Little Bites, Big Brains

Did you catch this fascinating interview in Salon last week? Cooking has not only freed the nutrients in the food, but also the brain for other pursuits: hunting, culture, and more cooking.
Did you know that in all recorded societies women have done the cooking? Does that mean the men washed up?

This interview does answer my own question, why am I such a restless person? I should have just had more kids to cook for. Check it out, I do think it's very interesting.

Don't Go There!

There are things that I really enjoy, but that I don't eat anymore. I hate admitting that I, too, am subject to the same neurotic fears that convulse through our privileged system like so much stomach flu. Appetizing analogy, eh? But of course, in order to maintain my self-composed sophisticated and worldly identity, identity composed of a teeny-tiny high- maintenance veneer, I must believe that my food fusses are morally superior to those of the mere humans around me.
But of course, starving reader, but of course. And I can stare at my own hypocrisy and not wince at all.

Thanks to this book I stopped eating tuna. Fresh, canned, or sushi. Too much wanton destruction left in its wake, and too tricky finding tuna that the author finds acceptable. Nor, thanks again to that book, can I allow myself to buy farm-raised shrimp. It details horrible conditions for the workers, as well as terrible pollution for the water and land. On the other hand, it encouraged me to buy lots more shellfish, clams, oyster, and mussels. Sustainable and delicious, too.

Thanks to my son we no longer buy those wonderfully flavorful and inexpensive cuts of beef at the grocery store. Only humanely raised will do. Did you know cattle are fed corn because it's cheap (they're built to eat and metabolize grass) and then are medicated with antibiotics in order to overcome the side effects of a corn fed diet? Yuck!

Thanks to this parasite I no longer eat farm-raised salmon. It thrives and then threatens the salmon in the wild.

Tut, tut. I suppose I always had this capacity. Back in college surrounded by the vegetarians and the kosher I felt unclean. But I wasn't going to give up my pork! (On the other hand, I recall the shock I felt when a girl shook her head against the oranges. "Shot full of sugar," she said as she passed on them.).

Fortunately, if I ever do go whole hog and embrace my inner vegan, at least I'll be able to devour my rice and beans. Minus the chicken fat. Sigh.

And you, gentle reader, what food stuffs have you foresworn, out of fear, or fussiness, or compassion?

Unworthy Dining Companions

One of my favorite novelists has commented here a couple of times regarding her unworthy dining companions. The phrase makes me laugh with recognition. I think first of an acquaintance who had successfully penned a series in which food sophistication plays a large part (I'm being intentionally vague here, God forbid I offend a successful contact!) I wanted to pick her brain and we met for coffee and pastries. Or, in her case tea and pastries. When the server offered her orange pekoe tea my friend wanted to know what it was. It is pretty much the standard generic tea. Lipton. Now, if you gentle reader do not know this, please realize that this doesn't qualify you as an unworthy dining companion. It was my acquaintance's presumed expertise which put her in that category.

I, on the other hand, qualified early and often as unworthy. During my college years a large number of my friends were vegetarian. Or kosher. Or halal. How to make a carnivore gentile feel unworthy? Very easy. Make her feel unclean. I'm currently attending a conference in San Jose, and I struck up a conversation with a favorite acquaintance. She started to tell me about her 40 day cleanse. I think by tomorrow she'll be down to apple seeds. Once again, I am unworthy. I think my love of lard borders on being a reactionary political statement.

For me, though, it's food fusses and electronic usage that slam dunks you straight into the unworthy category. Want to order a meal and have all carbs/protein/fat/calories served on the side? Want to text, or phone, or show me your screen saver on your laptop/iphone/nano/blueberry during drinks/lunch/dinner/tea? Great. I'll remember to schedule our dates during power outages. Or not at all.

What makes an unworthy dining companion for you?