Picture this: widespread paranoia, then outright panic. You can try to hole yourself away inside, but if you do venture out you’re never sure who’s safe and who’s not. In your city, in your neighborhood, even within your own home you could be at risk. The situation is snowballing, getting out of control, more and more are affected every day. There are tests being done on the source, but no one knows how to reverse it.
No, it’s not reality – it’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers!
The 1978 film directed by Philip Kaufman is a remake of the 1956 film, based on the book The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. It stars Brooke Adams as health department lab scientist Elizabeth, who along with her colleague Matthew (Donald Sutherland) notice more and more oddities around town, including several people unnerved by their partners’ sudden change in demeanor. Couple Jack and Nancy (Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright) discover even more strangeness, and the four try to understand what exactly has invaded San Francisco.
“What are you talking about, a space flower?” Yes, a space flower! Indeed it seems pink flowers from outer space are stealing DNA and creating replicants out of pods. How do they escape the pod people, and how do they stop them?
If you think Invasion of the Body Snatchers is hitting a little too close to home…I agree. At the beginning of the month, I picked it as an exciting, somewhat campy movie with some real substance, a masterfully done film noir feel, and some extremely creepy visuals. But as we so often find, horror movies become a way to process our reality. I would actually recommend this one for our current times, if you feel like the more on the nose outbreak movies are too close for comfort – and a lot of us have plenty of time to watch movies these days.
The accompanying recipe is a salad made of pods (yes, even during the apocalypse I’m going to be corny, sorry) – edamame and sugar snap peas to be exact. And as it turns out, this is a fantastic quarantine meal. It’s full of protein, calcium, iron, folate, vitamin A, and vitamin C to keep your strength up. Plus it can be made with frozen ingredients! Make it today or stock up when you are able to for later.
The dressing is a delicious peppery sesame vinaigrette, conveniently made from pantry ingredients, that was meant to compliment the flowers I wanted to include. Nasturtiums are bright, edible flowers with a peppery flavor. They are easy to grow if you are planning to start homesteading. However, I am not currently growing any and because I am responsibly socially distancing like I am supposed to and not out searching for somewhat harder to find ingredients, I used azaleas from my yard. Azaleas are NOT edible, only a garnish, but they do resemble the lovely pink space flowers.
POD SALAD: EDAMAME AND SUGAR SNAP PEA SALAD WITH PEPPERY SESAME DRESSING
For the salad:
2 cups edamame, or one 14 ounce frozen bag
1 pound sugar snap peas or one 12 ounce frozen bag
(these amounts do not need to be exact, we are making do nowadays so use what you have)
For the dressing:
1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 teaspoons honey
Squirt of sriracha optional if you are not quarantined with loud and spice-averse children
Generous amount of fresh cracked pepper
For the garnish:
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Pink flowers optional, ideally nasturtiums. Again, if the flowers are not edible, don’t eat them, we don’t want a poison situation on top of all this
Blanch the edamame and sugar snap peas according to package directions. If you are using fresh, use a large pot of well-salted water and blanch edamame for 5 minutes, throwing the sugar snap peas to blanch for the last minute and a half. Drain and submerge in an ice bath to stop the cooking process and lock in the bright green color. Drain again thoroughly and dry well with a dishtowel.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, optional sriracha and pepper. When the edamame and sugar snap peas have dried and cooled, toss with the dressing. Serve room temperature sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and pink flowers arranged on top.
First published on Nightmare on Film Street.
