Cooking and reading

So tonight's concert went well, and more importantly, Bolero is over and we don't have to play it anymore! It always takes a while before you're really rid of the earworms of any given concert if it's played more than once, and we had three concerts of it this week.

So I'm reading Memoirs of a Geisha and it is absolutely stunning. I had meant to read it a long time ago but kept forgetting to get the book, but because of all the press it's gotten since the movie came out recently, Borders had a glossy covered copy on one of its display tables, so I bought it.

It is a very heartbreaking novel, based on a true story told by a woman who was a Geisha around the time of WWII. The main character of the book and her sister are bought from their father when their mother was on her deathbed and are sold to different locations in Kyoto; the protagonist to an okira, or Geisha house, as a maid with the possibility of becoming a Geisha some day if she behaves. She is treated as a slave, but hers was a better fate that that of her less attractive sister, who because of her looks was sold to a whorehouse.

When I started reading the book, I didn't really know what Geisha were. From what I've learned from reading the book, they're sort of like upper class entertainers of men. Sex is only a factor when there are obscene amounts of money involved, such as having a danna (someone who pays to support the Geisha in exchange for her being his mistress) or men bidding on a Geisha's mizuage, which is the ceremonial taking of their virginity. The woman about whom the Memoirs are written had a record sum paid for hers as a result of a bidding war. Geishas have a tough life, even under the best of circumstances; their costumes are labor-intensive and heavy, to say nothing of the waxed ornate hairdos and elaborate make-up; they are never allowed to marry or have their own boyfriends because it will upset their dannas and thus their main sources of income.

This book is a fantastic escape, both fascinating and heartbreaking. I highly recommend it.

So when I haven't been engrossed in my reading, I've been doing a lot of cooking. I had gotten tremendously bored with our usual routine of rice/beans/soup/pasta/chicken, so I flagged a bunch of new recipes out of my favorite cookbooks. I made a great (and easy) potato leek soup, and served it with garlic bread. I also made Pico de Gallo, based on my Aunt Bev's recipe, and it turned out really well.

What else did I make? Oh, yeah! I made my first pizza dough from scratch out of my new Betty Crocker cookbook (my mother in law gave it to me for Christmas - I had asked for it!) and it was so easy and turned out so well I feel like a goober for having bought pre-made pizza crusts up until now. With the pizza dough, I made calzones, which are nothing more than pizza pods, or pizza with the toppings on the inside like a dumpling. I'm definitely making those again.

Well, it's late and my amazing book is calling. Good night!