Set Meal, Please

After the alluring Sandman, and the impactful The Graveyard Book I thought I was going to really like American Gods and well, not quite. And because it was in the same line of thought I figured I wasn't quite going to enjoy Anansi Boys and I'm being rather pleasantly surprised. Which just goes to show that, in the words of Forrest Gump, with Neil Gaiman is like a box of chocolates.

Which is only one of the various foods he likes to include somewhere in his narrative. I'm about two thirds of the way through and thus far there's been home cooked steaks, dim sum, sherry with a touch of mixed herbs, baked turkey, stew peas and rice, sweet potato pudding, curry goat, curry chicken, fried plantains, a pickled cow foot, hot chocolate, and a "really nice sort of noodly stew thing". And waxed fruit.

The problem is when I get a book I like, I tend to read a bit before turning of the lights. But when you read a well-written description of corn-based turkey stuffing, and the whole process of cooking it just right, turning of the lights doesn't actually get me straight to sleep. I've been a good boy at replacing my suppers (helped along the way by my nasi kandar boycott in reciprocation to the MACM's attack against American-connected companies) with Milo. But I tell ya, a good walkthrough of the process of baking a turkey, and no amount of Milo will distract you from the possibility of opening up a pack of Maggi mee.

And when he's not mentioning actual food, there are rather clever similes that involve lobsters or cooked goose.

I'm happy that the book's on my menu. It's just that I wish it was a little more low-fat.