The Icing

At dinner the other night, Toni suggested that one of my Norway presentations could focus on food. The idea intrigues me. Think about the U.S. obsession with food . . . so many possibilities to consider American culture in the light of our food "practices." What is the meaning of the American mania for fast (and fatty) food? How "convenient" are pre-packaged and prepared foods? Does the slow food movement portend change in American identity?

Today, I picked up the March issue of College English, an issue which focuses on food writing, and read the first essay by Lynn Bloom. Though mostly descriptive, she works to identify characteristics of food writing. For example, "food writing emphasizes its human contexts." I've thought a lot about that in connection with my food blog, which is almost always a story about the people with whom I eat. I enjoy food most when I eat with others, when the dining is accompanied by good stories and laughter. For me, food is about connection, and my food blog allows me to make new connections by sharing what I eat with others.

Susan Leonardi, a critic whose 1989 essay "Recipes for Reading," began contemporary scholarly engagement with food writing, quotes anthropologist Amy Schulman in her brief rumination on the significance of teaching food writing: "Virtually nothing else we do in our daily lives speaks so loudly of our sense of art, aesthetics, creativity, symbolism, community, social propriety, and celebration as do our food habits and eating behavior." I don't even want to think about what my personal food practices mean (I'll defer that thinking for later). However, if you would, comment or email me about what you think American food practices mean in terms of culture and identity.