5 May
Posted By Sika on May 16, 2008
It’s been a while. It’s not that I have nothing to say, it’s just that whenever I have something to say, well, basically I can’t be fussed (the Scots have been contaminating my language) to actually write any of it down. Well, and also some of it is inappropriate for day shift. And then I don’t have internet, really, right now because of lots of reasons. I probably will have it regularly again in about 3 weeks.
Some of us were talking about produce. Nikki mentioned that she’s going to miss how we buy veg here and we started discussing how much better it all tastes here, and how we had to get over looking for perfect fruit and veg when we got here. Lots of ugly tomatoes taste 100 times more tomato-y than the most perfectly red, perfectly round, perfectly unmarred tomatoes from back home. I think it’s related to what I was talking about ages ago (in my last post. Really, I am quite sorry about that) about how societal norms are transmitted through the ether (which is not spelled aether). I think it was in Fast Food Nation where I learned that red delicious apples, those staples of Washington agriculture, were developed not for their taste—a good thing considering they taste awful—but for color, storageability, and a pleasing shape. In other words, we, as Americans, are trained that superficiality indicates something about the worth of an object, even when it comes to food.
At least the Japanese, in their quest to make beautiful food, tend toward quality ingredients where taste is as much a part of the presentation as the appearance, and where the taste is about the main ingredients. Of course we have food like that too, but our quick food, our convenience eating, tends to things that are aesthetically and saltically pleasing at the expense of flavor and sheer awesomeness of the food.
The other night I made an excellent minestrone soup with some onion, garlic, wobbly carrots, slightly frightening tomatoes, semi-spotted green beans, potatoes that would never see the inside of a McDonald’s fryer, and a selection of the contents from Pearl’s Spice Box. And I just don’t think short of going to a farmer’s market I could have made a soup so good from so little. While I love farmer’s markets and all they’re doing to make themselves more accessible, I do wish that the standards of taste, variety, and a casual unconcern for the appearance of things could be found in every Safeway and QFC. Well, and in nearly every other aspect of life as well.
Oh, just to make life more complicated, David and I were discussing aesthetics and he said, “But of course you want things to be attractive. Like your food, you want it to be appetizing.” (Only not in those exact words and in a Scottish accent, but not in a Nac Mac Feegle-y way) And of course he’s right. But then, it’s the parts that are different that are attractive and the key is learning when and how and why appearance is important and when and how and why it’s not. Because of course you can judge a book by its cover. And most of the time you’ll be right. You’ll just miss out on a lot along the way.
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