Food: July 2008 Archives

I went on vacation last week and at the start of the vacation I got a horoscope that read "The next 30 days will be an adventure." That's always advantageous when you're on vacation, I guess, and so I was excited. And it's come true. In spades.

When I left for vacation I was considering a change in career. I've been kind of burned out on programming and computers in general, and then something cool happened that I can't share fully yet, but someone called me about an opportunity and just that brief contact rekindled a lot of feelings I hadn't had in a while. I wish I could share more, but I can't. Not yet anyway.

So while that was playing out, I had a blast in Ocean City. We went swimming, I rode the tilt-a-whirl with my kids and niece until I was certain I was going to hurl, ate myself silly, totally fell off my diet (and still lost weight! French Fries FTW!), and just had a wonderful time.

Came back, found out that that opportunity that rekindled my interest wasn't going to happen, and was sad, but still happy because I felt renewed.

I picked up with my diet and I lost even more weight, coming in below 300lbs for the first time in forever. I finally am at the point where I need to start shopping for more clothes.

Then I get a call and I'm offered the position of coach for my kids' soccer team and accept. I'm nervous as all get out and excited about the opportunity and can't wait, so I've been working on getting myself ready for that, and then yesterday I got a phone call.

The "someone" has a new opportunity and wants to talk to me.

It's only been 15 days and it's been a whirlwind already. I can't wait to see if it continues.

Life is great.

MSNBC is running with a story about Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of the UK, urging families there to not waste food, in part to save money, and also to help feed the hungry around the world. These words from the PM come as he's taken part in the 34th G8 Summit in Tokyo, Japan that was primarily about the global food crisis.

The interesting thing about statements from Gordon Brown, and from the other leaders at G8, is that they were fed a six-course lunch and an eight-course dinner, including increasingly rare items like caviar and salmon. The British press was quick to excoriate Brown, especially because he's stated that solving the problems of world hunger and rising food prices are priorities of his.

I don't know that it's fair to pour all of the blame on Brown. I doubt he planned the menu or had any input into it whatsoever, but I agree that it smacks of hypocrisy for the leaders of these nations to urge restraint while eating

If you're interested in more reading, Wikipedia has an in-depth article on the rising cost of food around the world. The NY Times has an article about the vanishing salmon population.

As a foodie, one of the things that I personally worry about is how best to balance the desire for great food with the overall impact on the environment and the future. The interesting thing is that people like Alice Waters, and the Slow Foods movement have made it cool to eat local and sustainable in ways that weren't a few years ago, which is great. I hope that their way of looking at things continues to spread because we're facing a terrible dichotomy in food. The decent foods, the truly good for you foods, like eggs, lean meats, produce, the non-processed foods, are the ones getting more expensive. The foods that continue to remain cheap and accessible (increasingly) to people around the world are the junk foods, the processed foods, the unhealthy foods that have contributed so much to our other "food crisis": obesity.

I've had three questions rattling around in my head the last two weeks.

1. If Bill Gates came to you today and offered to underwrite your education and living expenses no questions asked for as long as you needed, where would you go, what would you learn, and why?
2. If you could be taught to make one dish/food/cuisine perfectly every time, what would it be?
3. If tomorrow you were facing execution, what would you want your last meal to be?

I've been troubled with these questions, not because I don't know how to answer them. It's because I do have the answers, I'm just not sure I want to speak them out loud. But I'm not doing myself any favors by dodging them, and I'm just going to continue being tormented if I keep avoiding, so...here are the answers.

1. If Bill Gates came to you today and offered to underwrite your education and living expenses no questions asked for as long as you needed, where would you go, what would you learn, and why?
   I would go to one of three places: Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, The Culinary Institute of America in New York, or the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont. I want to study cooking. Why? It brings me so much joy. I am happiest in a kitchen, amidst the clatter and chaos and rush of preparing meals for people. I love the look of joy on someone's face when I've made them happy with the food I created. I cherish the sounds of joy when they're eating and the food is a delight. I love the construction, the act of making, the creation of a dish. I pour over cookbooks and read different ways to make things. I just finished "A Cook's Tour" last week and now I'm reading "The Making of a Chef". I love to eat, I love to try new foods, I love to try new combinations of spices. I am thrilled when I try to make a dish and it comes out right. Even if I fail and it comes out interesting.

   And while I try to get into the kitchen as often as I can to cook, I feel like a rank amateur, a poseur who knows almost nothing. I feel clumsy and unskilled, and I want to know more. I want to do more. I want to take the next step up from where I am now.
   



2. If you could be taught to make one dish/food/cuisine perfectly every time, what would it be?
   
   
   French Food. I want to learn how to make French Food perfectly. I know that some of you might be surprised given my complete adoration of Indian food and Thai food, or how I will gladly walk to Chinatown any day in any kind of weather to eat authentic dim sum at the Ocean Harbor, but I admire French Food.

   I like that the French, more than a lot of European nations created a culture of food, not just an industry of food, but a true art of cooking. A lot of other cultures seemed to treat food as an afterthought, just fuel for the day. The French turned it into something to be studied, to be written about, to be argued over, pontificated on, to be something perfected, because there is a beauty to perfect food.

   Beyond that, the French have done this not just with the best cuts of meat, or the most palatable, but their whole art revolved around turning some of the strangest cuts of meat, the organ meats, the offal, hooves and tails, into something that's not only palatable, but something that could be celebrated. That's amazing to me. It's inspiring, and I'm constantly awe-struck by it.



3. If tomorrow you were facing execution, what would you want your last meal to be?

   That all being said, my last meal would be rouladen, the way my mother made it when I was a kid, pickled red cabbage, and her potato dumplings. I may idolize French food, but I still derive intense pleasure from German food. I have had near religious experiences in Germany, eating with family. And maybe that's part of where my appreciation for French food comes from.

   My mom is from the Alsace, which is the French/German border region, and so much of the food there crosses cultural lines as well. In the Alsace they don't drink much beer. It's wine country, the land is beautiful, the people are joyful, and the food speaks to that. Every time I go to Germany the food is a revelation, an apocalypse of sorts, the end of one way to thinking, and the beginning of a new way to look at food. When I think of Germany, I think, in large part, about the food. It is holy to me, and if I were to be facing my imminent demise, I would want to eat that food again. I would not only be comforted by it, but also I would feel Communion with God in it. And that's the crux of the issue for me. I have had experiences so powerful with food that I have wept with joy for being able to eat that dish at that moment. I have been transported to states and places by food that are truly indescribable, and if I could learn to harness that power, to give that to other people, I would be very happy.
   

I've never really spoken these thoughts or feelings out loud, and I feel stupid and silly and nervous for airing them, but they are what they are. Those are the thoughts I've been avoiding for a while now.

The problem now is I've answered them, but am I going to do anything with the answers? I don't know yet.

It's one thing to know where you want to go. It's another thing entirely to go there.