Saturday, February 02, 2013

Consider the Fork



















Bee Wilson's Consider the Fork:  A History of How We Cook and Eat  (Basic Books, 2012).

Here you get to enjoy a romp through our evolving ways of eating as developed by human beings through time, with chapters whose main headings go like this, albeit in caps in the original:

Pots and Pans
Knife
Fire
Measure
Grind
Eat
Ice
Kitchen

Besides "Eat," what does the modern person tend to do when it comes to food?

Judging from "supermarkets" and "grocery stores" and "convenience stores," a lot of prepackaged meals must be "carted" from store, mostly by "automobile," to "microwave oven," possibly via the "ice box" or "refrigerator/freezer." And then eaten.

Let's not forget "fast food" delivered from a small window in a "drive-through."

From the Perspective of the Eating Past, the Eating Future is Now.  But Our Eating Now Shall Become the Eating Past Soon Enough.

Without electricity and petrol/gasoline from a "service station," we'd be doing something a little different from typically "advanced" 2013 behavior. Hunting and gathering, perhaps. Storing for the winter down in the cellar, in the ice house, foods salted, pickled, maybe jarred or canned. Beef jerky for the long haul. Or, maybe we'd just go through long periods of half-starving. 

As far as the longterm of global eating throughout much of human history, chopsticks are still very practical. I'm pretty deft at using them, but I remember a Thai place in West Philadelphia that had ornate gilded ware, or so it appeared to be, more like "silverware" than anything else. Then there's the food pusher thing that looks like an upside down version of a table scraper. 

Beyond still eating like soldiers out in the field or astronauts out in space using storage techniques from decades ago, what else are we doing nowadays when it comes to food?

Today's Rune: Flow.

3 comments:

Adorably Dead said...

Sounds awesome and interesting. Already added to the Amazon wishlist. :p

jodi said...

Erik, as much as I love to eat, I often bemoan the craziness of going to Kroger, loading the car, driving home and unloading the stuff, putting groceries away, cooking the food, cleaning up after cooking, eating and then having to work out because of the food! So much effort for a basic human need. I'd much rather go out to eat!

jodi said...

Erik, I often bemoan the futility of going to Kroger, shopping for and buying food, hauling it home and putting it away, cooking and cleaning up the mess, and finally working out to get off the extra weight. Too much time spent on it for me. Would rather dine out!