Whichever way you slice it

Though I am pretty much inept in the kitchen, my significant other keeps insisting that I adopt his passion for concocting amazing cuisine. This past weekend I suggested we try making Mango Chicken, my favorite dish at any Indian restaurant. We made something tasty, although it wasn't remotely Indian. Not surprisingly, we had to cut up some mangoes for the recipe. Mangoes are a tricky fruit to cut and so I went online and found step-by-step instructions.

http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookbasics/ss/cutmango.htm

The process is actually pretty amazing. You cut off two big sections of mango and create a checkerboard of incisions in the fruit, but not the skin. Afterwards, you turn the skin inside out and the fruit pops out, like scenes from a pop-up book, ready for extraction. It was so satisfying!

I kept thinking about the process for the rest of the weekend and it occurred to me that it was sort of similar to looking at art (particularly when there's a skilled facilitator). When you first see a work in front of you it may seem strange and impenetrable. When you start carefully looking, breaking things down into smaller, more manageable pieces and then the entire work begins to reveal itself and the viewer can access it at a new level. Hopefully the result is something more authentic than the Mango Chicken I made this weekend.