Babette's Feast

After both reading the short story and watching the movie, I prefer the movie although there are a few things that surprised me in the movie.

First, I was expecting a fancier setting in the movie but it turned out to be very plain. There is hardly any extravagant decorations beside the portrait of the Dean in the house where the two sisters live in. But in fact that demonstrates what is said in the short story. Besides the fact that they are both puritans, the two sisters "had never possessed any article of fashion; they had dressed demurely in gray or black all their lives."

Second, in the short story, the author doesn't say a lot about how the feast was prepared. However, in the movie, there are parts that show the preparation of the meal. And the part Babette cut the bird head into half and how the General ate the bird head really disgusted me.

There is one thing that I like a lot about the movie is that it shows each person's expressions. It's funny to watch the conversation between the general and one of the Brothers about how wonderful the food was. The General knows this meal is one of the best meals he has ever had. He tries to share this with people around, but instead of talking about the food, the Brother responded with something completely irrelevant. 

The movie also flows better. It helps me understand the whole story in a clearer order.

Can chef be artist?

What does artist mean? According to definition, an artist is a person who engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art. It is someone who always tries new things. The person has his or hers own taste of things. A chef, in my opinion, is someone who has the qualities of several kinds of artists. A chef doesn't have to have a lot of experiences or have been to many different places. But he or she must pay attention to subtle things in life, because that's where they get inspirations from. He or she must also has a strong sense of taste so that he or she can tell the little difference among spices and flavors. Like a painter who knows how much and what color to put on the painting, a chef knows what spices and how much of them can bring people joy. Like a designer who creates things with usual stuff, a chef make their dishes from ordinary materials. Like a photographer who knows how to compose the best picture, a chef knows how to lay out everything on a plate.

Chocolate As The Ultimate Comfort Food

People from all over the world  eat chocolate. No matter where you are, how you are feeling, having a bite of that piece of chocolate can always bring you the good mood and luck.

I am a big fan of chocolate and I find it has the magic to calm me down when I am extremely depressed or pressured. Maybe the sweetness that comes to me when I take the very first bite washes away my sorrows. Or the smoothness I taste reminds me the way to smooth things out. However I never have too much chocolate at one time. Not only because of the calories, but also because it makes me sick when I have too much and can ruin my good mood. So even when I am really down and feel like having 2 bars of chocolate, I will take only 2 pieces. Because I know that's how much my body needs, and for the rest, I will just let the magic do it work!