Parole vs. Langue

To talk about food is to talk about everything; economics, politics, emotion, gender, age, etc. The list is limitless. Everyday the world is opening its eyes more and more to the breadth of how food directly affects so many areas of our day-to-day lives. We are eating smarter than we have been for the past sixty years. Topics of not just what our food is but what is in it, where it comes from and who produces it, is of greater concern than ever before. As we are spending more time thinking and talking about the foods that sustain us, we are finding more things that we both like and dislike about them. Although we are talking more about the foods that sustain us, we prefer to talk about the foods that enrich us. We are getting tunnel vision for the things that are pleasing to the eye and the mouth.

The world of food does reach beyond the plate of the kitchen. While the pleasure of food is something that everyone should be entitled to, it’s only the doorway to the food world. Eating is only the sensory or sensory-psychological reward for having good food.

In the interest of preservation, having good food should be motivating us to understand or protect what good food takes and/or where it comes from.

Can we truly take pleasure in eating a dish that is made from unhealthy ingredients, farmed by underpaid workers, destroys the environment by being shipped hundred- even thousands of miles or represents the unfair treatment of animals or the environment?

Is that pleasure?

Being a foodie does not obligate you to be an activist nor does it mean that we cannot enjoy food without being brought down by the reality of the great social or environmental injustices associated with the foods we eat. But if we are alert and accept that the cuisine on our plate is merely the product of dozens- even hundreds of eco-agricultural and socio-economic processes and constructs, then we can utilize our food, not just as our cultural compass but as an instrument of social change.

However, if you are eating solely for the purpose of pleasure, you are not a foodie but a more of a fluffer in the food porn industry.

To concentrate so intently on only the pleasure of eating without the recognition of the bigger factors at play in the food world, is to embrace the parole without the langue. 

Anti-silverware

   I want to begin this piece by saying cold leftover pizza is a breakfast food, no matter what anyone says. Now with my editorial commentary out of the way, I will move on to my topic of the day. When was the last time you had fun eating? Not in a social prom night/ anniversary dinner ‘that was nice, lets do that again’ kind of fun. When was the last time you had fun with the physical act of eating?

            As I look back over the past few months at the times I have either eaten at home or dined at a restaurant, I haven’t had fun eating.  I am willing to assign most of the blame on being a grown up and bothering myself with all sorts of nonsense like proper table etiquette and such. There is a real shame about coming to the table to eat and ruining the experience with all sorts of rules. Mealtime is supposed to be one of those times of the day where we get to let our hair down, take a break from work and just relax. This ideal is at odds with what we actually practice. One must; sit up straight, elbows-on or off- the table, take sensible bites, don’t reach across the table and of course use both your fork and knife.

            There it is: silverware is everything wrong with food. We do not eat anymore, we poke and prod at food like a 7th grade biology experiment. Proper eating practices have separated us from the food we eat behind 4 inches of silverware. So often I hear people talk about ‘the joy of cooking’, how fun it is and they are right. Who doesn’t enjoy kneading dough, rolling meatballs or tearing lettuce? The sensory experience of cooking is so important to why we enjoy cooking, the same as it is for eating but we limit ourselves greatly from one to the other. As we sit down in front of our meal we look at it, we lean over to smell it, roll the food around in our mouths to absorb the different sounds, flavors and textures. All that is ok but god forbid you touch your own food with your hands!

            Our hands are our utensils to interact with the world; our whole body is covered with skin, which is dedicated to the sense of touch. The human hand is designed to sense, adapt to or manipulate the things it comes in contact with. If something is too cold or too hot to hold in your hand, you may have second thoughts about brining it close to your face. Making contact with food before you eat it can save you the hassle of burnt tongues and aching sensitive teeth.

            Eating without silverware is something that is still used for countless foods all over the world but it is not given its credit as a way of eating.  Some foods simply do not lend themselves to the idea of the fork. An enormous amount of foods from potato chips to doughnuts are either impractical or perceived to be unnecessary to eat properly. Perhaps this is where the problem is: public perception. Eat a hamburger with your hands and there is no problem, try the same thing with pasta and you’re committing a cardinal sin. Maybe it has just been a while since someone has asked why. If you can eat it with a fork, you can eat it with your hands.

            The idea of “getting your hands dirty” at the table may be the cut off point for too many people just from the connotation of the term. Is there anything truly dirty or unhygienic about eating this way? For many of us the availability of clean running water, soaps and sanitizers is certainly enough to clean our dishes as well as our hands. So is it fair to say that eating with your hands is dirty?

            The most common response I hear to this idea is that it is “uncivilized and uneducated”.   I have to admit, these responses make me chuckle. Perhaps we’re a little too short sighted to recall how long civilization, culture and the educated survived before it became universally accepted to use such pretentious hardware. If we are looking at eating with friends and family, is such antiquated etiquette really necessary? Clearly we have become used to situations with all the pomp and none of the circumstance.

            Aren’t we doing ourselves an injustice by restricting our sensory experience of eating? Have we forgotten how fun it is to slurp spaghetti, break open crab legs or drink the cereal milk out of the bowl? Eating is fun (at least it used to be). Unfortunately what is done in good spirits comes off as bad taste.

            Antiquated relics like silverware have robbed us of the distinction between the pleasure of eating and the enjoyment of eating. Fun food is good food. Eating is an all-encompassing experience: sensory, socially, emotionally etc. We should be careful not to let ourselves be denied any of it.

Quando, Quanto e Come

Parlando di cibo niente è sacro. Mangiare con le mani, gustare Cioccolato e frutti di mare insieme, è una buonissima combinazione, anche la pizza fredda è favolosa! La sola ragione perchè questo venga reputato strano è che la nostra educazione alimentare originale è differente. Abbiamo imparato che mangiare tre volte al giorno è giusto e combinare dolce e salato insieme è improprio. Ogni cultura insegna cose differenti su come mangiare. Nessuna di queste abitudini alimentari è sbagliata, ma sono giuste?

Esistono molte definizioni che spiegano le diverse culture alimentari del mondo e nonostante le regole siano differenti in ogni cultura, tutti viviamo per mangiare. 
Perché dobbiamo mangiare tre grandi pasti al giorno e non otto piccoli ? Fa meglio al metabolismo? Perché 'è strano avere colazione al posto della cena? Quando assaggiamo qualcosa di diverso, usiamo parole come terribile, disgustoso, innovazione e arte. La nostra dieta sta cambiando e deve cambiare, così anche i nostri comportamenti alimentari.

Ci sono molte cose che tutti condividiamo: dormire, respirare, bere, mangiare etc. Ma l’atto di nutrirsi è il più regolato culturalmente. Se abbandoniamo alcune di queste regole, abbiamo più che una mera esperienza culturale. Quando il cibo entra nei nostri stomaci, non è Italiano, Americano, Cinese, etc, è solo cibo. 
Se mangio Cinese, Messicano o Francese, mi posso ancora identificare con ciò che mangio. Non devo conoscere la cultura per apprezzare un tipo di cucina che è differente dalla mia.

L'esperienza del cibo diventa sempre più olistico, nell'agricoltura, nei ristoranti e nelle nostre menti. Nonostante la cultura crea la nostra idea del cibo, non possiamo essere limitati dalla cultura o da ciò che 
siamo insegnati. Forse è ora guardare come la nostra cultura modella quando, quanto e come mangiamo. Così possiamo avere un'esperienza olistica e personale e non solo culturale.

Betraying the Body

We are all guilty of eating too much sometimes. Our reasons may be internal; extreme hunger, boredom, depression. Or the reasons may be external; holidays, birthdays, parties. When our reasons for overeating are internal (personal), we have control over when we want to stop. However when our reasons for overeating are external (social), there are many social factors that push us beyond our limits. For some reason, we place our social grace higher than our physical wellbeing.

Two months ago, during a weeklong stage in France I experienced this phenomenon to unprecedented levels. I was in the city of Lyon to visit the surrounding wine region of Burgundy and learn about the local food culture. What a beautiful city, I immediately felt at home among the winding streets and red roof buildings. Lyon knows how to eat. The Lyonnaise cuisine has the three best characteristics, hearty, pleasing and flavorful. If Argentines and Americans are considered to be serious meat eaters, the Lyonnaise are a close third.

On a Sunday afternoon I made plans to have lunch with an old friend at her apartment. Her entire family was visiting to see her new for a house warming party. So she had invited, 2 parents, 3 aunts, 3 uncles, 1 boyfriend, 2 sisters, 2 brothers in law, 2 grandmothers, me and my girlfriend. It was a grand event. Needless to say we arrived hungry.

We started the afternoon with drinks and snacks, a little something to stimulate the appetite. After an hour we came to the table, which was covered with about 15 different trays. For an hour and a half we ate, talked, laughed. We had 3 different kinds caviar on crackers, raw vegetables, pieces of fried pork fat, nuts, bread etc. After an hour and a half, both my girlfriend and I were full.

Then my friend said, “Great, now we can have lunch”. At this point, I’m sure you can all remember being in the exact same situation. The 15 trays left, and 15 entrees arrived. The food was beautiful. We ate Lyonnaise, African, Arab and French dishes. There was wine, champagne, couscous, more bread, pork, beef & chicken. For three hours, we ate.

For three hours, I tried to say, ”I’m full. No thank you, I can’t”. But I didn’t. Plates were passed to me 2,3,4 times. Each time I was expected to eat. It would be rude to say “No”. Mothers especially have a look that makes you feel guilty for not eating.

I was ready to die. If I had eaten one more bite, one more piece of food, I would have exploded. By the end of the meal, I was angry for having eaten so much. Why did I do this to myself? Why didn’t I just stop eating?

We are taught to say “Please” and “Thank you”, to eat everything on our plate and not to refuse food when it’s offered. But why do we listen to our manners more than our bodies? Is it worse to be rude than to eat too much? What is so terrible about saying I’ve had enough?

   We are culturally conditioned to take the burden on ourselves. We take the blame for an occasion in which too much food is made and we are expected to eat too much. Our culture has failed us, to place our health and physical comfort below our social appearance. Perhaps we’ve unwittingly blurred the lines between cultural tradition and social conformity. But in a sense, isn’t that what culture is to begin with?

Carpe Noctem

Let me remind you of a situation you are all familiar with.  It’s late. Your feet are throbbing from hours of excessive dancing or your liver is reeling from hours of binge drinking. Maybe both. Last call has come and gone. You gather what’s left of you and your friends and head… home? Not a chance, now it’s time to eat. We have an innate affinity for late night eateries and the food they have. It may be a gyro pita in Greece, a döner in Germany, tacos in Mexico or the ultimate East coast American destination: the diner. No matter where you live or what culture you were raised in, you know that food in the back of your head that you must have after a long night out.

 This is honest food; arguably the clearest window into the soul of the eater. Why? Because this late in the game, all the regular mindless stigma that we apply to food is cast aside. We are eating to recharge our batteries, comfort ourselves and hopefully stave off an impending hangover. Diets don’t apply here. Nor does appropriate portions, sensible bites or chewing thoroughly. We are eating for ourselves.

 Humans are a race of nocturnal eaters. Not only do we like to eat late but we have developed numerous philosophies to reinforce what we eat, when we eat it. I was talking with a couple friends in Germany once about what to eat late at night. Döner was the indisputable answer. I have to admit, it is wonderful food and I grew quite an addiction to it while I was there. It’s flavorful, fresh, light but filling. But idealistically this didn’t cut it for me. “You don’t go out for breakfast after a long night out?” was my immediate question. “No no, that stuff is too greasy; you’ve already punished your stomach enough. You need something light and healthy”.

I didn’t accept this answer at all. For myself, at the time adhered to the East coast tradition of eating a mélange of eggs, hash browns, pancakes and milk shakes drowned in a river of grease, syrup, butter and salt.

During the time since then I have gotten to see how other parts of the world eat late, all having their own prescribed foods for how to treat the body. Whether light or heavy, healthy or debilitating, we gravitate towards these foods and food joints. Of course we do, who the hell is going to cook at 5 am?

 No matter when or where you grew up, you’ve hopefully recalled that late night eatery or food stand that you love. They’re fond memories because these aren’t like our regular meals. These are something different and removed from our normal eating habits. Even if what you eat is culturally or generationally bound, doesn’t matter. What you find is an open window into the other side of culture and food culture. How does a “traditional” meal represent a food culture in its iconography compared to the food we come back to every weekend?

I am writing this article from Greece and am ecstatic when the sun disappears. The later it gets in the night, the more accustomed the nose becomes to the smell of meat roasting on a spit while making the trek back home. Who needs a diner? It’s part of the food culture here and is thus part of the culture. It gives meaning to and reflects the importance of the country’s space and place. Omelets and milkshakes would just seem gross and wrong at a time like now in a place like this. It’s how we do things around here. And if I find myself in Japan after Namihodai, I’ll be sure to grab a bowl of udon or a cheese steak in Philly. And so should you, why? Because that’s real culture, real food and really, really good. Carpe Noctem.

La mondialisation de la palette

L'immigration un autre pays a été une tendance humaine pour les millénaires. Sur une vie une personne, une famille ou une communauté peut vouloir entièrement intégrer dans leur nouvelle culture ou maintient leur identité natale dans une nouvelle terre. Un des grands produits dérivés de gens transfèrent aux nouveaux lieux est qu'ils amènent leurs recettes avec eux. Dans le temps, quelques cuisines deviennent très réussies, pendant que d'autres deviennent entièrement intégrés.

 Ce n'est pas une coïncidence qui comme le culturel démographique d'un lieu diversifie, la palette collective de ce lieu diversifie aussi. Ceci est arrivé des temps innombrables à travers l'histoire, partout dans le monde : L'Angleterre, Belgique, Grèce, Argentine etc, sont juste quelques exemples. Sûrement aucune cuisine nationale du pays est une exception à ceci.

 Dans le passé récent comme notre acceptation de (et la dépendance occasionnelle à) la cuisine étrangère est devenue plus commune. L'industrie de détail de nourriture est devenue plus rapide pour mettre sur le marché la nourriture « Authentique » des nouvelles cuisines que nous découvrons. Mais où la diversification de notre nourriture cultive la fin et la mondialisation commence ?

 Beaucoup de sociétés deviennent plus culturellement diverses et augmentent leur identité culturelle à la suite d'arriver d'immigrants. Ceci nous fait non seulement réexaminer notre propre identité culturelle mais reévalue notre culture de nourriture. Quel est spécial de la nourriture, est que nous pouvons être très curieux, très craintifs ou les deux. Dans le temps, nous pouvons accepter une nourriture ou une cuisine étrangère, globaliser exécuté nous.

 Typiquement ce processus prend le temps mais quelquefois une nourriture intrigue notre palette si ardemment que nous tombons en panne les barrières culturelles et embrassons une nouvelle cuisine. Une cuisine peut devenir moins étrangère et adoptée dans la nouvelle culture c'est dans. Le cari en Angleterre est un parfait exemple. Il n'y a pas juste de paire de deux cultures dans un espace mais une intégration de deux cultures dans chaque autre que forme l'identité de que le lieu.

 La mondialisation dans ce respect peut suivre seulement quelles habitudes interculturelles nous adoptons et espérons prédire que nous achèterons. Par cette norme, nous sommes plus responsables de notre propre mondialisation que ce que l'économie ou une entreprise dictera. Cependant une société doit être au moins partiellement familière avec la culture étrangère.

 Il y a une corrélation  entre une familiarité de sociétés avec une culture étrangère et le succès que la nouvelle cuisine sera acceptée. L'échange culturel entre les Etats-Unis et le Japon est des parfaits exemples. Les deux échange les deux matériel culturel sur une grande échelle de même que matériel commercial. Comme les deux pays sont devenus plus familiers se, le plus commun il est devenu trouver la cuisine japonaise dans Amérique et la nourriture américaine au Japon. Si nous regardons la nourriture mexicaine dans Amérique, la nourriture marocaine en France ou nourriture indienne en Angleterre, ils étaient réussis parce que le pays d'hôte était déjà familier avec la culture étrangère. Le même peut être dit d'autres cuisines nombreuses dans les autres lieux.

 Donc la Mondialisation est-il le problème ? Pendant que la mondialisation peut avoir des conséquences culturelles et écologiques que nous ne voulons pas, il est restreint par ce que nous voulons accepter. Le plus grand problème est notre culture de consommation. Le monde achète de plus en plus de produits commerciaux des lieux étrangers. Cependant, nous avons négligé le fait qui quand nous consommons un produit étranger que nous ne consommons pas juste leur identité de marque mais potentiellement leur identité nationale. C'est une grande chose pour les pays du monde pour prendre part aux choses différentes nous avons, mais nous ne pouvons pas blâmer la mondialisation sur les choses que nous choisissons acheter.

Food Slumming

            Sometimes being bad can be good. Let’s go to a dive bar. Let’s go to that club in the shady part of town. Let’s grab a bite from the street vendor. So much of our daily lives have become stratified that it has begun to mock itself and we find novelty in reaching beyond the stratification that we ourselves assign to what we do. Unfortunately, the social stratification of such activities and materials are becoming full on dichotomies. What, where and how we eat has become a horrendous example of this. All too often there are food publications and advertisements about food tourism that encourage people to consume the best of the haute and the indigent.

            The food culture that is being promoted to us through these mediums smacks of from whom it is ok to buy your food and what is ok to make with it. The idea of making alta cucina food out of rustic products is very in style right now but nothing new. The problem with viewing these things so separately tarnishes the work of talented cooks with pretense and discredits the authenticity and longevity of traditional cuisines.

            This is not just in print but also in practice. There appears to be a rising trend among markets to take the ugly images of cheap food and authentic producers and make them fashionable for more affluent foodies that want to reach further beyond their more upscale grocer. This is more and more common among indoor markets than outdoor markets.  What is happening is that we are quickly turning our simple markets into the same upscale grocery stores that we were trying to get away from.

            The ultimate insult to the way we have changed our approach to food in these ways is saying that its fun to go slumming but not cool to be ghetto. The food and the food culture has just become a means of consuming a new food image (if not a new social image all together). Food has become so posh that too often people are more interested in what it is, than how it tastes. Restaurants today can become a quick success simply because of who works there and who eats there.

            Few things translate universally (math, art, music etc) and food is one of them. Sustaining this dichotic image of food is making what we eat esoteric and classist. So it’s acceptable to buy cheap ingredients but not to eat “cheap” food. Elitist foodies beware: everything you know about haute cuisine is rooted in the food of the poor.