Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Jubilate Cornmeal.

For I will consider cornmeal:
  1. For it takes the form of cornbread, the bread of my mother's people.
  2. For it is delightful when eaten with soup or chili or cold for breakfast.
  3. Also, hot for breakfast.
  4. For it is often also eaten in muffin form, on the aforementioned occasions, as well as scarfed down when there are leftovers in the middle of the afternoon for no good reason except that they are delicious and they are there.
  5. For there is also johnnycake, in which form cornmeal makes another appearance at breakfast, the better to demonstrate its happy relationship with butter and maple syrup.
  6. For its sweetness is inherent!
  7. For polenta, which in humbler form is known as "corn grits" or even "cornmeal mush":
  8. For these familiar names do nothing to diminish its suavity, whether made with salted water and butter or broth and gilded with a dusting of cheese,
  9. Nor can polenta's versatility be overstated: it can be dished by the ladleful and eaten soft, or allowed to set and constructed therefore in various architectures, such as tortas, interleaved with mushroom ragouts or garlicky tomato sauces. Or ratatouille.
  10. For I do not exaggerate, not even in the slightest,
  11. For one can also make baked goods crunch with the addition of cornmeal: little biscuits flavored with orange zest and eaten with a chocolate pudding,
  12. For even polenta poundcake, as flexible and classic as any ordinary poundcake, but with a somehow Central American nuance:
  13. For it is maizecake.

3 comments:

  1. First, I can't keep up with your blogging, so just know I'm commenting in my mind.
    Second, I like cornmeal!
    Third, I like your poem, Jubilat!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice.. what inspired this style I wonder? :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. For corn meal is more interesting, on the whole, than cats. You can't eat a damned cat.

    ReplyDelete

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