Food for Thought

This week my husband and I have been running in different directions in the evenings. He was on travel for work two nights, then went out with the guys one night; I took this as an opportunity to have dinner with some of my girlfriends.

On Monday, Stacy and I made sausage, mushroom, & green pepper calzones at her house using pre-made refrigerated pizza dough and jarred marinara/pizza sauce – quick, easy, & delicious. On Tuesday, my cousin Heidi and I went to Chick-Fil-A with her three kids. And on Wednesday, I went out to dinner at Amici's Pizza Café in downtown Suffolk with Meredith & Kim.

I'm not sure I'd consider any of these great culinary experiences (especially Chick-Fil-A), but I thoroughly enjoyed them nonetheless. There's something about sitting down, sipping a glass of wine (or at Chick-Fil-A, a peach milkshake), and sharing stories with friends over a meal that really relaxes and refreshes me. It was, after all, a meal with good friends that prompted me to start this blog.

Last night, I started reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, and in the opening pages I read a passage that struck me as the perfect explanation of why dining with friends is so invigorating and enjoyable for me.

Pollan writes, "We forget that, historically, people have eaten for a great many reasons other than biological necessity. Food is also about pleasure, about community, about family and spirituality, about our relationship to the natural world, and about expressing our identity. As long as humans have been taking meals together, eating has been as much about culture as it has been about biology."

Eating isn't just about getting nutrients; it's about building relationships.

Pollan goes on to discuss how food scientists and marketers have replaced culture (aka, our moms) as the go-to source for information about cooking and healthy eating for most Americans – an interesting premise, and one that I don't necessarily disagree with.

In future posts: book reviews of In Defense of Food and its prequel The Omnivore's Dilemma!