If there is anything that is guaranteed to make a housewife mad, it is preparing Thanksgiving dinner.
All you want to do is sip a glass of Mad Housewife wine and putter in the kitchen. In other words, escape from warring familial factions. You may be curious to see if this year Uncle Walter will finally lose his toupee under the gnarled clutches of Cousin Cecil, but don’t do it. Stay in the kitchen.
To keep your sanity, your primary goal must be to keep everyone occupied, out of the cooking zone, fingers out of the condiments. First try sending them off on an errand—to pick up more Mad Housewife wine, for instance—then send them out for exercise, a hike perhaps (maybe they’ll get lost). But sooner or later they are back.
As in years past, television comes to the rescue. But this year, instead of the tired old Thanksgiving tradition of watching football between massive quantities of food, why not gather everyone to watch a fabulous food movie. Instead of beer and football, how about serving Mad Housewife wine and a little appetite-building story telling.
All food movies use food as a metaphor for love. Food is a leading character, enticing you, seducing you, inviting you to use your senses and discover who you are. The secret ingredient in all the dishes is courage, spiced with yearning and compassion.
Here are my top favorites:
1. Babette’s Feast (1987). Guaranteed to start your mouth watering. Babette, a famous French chef, flees civil war in France to a seacoast village in Denmark, where she cooks for two religious spinsters. When Babette wins 10,000 francs in a lottery, she decides to spend it all on a lavish meal for the small devout community. The sensual food awakens their longings, but rather than corrupting them, fills them with gratitude and love. With its combination of humor, melancholy, and hope, this lovely little movie, like its exceptional food, will make you feel things you never felt before.
2. Chocolat (2000). A beautiful single mother (played by Juliette Binoche), again fleeing from an unnamed persecution, brings a repressed French village to life with her sinfully delicious cocoa treats—and eventually works her magic on Johnny Depp, who plays an Irish gypsy.
3. Big Night (1996). Two of my favorite actors, Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci, play brothers, owners of a 1950s New Jersey restaurant on the brink of disaster because the demanding chef Shalhoub refuses to cook insipid Italian-American food for undiscerning customers. The siblings face off with a rival restaurant on matters of food, women, and pride—and, as the title suggests, the match boils over in one big night.
4. Like Water for Chocolate (1992). Tita is a lovelorn chef whose fiery emotions manifest themselves in the food she prepares. Whether she’s heartbroken over Pedro, or full of unbridled infatuation, her food speaks of her emotional state.
5. Ratatouille (2007). Rats in the kitchen? Don’t panic. In this Disney cartoon, resourceful rats prove to be the recipe for success. This delightful tale of a young French rodent with dreams of becoming a star chef will charm kids and adults alike.
6. Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). This hilarious film focuses on a family who relate to one another through the kitchen. Chu, formerly one of Taiwan’s top chefs, is losing his touch both with his dishes and his daughters—three young women looking for husbands. Remade as Tortilla Soup (2001) with a Latin flare, and also delicious.
7. Woman on Top (2007). The breathtaking Penelope Cruz plays a Brazilian chef named Isabella who cooks with such sensuality and abundant chilies that she trails an aroma that renders all men on two continents insensibly in love with her. The bossa nova music is a big part of the mix, and the scenes of Bahia are gorgeous.
8. Tampopo (1985) The first Japanese noodle western! Very funny. Tampopo begins when a pair of truck drivers happen onto a crumbling roadside ramen shop, and decide to help the widowed owner turn her dive into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making".
9. Mostly Martha (2001) A German film about a beautiful workaholic chef (Martina Gedeck) whose perfectionism is a shield against intimacy, until she is forced to take in and cope with her late sister’s angry daughter and to compete with the highly emotional, operatic charms of a new Italian cook (Sergio Castellitto). Remade as No Reservations with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart.
10. Sideways (2004): Paul Giamatti plays a struggling writer who takes a weeklong drive up to California's wine country with his best friend, Jack (Thomas Haden Church). Hilarious with lots of rapturous wine talk, including an ode to pinot noir.
There you have it. Each one of these movies will have your troop of omnivores coming to the table hungry, and perhaps a little more grateful, a little changed, a little more sensitive to what food is—sustenance for the senses as well as the soul.
Brown Rice Salad
You’ve already started messing with tradition, so try something new for the Thanksgiving table. Instead of calorie-laden stuffing, try this wildly flavorful salad, fresh and light, spicy and sweet. It will highlight turkey, ham, or any entrée.
3 cups cooked brown rice (or mixed brown, wild, and red rices)
15 dates, pitted and chopped
2 oranges, peeled and cut
1 cup grapes, halved
2 celery stalks
2 scallions
½ cup Italian parsley
1 teaspoon cumin
pinch of cayenne pepper
4 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
juice of 1 lemon
¼ cup olive oil
Chop all of the ingredients and add to cooled rice. Add seasonings and teriyaki, lemon, and olive oil. Mix well. This salad can be made the day before and tastes all the better for sitting twenty-four hours.
Have a fabulous Thanksgiving, and be sure to have plenty of Mad Housewife wine on hand.
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