Reading, Writing, and Sourdough

This first novel in the Easy Rawlins detective series so perfectly captures L.A. noir in the late 1940s that every carefully depicted scene can only be envisioned in black and white. Walter Mosley wrote the novel in the 1990's, however, so two crimes are at play at the same time. In the first, Easy Rawlins has just lost his job at an L.A. factory and is drinking in Joppy's bar among other African Americans when a white man, a gangster, of course, comes in searching for Daphne Monet -- could she be named anything else? -- a curvaceous, alluring white woman. Easy, in need of money, takes the job of hunting for Daphne (you can hear tenor saxophones moaning in the background whenever her name is mentioned) and finds himself traveling through guns and knives off the highways of postwar Los Angeles. The jazz clubs, black neighborhoods, and rich vernacular of black women and men recently arrived from the south are homey and inviting. But there is a second crime: unmitigated racism

In Palestine, flat breads are baked on heated stones. The method can be replicated with river stones purchased from Home Depot. The heated stones give the bread an uneven texture with pockets of air, toasted peaks, and soft spaces in between. Sourdough gives the bread a tiny kick of additional flavor and a little extra chewiness. We served ours with ful : a mash of fava beans, lemon juice, and garlic. Ful  is traditional breakfast in Palestine and Egypt. Sourdough bread with spelt, an ancestor grain of wheat, In the background is fermenting  kimchi , spicy Korean pickled cabbage. Later in the week I was asked to give a guest lecture for a class called Judaism, Food, and Justice . I wanted to make a loaf large enough to feed 20 students to introduce them to the satisfaction that comes with sharing homemade bread with company. I talked about the history of bread, the religious imperative to feed the hungry (all religions abide this custom), and the association I make betwe