Orange boat on blue water

I scanned this picture from my latest cookbook purchase - Saraban by Greg and Lucy Malouf - because it spoke to me somehow. So still. such a vast expanse of sea and sky behind the boat. it's not a very good scan I'm afraid - I had to cut out a bit of the picture on the left because of the curve of the book and I originally had it a bit wonky. Plus the scan seems to have pixelated it a bit, but I still wanted to share it.

The book is a beautifully designed travel/cookery book on the food of Persia/Iran and I bought it in Readings the other day for a bargain price because it was on their bargain table. Incidentally, if you are ever in one of their stores - and we are now lucky enough to have one in Doncaster, do check out their bargain table as well as all of the other wonderful books on their shelves. I cannot go in there without buying something. I hope it thrives.

It's more than just a beautiful coffee table book because the recipes are just as good as the pictures - and doable too except for the odd difficult to find ingredient like dried limes. It's also quite interesting on the country of Iran in a non-controversial way and the pictures are just lovely.

What more can I say in a foody vein? Well I assume the boat is a fishing boat of some kind, though, not, you would think, an ocean faring one. It doesn't look big enough. But really I know nothing about fishing. It was taken on the Persian Gulf coastline in the south of Iran. And the sea does not go on for ever here but that's the impression you have when you look at that picture don't you? How brave those long ago traders and fishermen were, to set off into the unknown. And the sea, of course, is rarely as calm and flat as it looks in that picture. It's usually rather more frightening. Though even in its stillness it looks frightening to me. A reminder of how insignificant we are in the face of nature. How much of the world relies on fishermen for their food and the fish that they catch? it is frightening to think of what we might be doing to our seas and the fish that inhabit them. Although when you see a picture like this it is hard to imagine the damage that is being done is it not?

So I don't really have a lot to say about the picture, other than to recommend the book and share the picture.