Friday, January 4, 2008

The Evolution of FOoD

To the early hunter and gatherers food was a means of survival. No need to worry about marinating, getting the best cut or even cooking the meat. Nope. You catch your meat and you eat it. Ahh. The simplicity of it all. Now we're surrounded by complicated cooking techniques that can be more dangerous than your daily barefooted hunt. I'm sure you've heard of houses being burned down due to the infamous fry daddy.

Today food is very accesible, maybe too accesible to us Americans. We don't hunt, unless you include driving to your local chinese take out. If you haven't already figured it out, food is not just for survival these days. It's much more than that. Here's why:

  1. We use food to instigate social gatherings. Extended families and long lost friends come together over large feast. Eating is a joyous event. Why shouldn't it be? It's fullfilling one of our most primal urges.

  2. We use food as entertainment. The flying knives in hibachi steak houses don't make the food taste better. But it sure is cool! And let's not get started on how a whole channel is dedicated to food. Food has never been so popular.

  3. We use food to create a social heirarchy. I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. Eating souffles and dishes with truffle shavings are meant for the upperclass.

**Don't fret! You too can be a savvy diner. You don't have to eat like Andrew Zimmerman or Anthony Bourdain to be hip. You can go out for Indian or Viet. I hear that Vietnamese cuisine is totally IN. I picked it up in some magazine while browsing the supermarket. It's o.k if it doesn't have a slab of cheese over it. It can still taste just as good.

2 comments:

Dan said...

I like your blog. Nice page design, too. Does pho always have beef in it?

Dan said...

Question: Where'd the green background on your page go? Did you intentionally opt for white? It still looks good, but... I kinda liked the unappetizing yet strangely inviting green background.