Author Interview - Richard C. Morais

I am very pleased to be hosting my first ever author interview.  As a part of the blog tour for The Hundred-Foot Journey (my review is here), I had a chance to interview the author, Richard C. Morais.  He's written a wonderful book and was kind enough to take some time to answer my questions.

What’s on your nightstand now?
Spooner (in Kindle) by Pete Dexter.
Best New American Voices 2007 (Selected by Sue Miller)
River of Fire, River of Water by Taitestu Unno
Mysticism:  Christian and Buddhist by D. T. Suzuki

Don Camillo Takes the Devil by the Tail by Giovanni Guareschi (finished)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (finished)
The Bird Artist by Howard Norman (finished)
Buddha of Infinite Light by T.D.Suzuki (finished)

What was your favorite book when you were a kid?
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. Read it seven times. Got me through several bouts of childhood pneumonia.

What’s your favorite comfort food?
Pork and clams.

Who are your top 5 authors?
Thomas Mann
Gerald Durrell
Giovanni Boccaccio
Gabrielle Garcia Márquez
Leo Tolstoy

Of all the places you’ve been, where’s the best food and why?
Portugal – it is my heritage and where I used to spend my summers as a boy, so the food is infused with emotional memories. Portuguese cuisine also happens to be the least known and most underrated of Europe’s rich culinary veins. Heavily influenced by the sea, of course, but also from North Africa and far-flung Portuguese colonies.

What book have you faked reading?
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust.  I adore the book’s beginning, and have repeatedly, in the course of my life, picked it up, but always get bogged down half way through, over the relentless OCD love-obsessions, which become tedious to me, or, perhaps, just make me very uncomfortable. But I’ve read half to three quarters of the book so can plausibly fake it. Entirely my loss I have not been man enough to follow through to the end.

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever eaten?
Roasted water buffalo, with villagers in the Zimbabwean bush.

What would people be surprised to find on your book shelves?
The entire works of C. G. Jung.

In your refrigerator?
Squid and milk

What’s for dinner tonight?
You probably think this is an affectation, but it’s true. Rabbit marinated in white wine and mustard and grilled on wood charcoal. It’s one of my favorite dishes and I make it regularly in the summer. I eat it in our garden, with a salad and a glass of rosé, surrounded by Pennsylvania fireflies.

Thanks again, Richard and good luck with your book!

My Family and Other Animals is one of my all-time favorite books, too, and rabbit is one of my favorite things to eat.  In fact, one of my most memorable meals was a rabbit and prune stew that I had at the restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Atlanta.  It came with a lovely gazpacho with bits of frozen watermelon floating in it, a breadbasket that would have satisfied all of my needs, and the most incredible service I've ever experienced.

Stop by my blog on 7/13 to enter my giveaway of 3 copies of The Hundred-Foot Journey!