Incredible how a steam cooker can explode.
It said "SSSSSSSSHHHHH!", and as I got up to go and turn the heat lower, it said something it hadn't said before. Ever. "PPPPPPPPSSSSSH PAAAAAH!".
As I rushed into the kitchen, the pot, all six seven kilos of it, had lifted off and landed on the floor. It was doing those moves the African Americans would do on cardboard sheets in New York. It was spinning around, stopping with its arm propped under its chin, upside down. It was an incredible performance, but I did not feel the urge to applaud or to flick a few notes out of my wallet at it. My curry! I thought.
As the SSSSHH became SSSSSsssshhhh, the lifeblood of my curry started squirting out onto the floor. Rich orange yellow juice puddled and started flowing like lava across the floor and under the cupboards.
Ay yay yay. We were just about to go and take a power walk through the plots and farmsteads before the sun went down. We swapped our sneakers for a mop, our plans for a bucket of warm soapy water.
Afterwards, as I opened the steam cooker, I saw that a little piece of cabbage had blocked the release valve. The littlest piece.
The steam, having nowhere to go, pushed the o-ring aside, and the jet of curried steam was so powerful that it could turn the pot into the space shuttle Challenger.
The blessing was that no-one was in the kitchen at the time.
The kitchen was covered from corner to corner in the fine spray, a spray that had been super-heated as it came out. It would have scalded anyone in its reach.
Made me think of my feisty temper. Sometimes it would take a little thing to block me up, and when I explode, whoever is in the room gets scalded. A Mediterranean character, the spouse would say. Big PPPSSSH PAH and then its over as soon as it started.
We all need a release. A controlled release. Otherwise we could explode more.
Perhaps I should take up break-dancing, and do a few moves when my steam built up too much. Perhaps that is the lesson life is trying to teach me.
-Jonah
No comments:
Post a Comment