Footnotes to a Conversation, November 8, 2021

“A great wind is blowing and that gives you either imagination or a headache.” – Catherine the Great

I will admit to several headaches this week as I’ve started settling into my new home in Victoria – hopefully it will also stimulate my imagination!

Travel with a Difference

Here’s a tourist resort with a difference. 2000 years old, it’s where rich and famous Romans spent their summer vacations. “We have traces of these huge luxurious rooms which must have hosted continuous parties,” said Gallochio. “You can imagine that, during the summer holidays, this was a place of self-indulgence, where Roman nobility could go crazy.” It was also a spa town, which locals believed could cure any ill. The resort can still be visited, but first you’ll have to put on diving gear as it’s completely underwater. [The Guardian]

Varanasi, India, is one of the oldest living cities and a spiritual centre for the world’s 1.2 billion Hindus. It’s now luring culinary travellers and Michelin star chefs are adapting temples’ vegetarian recipes to serve in their restaurants. The local vegetarian food is heavily influenced by the area’s spiritual beliefs. Meat, onions, and garlic are forbidden because they’re believed to increase anger, aggression, and anxiety. Many of the recipes combine sweet and sour flavours, such as spiced mashed peas (nimona). Nimona is made by “reducing a green pea purée in a pan, adding boiled potatoes and pouring over a mixture of fragrant spices such as whole cumin seeds, asafoetida and green chillies tempered in hot oil. Served with a dollop of ghee over steamed basmati rice, the creamy sweetness of the peas and the contrasting bite from the potatoes is essentially Varanasi's answer to Italy's cucina povera, in which local ‘peasant’ foods are being elevated by innovative chefs.” [BBC Travel]

Dress for Success

The 1977 edition of The Woman’s Dress for Success Book by John T. Molloy advised women to wear a skirted suit, “echoing men’s corporate dress code but, importantly, not replicating it. According to Kimle and Damhorst, ‘Adopting the standard men’s suit, tie, and grooming norms…is a violation of mainstream gender codes if borrowed so explicitly that the woman virtually masquerades as a man.’ … Molloy cautioned that clothes needed to be striking but not too frilly, strongly colored but not exotic.” The details may have changed, but it still pays to dress for success as “preferential treatment for those who conform to normative styles of dress and appearance is common.” [JSTOR Daily]

Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy.

If you share my love of nature, I suggest you also read EcoFriendly Sask that I publish in collaboration with my brother, Andrew. Check out EcoFriendly Sask’s Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.