Seductive coffee bean meets coy apricot
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Most of us don’t care about the origin, sex or personality of our fruit and vegetables before eating them, but one person is hoping we reconsider this.
Monique Zetlaoui has written the book ‘Exquis Promeneur’ (Exquisite wanderer) to express her love of these foods and to give an insight into their journey.
She imbues the fruit and vegetables with life by personifying them as either male or female, giving them character and attitude, while at the same time giving a history lesson about their journey from their place of birth to our kitchen tables.
“I cannot imagine an apricot as anything other than feminine, an apricot for me is a woman with powdered cheeks, a pomegranate is a woman, but it’s a woman moreover who is very difficult to undress, once peeled she is still coy wearing a veil underneath. It takes time, she’s provocative and she teases.
She chronicles the coffee beans journey and personifies it as a lover; “Coffee wakes us up and comes into bed in the morning. It’s a real lover that we can’t wait to see. And your lover who often brings the coffee on a tray to the bed doesn’t realise it’s a rival.”
As well as home-wrecking coffee beans and bashful pomegranates, the book also chronicles the discovery of some of Zetlaoui’s favourite food, investigates the etymology of their names and teems with references to Mediterranean culture.
However, despite the interesting subject matter the author maintains the book is primarily a book for her children and a way of passing some recipes onto them.
“I know recipes change from one generation to the next but something will remain. It’s like a chain and I wanted to transmit them. This book is a book of love for my children.”
