Tasting Thought...

Or, thoughts about taste.

What I find fascinating is the meaning of a thing like soup.

Let's say you say soup to a Frenchman- what's going to come to his mind? A vichyssoise? A consomme? Or what if you found an Italian housewife- what is soup to her? Or to a japanese business man? Or a New York teenager?

Food is an interesting component of culture- it is something that, unlike art, dance, music, or writing, is absolutely essential to life. Yet, regardless of this utilitarian purpose, food takes so much more meaning than just as a source of energy. Think of all the rituals revolving around food- prayers, sacrifices, offerings, festivals, kosher! Throughout time, food has been viewed as a sacred thing, as food is intrinsically involved in the lives of those who prepare and consume it. Food can be seen both as a force shaping culture and as a reflection of culture itself.

Food has shaped many of the strongest values present in the cultures of the world. In example, the East-asian veneration of ancestors and hierarchy originated in the amount of labor needed to tend to rice and by the sheer population that rice allowed to develope (Myers 2007). That single concept would shape the entire course of Asian history! Another example occured down in South America. The humble potato, and it's unique properties, allowed the ascension of the Incan civilization (McNeill 1999)! Food, and it's pecularities, have shaped the world as we know it.

Through food, we, living in our largely homogenous american society, can go out and get a taste of something far removed and exotic! In food, nothing is lost in translation- an American tasting some nigiri-zushi will taste much the same thing as a Japanese man! This, however, can't be said about the poems of Basho, or the poetry of I-ching. Food is its own language.

Food, for me, is a window into another culture, into another way of thought! Eating a piece of food creates a common bond between you and another culture- nothing in food needs to be explained, or clarified.

In the austere simplicity of Japanese food, you get a feeling of discipline and precision. Imagine, then, the life of a samurai, or of a Zen monk! And when you order Italian food, you get something warm and rustic, the bold flavors of the Mediterranean left unobscured. Can you see the sun-splashed villas as the children rush back home to have some pasta? You may not have worked within the smoke-stained walls of a 19th century french bakery, but you sure can taste the bread that it created! And, you probably weren't a Hawaiian greeting the first Europeans landing on your island, but you can taste the food resulting from that cultural collision! And, finally, there's the food unique to America- fast food, fusion cuisines- can't you taste some of the irreverence for tradition, the bold innovation that created our country?

Food can transport you to places you can barely imagine!
The World is Crazy!

- Mr. Schlomoe (my name rhymes with pie)

Works Cited:
- McNeill, William H. "What if Pizarro had not Found Potatoes in Peru?" The Collected What if? New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1999.
- Myers, Mr. "Southeast Asia." Arizona School for the Arts, Phoenix. Feb. 08.
- Picture taken by yomi955 and distributed under a creative commons license.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en