Sustenance vs. Pleasure
February 22, 2008
While having dinner with a work colleague this week, he mentioned that he’s just not into “eating as an event” and that he just eats to sustain himself. As we perused the menu and talked about foods we like and dislike, he gave me strange looks as I talked about some of my favorite foods. Frankly, I think he was annoyed with me for dragging him out to a sit-down restaurant rather than a quick bite before getting on the road home.
I have to admit, it made me think, “am I obsessed with food and cooking?” and if so, how exactly did I get that way?
I have some quirks. I’m not embarrassed to admit that my favorite television shows are Almanac and Lawrence Welk. (For those not tracking, Almanac is a Twin Cities Public Television public affairs show that airs at 9 p.m. every Friday on Pioneer Public TV. And while I love Friday night guests for cocktails and munchies, I would like you out the door before 9 p.m. unless you’ll allow me to steal away for an hour while I get my fix.)
And what’s not to love about Lawrence Welk? If you can get past the outfits, it’s a relaxing way to end the weekend, as it airs on PBS on Sunday nights. And the performers are incredibly talented. I’ve never heard an off-note from the singers, dancers or other musicians. It’s a hell of lot better than cringing through American Idol.
I suppose I developed my affection for the cheesy singing and dancing from the evenings spent with my grandparents who religiously watched the feel-good performances of Norma Zimmer (the champagne lady), Joe Feeney and of course, Minnesota’s very own Myron Floren.
My sister and I spent many a weekend with both sets of grandparents, experiencing the lifestyle of a different generation, playing with the funny lipsticks and soaps and perfumes that our grandmas had lined up in their bathrooms, and trying out 7-UP in champagne glasses while twirling to the Lennon Sisters in our special silky pajamas that we kept at their homes.
And the other great part of weekends at the grandparents was all the decadent food we got to eat. My Grandpa Irvin made the most fabulous ice cream sundaes in banana split dishes he saved from the Dairy Queen. On a scoop or two of vanilla, we’d pile on the chocolate sauce, caramel, butterscotch, mini-marshmallows, m&m’s, chocolate chips, red hots, and whatever else we could dig out of the cupboard in their kitchen.
To this day, my Grandma Joyce makes really wonderful homemade buns that melt in your mouth. I also religiously hoard her chokecherry jelly.
So as I think about why food is so important to me and why I like to experiment with different cuisines and seasonal ingredients, I look back to people and events that somehow shaped my likes and dislikes of food, television shows and numerous other things that sustain me. And I have to say, my colleague doesn’t know what he’s missing. I know I’ll never talk him into eating sushi, but maybe I’ll send him some Lawrence Welk videos.
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