Most of us do not understand our food. We love it, or fear what it does to our hips, but rarely do we want to know it. We don’t really want to know how the sausage is made. We could mostly care less what it takes to make our oats into “milk.” Food, a crucial element for survival is something most of us don’t care to understand, but it is something we profess to know. After all, don’t you know what you like?
The thing about food is you can know almost nothing about it, but in one taste you will know what you like. And the truth is — you often like crap. Don’t worry, I like it too. We all like it. We like high calorie, sweet and salty foods. We like fat. We like those experiences that those tastes bring to our bodies. Do you like cheese? Maybe what you really like is serotonin, one of the body’s natural happy chemicals. I know a piece of cheese can pick me right up from staring into the existential abyss. So, what does it mean if we feel our food more than we know it?
You might say good taste indicates freshness and most of the time you would be correct. You might also say that taste provides the brain with signals that let it know this body is going to be stronger, bite by bite. Taste is more than that, though, isn’t it? Taste is a reason to live. Good taste provides hope. Taste also provides connection, to things we love like culture, and to things we never once consider, like a grassy field a few thousand miles away. Taste brings us home to who we are, and it brings us deeper inside ourselves to the connections that make us animal, biological, you know, human.
This holiday season you might eat well or you might eat mediocre. You might make your cookies with expensive butter or you might make it with what you can afford. You might not even want to make your own trays of sugar cookies yourself. If that’s the case you’ll go to the store and have to decide on the cookies you really want. You may know that one type is healthier or another is better tasting, but you may ignore what you want for what you can find as the pressure mounts and the hours tick. You might surprise yourself and order the best cookies, smiling broadly as they arrive via delivery. Whenever and whatever you eat this season, make the first bite last. Enter into that bite like it’s a conversation.
Food trends come and they go. Timeless ingredients come and go, too — just look at how milk has changed and my point is made. Cow’s milk is no longer the only milk at the store. Malign the oat milk as you (or I) might, but there’s also goat milk in a lot of dairy cases proving my point. Trends go by quickly and evolutions in diet tend to occur more slowly, but no matter what the case, food itself does remain.
Just like our battle to get food has transformed from hunting and gathering, to farms and gardens, then to big suburban markets and online food delivery services that provide everything you need to cook your meal, food is never static in our lives. Food and our relationship to it can’t help but evolve. Of course, if it is evolving into a tasteless affair, then it is a tragedy. Worse yet, if the food you eat is making you sick or heavy while leaving you hungry or tired, then that’s a nightmare. Breathe, we will get through this.
Taste is a delicate thing. Get used to full fat cow’s milk and you’ll want nothing else. Get fed on oat milk and that will be your understanding, your taste of milk. Understanding comes through experience. In fact, understanding is a series of experiences all put together. This holiday season things are moving quickly. I’m still setting up a method for recording these posts into audio content while buying gifts for the little ones on my list. I’m sure you have a million things to do, too. ‘Tis the season to feel the end of the year rush. ‘Tis the season to think of bright winter lights, from Chanukah to Solstice, to Christmas. ‘Tis the season to make, or find and definitely taste some of your favorite food. ‘Tis the season to experience life.
While you do what you need to do this holiday season, I’ve got a few links I wanted to share with you. They have no real theme except maybe one — and that is exploration. It’s time to explore the old and the new. It’s time to bite into and savor the hope that comes with the end of one year and the beginning of another. You might be young or you might be old — but the year ahead holds promises that never fade. To find them all you have to do is explore. If your private jet is being repaired, fly with me via the links.
Somewhere in 2024 there will be a new thing to try. There might even be a reason to visit Paris, and try their French version of America’s favorite doughnut, the Krispy Kreme. There might be a reason to watch the old Sophia Loren movie, Mortadella, since it seems that the deli meat is making a huge and trendy comeback. You can read about a sandwich in Hoboken, NJ that’s only available two days a week. Enjoy this woman’s viral Chick-Fil-A holiday centerpiece (she lost me at kale and styrofoam, but OK). And be the first on your block to get the scoop on McDonald’s new chain of restaurants, CosMC. Some of my food links are about quality and some are about — crap, but I’ll leave it to you to decide which is which.
Soon, Dear Kneaders (how’s that for a name?) I’ll tell you all about my lovely trip to New York City with my mother and our stop at a little spot with wine and sandwiches that might have changed our lives. I might even mention the crazy finale to our trip, which includes mayhem on New Jersey Transit and a delicious smelling Apotheke candle gifted to us by a drunk neurologist. So, go, go have some good food, and make some memories. You can add a dash of your own mayhem or wait for me to report back on mine.
This season is like all the best things — fleeting.
Love, Mariette
Merry Holidays! Thank you for all the mindful thoughts on food. And all the links!!
xoxox