[Culturechat] Food, etc

[Brian Taussig-Lux]

Ann, you reminded me of a time when we took some Swiss friends Vincent and 
Ricci to the Adirondacks.

The drive time to our destination on a lake from Media is over seven 
hours.  We packed sandwiches to eat in the car on the way up.  We knew that 
this violated their European sensibilities and joked a bit about this with 
our guests on the way north.  They had a great time with us in the 
mountains and appreciated the beauty of the area and the hearty food.

On our trip home we got started after lunch.  The plan was to wait until we 
got home for a late dinner and snack on crackers and fruit in the 
car.  This was too much for our friend Vincent.  He insisted that we stop 
for dinner even though it would add over an hour to our already long 
trip.  Our only option was a truck stop.  We warned him that the food might 
not be very tasty, but he insisted.  Sure enough, we had heavy, greasy, 
tasteless food for dinner with soda, not wine.

I think Vincent had a revelation at that point about American culture.  It 
may also be one more reason that it is hard to maintain that European 
attitude toward civilized eating here in the U.S.

At 11:17 AM 11/1/01 -0500, Ann Cricchi wrote:
>What I find intriguing about the food issue isn't so much whether the
>French, Italian, or Germans do it best but how differently the European
>attitude toward food seems to be from ours.  Many of us are of "European"
>descent yet somehow the American experience seems to have changed our
>ancestors' original sense of priority for enjoying meals.
>
>We have just returned from a month in Italy where your lunch or dinner table
>is yours for the duration.  I rarely feel that our restaurant folks feel
>that way.  In Italy, even in tourist-driven Venice, people stop for several
>hours in the middle of the day to enjoy their afternoon meal.  Truckdrivers,
>families and the men in suits all seem to consider an hour and a half/two
>hour lunch part of the Mon-Fri routine and, of course, on weekends, all the
>stops are out and three hours can be easily consumed around the table along
>with lots of fantastic food and drink.
>
>How about the numerous coffee bars, cafes, etc. where you are never hassled
>for sitting with a single cup or glass of something and a newspaper watching
>the world go by.  Doing so seems to be embedded in the culture. Why don't we
>have a similar attitude?  What is there about the European attitude that
>manages to minimize the impact of today's busy world on day to day living?
>Or maybe I don't really want to discover "why" but "how to maintain" that
>wonderful European feeling after I return home.  Each time I make a vow to
>do so, even if it's just to sit down and drink that afternoon cup of tea
>more slowly.  But the European aura never stays with me and soon I'm back to
>bad habits.  Are some of you more successful than I am at integrating the
>European attitude toward the importance of enjoying food/drink in a relaxed
>way into your daily American lives?
>
>Ann Cricchi
>
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Brian Taussig-Lux
Idyll, Ltd.

(888) 868-6871 x33