a culinary twist, is sprinkled with recipes galore, one to start each chapter, and a lot more sprinklings in between (food recipes as exotic as Quail in Rose Petal Sauce, Ox-tail Soup and Champandongo, to non-food recipes such as how to make a matches, how to kill bed bugs and how to make ink). Tita, the protagonist, has the gift of cooking, perhaps made brilliant by the fact that she was born in the kitchen (after the crying from slicing onions induced her mother's labor). She is also the youngest of siblings, and according to tradition, she can never marry and must  devote her entire life taking care of her mother, Mama Ellen. But she is in love with Pedro, and Pedro is in love with her, but Pedro has to marry her sister Rosaura instead...

'PREPARATION:
Take care to chop the onion fine. To keep from crying when you chop it (which is annoying), I suggest you place a little bit on your head.'(opening lines)

'Despite the time that had passed since that evening, she remembered it perfectly: the sounds, the smells, the way her new dress had grazed the freshly waxed floor, the look Pedro gave her... That look! She had been walking to the table carrying a tray of egg-yolk candies when she first felt his hot gaze burning her skin. She turned her head, and her eyes met Pedro's. It was then she understood how dough feels when it is plunged into boiling oil. The heat that invaded her body was so real she ws afraid she would start to bubble -- her face, her stomach, her heart, her breasts, -- like batter...'(16)

'She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice that all around her something very strange was taking place. The moment they took their first bite of the cake, everyone was flooded with a great wave of longing. ... But the weeping was just the first symptom of a strange intoxication -- an acute attack of pain and frustration -- that seized the guests and scattered them across the patio and the grounds and in the bathrooms, all of them wailing over lost love.'(39)

'It wasn't enough he'd made his wife jealous earlier, for when Pedro tasted his first mouthful, he couldn't help closing his eyes in voluptuous delight and exclaiming: "It is a dish for the gods!"'(51)

'Tita knew through her own flesh how fire transforms a tortilla, how a soul that hasn't been warmed by the fire of love is lifeless, like a useless ball of corn flour.'(67)

'She made her cuts through the rind with such mathematical precision that when she was done, she could pick up the watermelon and give it a single blow against a stone, in a particular spot, and like magic the watermelon rind would open like the petals of a flower, leaving the heart intact on the table. Unquestionably, when it came to dividing, dismantling, dismembering, desolating, detaching, dispossessing, destroying, or dominating, Mama Elena was a pro.'(96-97)

'Anything could be true or false, depending on whether one believed it.'(127)

'Whatever it was, it seemed his rage dominated his thoughts and actions for everyone in the house. Tita was literally "like water for chocolate" -- she was on the verge of boiling over. How irritable she was! Even the cooing she loved so much -- the sound made by the doves she had reestablished under the roof of the house, a sound that had given her so much pleasure since her return -- even that noise was annoying. She felt her head about to burst, like a kernel of popcorn.'(151)

'... the most elementary rules of good manners, which tell us that at a social gathering one does not bring up the subject of personalities, sad topics or unfortunate facts, religion, or politics.'(155)

'When the talk turns to eating, a subject of the greatest importance, only fools and sick men don't give it the attention it deserves.'(156-157)

'Something strange was going on. Tita remembered that Nacha had always said that when people argue while preparing tamales, the tamales won't get cooked. They can be heated day after day and still stay raw, because the tamales are angry. In a case like that, you have to sing to them, which makes them happy; then they'll cook.'(218-219)

'She remembered then the words that John had once spoken to her: "If a strong emotion suddenly lights all the candles we carry inside ourselves, it creates a brightness that shines far beyond our normal vision and then a splendid tunnel appears that shows us the way that we forgot when we were born and call us to recover our lost divine origin. The soul longs to return to the place it came from, leaving the body lifeless"... (244-245)

a Doubleday Hardcover Edition
246 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
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Personal Note:
We are off to Chicago, April 20-26, 2011, to celebrate Easter with the family. I am really looking forward to eating (although not as exotic as Tita's dishes), and chatting, and playing (hopefully outside if the weather allows, although I heard it won't be, so probably boardgames inside), and easter-eggs hunting. I am so excited to give our kids and grandkids their Easter Baskets - candies, chocolates and for each of the little ones, a different HP wand (Harry, Hermione, Ron, Voldemort and Snape... and yes, I am a nerdy nana and we have an HP-obssessed family!!).Happy Easter Weekend to everyone!!