Like Water for Chocolate

[Jaymes]

Her sister, on the other hand, was allowed to have a life and ended up marrying Tita's "true love"--which gave us the scenes of the sobbing soup...

Actually, the tears went into the wedding cake that Tita was making for the marriage of her sister to Pedro, her own true love.

Ahhh, I sit corrected. I wasn't sure while I was writing it. So was it the soup that was the uber-aphrodisiac?

No. That was the Quail in Rose Petal Sauce (can y'all tell I've found my book?).

That recipe calls for "12 roses, preferably red."

Pedro had picked a large bouquet of roses for Tita and she, overcome with joy and passion, "clasped the roses to her chest so tightly that when she got to the kitchen, the roses, which had been mostly pink, had turned quite red from the blood that was flowing from Tita's hands and breasts."

She wasn't sure quite what to do, but didn't want her mother to see the roses and, besides, they were the first bouquet that Pedro had given her. She certainly couldn't throw them away. Suddenly she remembered a prehispanic recipe that called for rose petals.

So into the sauce they went.

Which, apparently, turned out to be the exact recipe required to produce Trouble, with a capital S-E-X.

Edited September 29, 2005 by Jaymes (log)

[magnolia]

Thanks for all of this !

[transfattyacid]

It has been awhile since I read the book, and I can't put my hands on it at the moment. What does the phrase "Like Water for Chocolate" actually mean?

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Read the book, Watch the film and then nod your head to the Rap album

I always thought it meant something along the lines of :- cat amongst the pigeons.

Having seen the mess that water mixed with chocolate creates, and having nodded my head to the rap album.

But as i`m sure you may have gathered, i aint seen the film or read the book.

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Way to show the world how uncultured you are.

nice one

as you were

[Carrot Top]

Way to show the world how uncultured you are. 

nice one

as you were

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You showed me in particular with your comment that not only did you know the culture of the Anglo-Saxon kitchen as it usually currently stands in the way of chocolate, but also that you knew the culture of popular music.

Not a bad batting average for one single post, TFA.

[TPO]

I think "like water for chocolate" is a Spanish phrase with two meaning. This one:

The reference is to the particular temperature of water used for Mexican hot chocolate as in "as hot as water for chocolate."  Considering that she had to give up love and even a life to look after her mother, I suspect that  the expression applied too to her seething  reaction to her imposed condition.

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and being at the boiling point (as in ready to jump into bed with someone).

[Carrot Top]

It was discussed in detail here.

My problem with the book was the object of her affection was a merde-heel and not worth two centavos. At least in the movie he was cute so you could sort of see why she would pine away over him (but he wasn't that cute!)

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Thanks for finding that link, rancho gordo. I searched but it was hiding from me, apparently.

As to your other point, merde-heels might be the object of a woman's affections for some period of time. They often are. But eventually they slip on the merde on their heel and tumble down nicely into an ever bigger pile of it.

So eventually, and rightfully, the non merde-heels rule.

[Jaymes]

I think "like water for chocolate" is a Spanish phrase with two meaning. This one:

The reference is to the particular temperature of water used for Mexican hot chocolate as in "as hot as water for chocolate."  Considering that she had to give up love and even a life to look after her mother, I suspect that  the expression applied too to her seething reaction to her imposed condition.

and being at the boiling point (as in ready to jump into bed with someone).

Or to strip off all your clothes and leap up onto a horse with one of Pancho Villa's most dashing captains and gallop en flagrante delicto off into the sunset.

As did Tita's other sister.