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A little food philosophy for Thanksgiving
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OK, so this is not actually Thanksgiving dinner, but it is a dinner at my parents' house, where we'll be dining this Thursday. Pictured (from left, clockwise): my back/side, my mom, Cooper, my brother Tom and his fiance Cail, my sister Erin's back. Photo by Dick Waskom (my dad).
In his painfully awesome book, It Must've Been Something I Ate, Jeffrey Steingarten (aka "the food writer of whom I am the most jealous")writes about Thanksgiving, saying,
In the United States, we have the grandest plat convivial of them all, the holiday turkey, which we share with 245 million other Americans, including themembers of the armed forces, for whom the government spares no expense in jetting turkeys about the globe. There is an uncanny and intoxicating sense of oneness in enjoying a dish with a quarter billion of your fellows. No fussy eating allowed, no irrational preferences or aversions, no cultish diet fads or hypochondria. Just feasting and drinking together, essential and fundamental nourishment, plus lots of trimmings.
In my "real work" life, I spend my days analyzing research, often trying to understand the unspoken traditions and connections that make a culture what it is (then, of course, I try to figure out how to sell into that culture, but I digress.) When I read Steingarten's comments on Thanksgiving, they hit home for me. Because cooking for me really isn't just a personally gratifying experience, it's also one that connects me to all other people - literally to the entire world.
And that is something I'll be thinking about this Thanksgiving.
Good luck with the last minute prep and cooking, everyone, and have a great Thanksgiving!
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