Today's thoughts on food and eating

I like to think about food, read about food, plan menus, shop for food and make food. Oh yeah, I like to eat it too! I was grocery shopping today, and as always happens when I am at a grocery store, I like to see what is going in other shoppers carts. Sometimes it makes me sad, other times I am happy to spot a cart full of yummy looking food that obviously has a plan in someone’s kitchen. I like to eavesdrop on conversations too. One thing utterly unrelated to food that has become apparent to me from this activity is that the kids in a lot of families seem to be the ones dictating what goes in the cart, sometimes to the point of bullying their parents to get a particular item they want. This is where I get sad. I see carts FULL of junk food and kids whining about getting something they want, and the obvious signs of it’s effect walking alongside. One family had a cart just for pop. There must have been almost two dozen cases of pop in that cart, and one child was crying because he didn’t like any of the varieties. How could that be? When did parents forego their authority and give in to the incessant demands of their kids? Who is in charge here anyway? Oy vey!

The food industry in this country today is full of an amazing number of choices, more so than at any time in our nations history. More and more people are becoming aware of the effect that occurs in their bodies when they eat the right kinds of foods. And sadly, we are seeing in devastating ways what can happen when too much goes in, especially of the wrong types of food. There is a higher demand for gourmet food and these types of stores have popped up in record numbers. Top notch restaurants are everywhere, serving unique and delicious menu items to throngs of people who are learning to understand and appreciate well made, quality foods. Cooking classes abound, teaching people how to create wonderful food items at home, and stores are available where you can go in and put together a month’s worth of meals for your freezer all for one afternoon of time.

I don’t have cable and I don’t watch the Food Network too much. When I have seen it, I have not been too impressed, but what it has done that I can commend is that it has made people much more aware of what they are putting in their mouths. I think it’s wonderful that people are demanding better food to eat, more nutritiously sound meals and more knowledge about making really good food at home. Never has cooking, and cooking well, been so chic, so in demand and so important. There is a whole new era that we are in where food has become more life-affirming than ever before, and the sharing of food and drink, while always an important social ritual, has never been more appreciated. In the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota, we have seen a phenomenal growth in wonderful, chef-driven restaurants; where menus are beautiful handprints of the mind and heart behind the stove. I love how it has raised up a whole class of people who are demanding that their food be different, be something outside the box and maybe even off the radar. Where we once used to think that we knew what a good cut of beef tasted like, now we have restaurants where top-quality meats are cooked to mind numbing perfection while dressed with minimal fuss or extras so the pristine taste of the meat can bedevil your tongue. In a world where a salad used to be iceberg lettuce and thick dressing, now we have tiny little field greens dressed in the most spartan of vinaigrettes, and topped with an army of divine edibles. And grains have come front and center, some from far back in ancestral times and a culture across the world. It’s no longer just rice and potatoes. Vegetables in every color of the rainbow are now common and expected, and unique and exotic fruits line supermarket shelves right next to the basic apples and oranges. As different cultures live in tandem with one another, we take on aspects of one another’s cooking methods, individual ingredients and meal time rituals, turning one dish after another out that simply explode with amazing flavors and textures. It’s a wonderful time to be in food heaven.