Frugality: LOLITA AS A FOOD (no morbidness allowed)

AFTER A TRIMESTRAL ABSENCE I'M COMING OUT AGAIN WITH TEN POSTS, EACH LINKED TO A SPECIFIC THEME, WHOSE IMPORTANCE CAPTURED MY ATTENTION DURING THE SUMMER BY NOW AT OUR BACKS!

Frugality: the Lolita of food

Could “being sparing or economical in regard to food and money” be a correct definition for frugality? My answer is “no”! A flute of Prosecco or Gewürtztramier (literally aromatic) served with strawberries and whipped cream are both frugal and self-indulgent, if not even decadent.

What does frugal mean to me then? I would define frugal as something that is able to be tiny, catchy, fresh, balanced, simple in terms of basilar ingredients (ingredients should be almost raw), light and fulfilling (more for the soul that for the stomach): elaborated pastas, hamburgers, baked potatoes, meatballs, aubergine parmigiana, risottos, pizza, steaks, fish, sushi aren’t frugal to me and my list could have been much more wide-ranging. So how can I preserve the idea of favour when dealing with frugality? I shall suggest merely four options, a sample of how your average eating day may radically change:

Raw bar (a morning break)

Antipasti a range of tastes (a starter)

The rose of products may vary a lot,
but it is important too keep a contrasting effect.

Quail eggs disposed as a sun (a light lunch)

Yogurt with banana (an afternoon break) [peaches or plums would have added even more colour]

Cheese and salad (a dinner)

The simplicity within frugality can be also caught in a derogatory sense. If we examine Pablo Picasso’s Le repas frugal (1904), here frugality is privation. Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) instead, at least in the early stages of the tragic infatuation of professor Humbert, offers another idea of frugality.

Pablo Picasso, Le repas frugal, etching, 1904, Paris.

Picasso portraits hunger and yearn. Nabokov emphasises that sense of plenitude given by non-elaborated customs and attitudes, the revival of a buried memory that springs up naturally, as a chance to be teenager again (clearly I am not encouraging anyone to spend time with underage female adolescents!). How splendid and pure appears in comparison the paternal affection showed by Jean Valjean toward Cosette, his adopted daughter, in the historical novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Professor's Humbert's desire slips quickly into something disturbing.

Published in English during the '50,
was immediately accused to be a scandalous novel.

The state of ravishment professor Humbert demonstrates is very close to a frugal dish that tickles the expectations of the palate with those flavours that cannot be made by men, but are buried into the soul of aliments. Unfortunately, Humbert's passion goes far beyond the boundaries of decency, he does not feel the inappropriateness and the pathetic urge of being young again. 

Lolita, a famous film directed in 1962 by Stanley Kubrick.
The american actress is Sue Lyon, born in 1946, is still living.

Moreover, Lolita represents not just Humbert's sin, but enacts the professor's soul, who is corrupted by innocence and simplicity, that is to say his desire to avoid growing older. In the early stages, when perhaps a more platonic affection was at stake, Lolita’s name sounds like a fruit-salad or a sorbet itself, it is sufficient to evoke all the rest:

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. (Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, Chapter 1, p. 26)

Paul Émile Chabas (1869-1937), The nymph Loire

Lastly, as my Polish friend Basia pointed out “frugality is humbleness crafted with taste”, a form of elegance then and grace.