Talking about cooking

Last Saturday the Trails West Trailblazers book club chewed thoughtfully over The Secrets of the Tsil Cafe by Thomas Fox Averill.

Tim, Sharon, Dolly, Nora, Marty, Susie and Nancy enjoyed the book and then dove right in with conversation. Most readers were surprised with the variety of dishes Robert Hingler presented to his guests at his dinner which led to discussion of cultural traditions regarding food.

A comparison of the main characters, Robert and Mario, had attendees deciding that Robert is definitely a more controlling personality than Maria and this shows in his food and cooking.

Much time was spent over the scene at the dinner table of Robert and Maria’s “make up” dinner. Grandmother Tito marches into the dining room, after being given a valuable piece of information from their son, Wes, and switches their soup bowls and demanding they eat their own food and stop cooking for each other. “Love others, comfort yourself” was a line that generated much conversation.

But the burning question on everyone’s tongue was “did the author try out the recipe using guinea pig?” Stay tuned for the author visit on Saturday, July 26 at Central Library.