יום ראשון, 8 בפברואר 2009

Le Jardin des delices marocains

Nouveaute

Cette semaine est paru a Tel Aviv le nouveau livre de
Gabriel Bensimhon:“Le Jardin des delices marocains”-
recettes, nouvelles et reves

“The garden of Moroccan Delights”
and the Author

“A Moroccan feast is sex. It is no coincidence that the most
popular Moroccan dish is the Couscous, or in its Moroccan
name - Sexo. Looking at the Couscous dish wide on the
bottom becoming thinner as you go upwards surrounded by
zucchini, carrots and meats and topped by Houmus peas,
almonds and resins is watching a Berber woman in the
nude covered only by beads of copper and amber”
In these words Gabriel Bensimhon describes the experience of
Moroccan food in his book “The garden of Moroccan Delights”
and continues:“The Moroccan feast is a mixture of a religious and an
erotic ritual, The Moroccan woman, weather Jewish or
Muslim, lives under a siege of religious rules and laws of
her veil and house, her only way to express herself, seduce
and expose is through her cocking. As she adds color, spices
and perfumes to her food she is doing it actually to herself,
as she uncovers her “Tagein” on the table she is actually
performing a striptease and when you eat her food you are
actually eating her.” Gabriel Bensimhon is a writer, playwright, poet and a film maker. He serves as a Professor in The Department of
Theatre and Cinema in Tel Aviv University. He has published more than ten books of poetry, plays, screenplays and short stories and produced several films and plays. His book “The garden of Moroccan Delights” is a different book, a first of its kind binding together food and literature, presenting some
forty of the author most preferred dishes, escorted by a feast of love
stories, travel stories, poems, confessions, delusions and dreams.
My dreams resemble very much to my stories and vice versa.
It begins always with a real situation and develops into a
fantastic one which is possible only in a dream realm. The
same happens with my dishes. I begin with very simple and
regular ingredients, but the result is always a dream.
“The garden of Moroccan Delights” is greatly a book of
passion, an erotic voyage of an Israeli – Moroccan writer into
Morocco through its landscapes, history, culture and spirit, dishes and women.