Why is it that food tastes so much better when it's shared?

I just ate a fabulous lunch, and it was delicious and very satisfying, but I think it would have tastesd a lot better if I had been sharing it with someone. I had a quesadilla with chunks of turkey sausage and lots of melted cheese, the tortilla was nice and crisp with little bits of crisp cheese stuck to the edges just like I like it. I also ate some figs and brie, and downed a glass of honey ginger peach iced tea. My tummy is really happy, yet I missed not having a bunch of other people there. You see, food is to be shared, and the more to share it with the better. But why is is that food always tastes better when shared, and is just Ok when you eat it alone?

I am part of a large, loving and wonderful family. There were over 1oo people in attendance when Mike and I got married, and only about 10 of them were friends. Our families are really great, and the best thing about them is their shared love of food. Outsiders who happen to attend a family gathering are often aghast at the amount of food involved, or maybe that's just a reaction to what happens when someone says "Time to eat!!" Plates and cups are filled and seats are taken, and the talking and eating commence. No matter what is on the menu from a simple pork roast, or grilled fish, chicken, sausages or even a plain hamburger (well, hamburgers are never plain in our family- too many good cooks!) through any number and variety of side dishes, salads, vegetables, fruits, spreads, dips and all the way into dessert, it all tastes so delicious. It could be the simplest of recipes, a tossed green salad with some extra chopped veggies and a bottled dressing takes on a whole new meaning when you're seated around the table with a dozen people you adore. You may be talking so much you don't always notice what's being served until the first bite hits your tongue. Then the tastes flood your senses, your ears are full of good conversation and laughter, and your eyes are on family. What better combination could there be?

Our family cabin has a simple screened in porch with a huge picnic table in it for meals. During our shared weekends there, it can be really crowded with kids and parents, and meal times are a raucous and noisy affair, everyone jockeying around for plates and moving through the meal set up. The table gets crowded with little voices, big appetites and parental direction. "Make sure you take some veggies" " Watch the cup, you're spilling!" "Can someone bring out some napkins?" "Do I have to eat this??" "What's for dessert??!!" "Mommy!!! Sit by me!!!" And a meal so lovingly prepared and anticipated is dredged down to the bare bones. Where a beautifully roasted turkey breast once sat might now be just a puddle of juice and some scraps. The vegetable dish is bare, maybe a stray carrot or celery stick remains next to a decimated bowl that once held a gorgeous fruit salad. The steaming pans on the stove are scraped clean, the salad bowl has a few lone leaves in the bottom and all eyes are on the desserts sitting regally on the countertop, awaiting their own fate. Or it could be a more simple meal, one designed to empty some leftovers from the fridge before we close the place up for the week ahead. Maybe some grilled cheese, a fresh bag of the reddest cherries imagineable, or maybe a big pot of my famous homemade mac-n-cheese, the dish that makes all my nieces and nephews swoon and tell me how much they love me. It was good because it was shared with the best people in the world, the ones you can always go to when nothing else is right and who will hold out their arms to you and open up their refrigerator. It will be a sympathetic ear and a cold beer with a juicy brat from the grill, or maybe just a peanut butter sandwich and a kiss for a scraped knee, but they are always there and more than willing to fill you up with love and munchies. Our family is blessed with many, many good cooks, and oh.....if I could only make you understand how delicious the parties can be!! Sometimes it's really a chore to decide how best to approach the delightful spread so as not to over do it and end up painfully full. Even after all these years and countless parties, I still sometimes wind up regretting the last plate, with the second helping or the extra dessert. But man, oh man......was it ever worth it!!!

Food is love as love is food and food is love again and it's a big, ever-expanding circle that never ends. From the dawn of time, through the ages and over centuries and generations, family has gathered and shared the wealth at the table. What one family may have in abundance is shared with another family who has a different abundance. It's demonstrated in how people come together to help out with planting or harvest, or a butchering. Food is there when family members get sick, when there is a celebration to enjoy, or even when there is loss, sadness and grief. Whether it's a plate of cookies to welcome a new neighbor, a freezer full of meals for easing the recovery from a complicated surgery or a food blowout extravaganza, (like I had when I graduated from culinary school) nothing says "I love you and want to share this moment of life with you" like passing the plates and jockeying for room at the table. Come in, your always welcome here, and please, you can be first in line.