I have been reading the book Slow Food Revolution, which is about the Slow Food movement www.slowfood.com. The movement celebrates culture, quality food and conviviality. This got me thinking about our group of friends and its genesis. While I know that ESF brought us all together and presented the opportunity for us to meet, I also believe those hours (this isn't a typo, the s is supposed to be there) long dinners in Sadler and Brewster Boland (we made it down their a few times to eat with Chris) proved to be important in establishing the bonds that we still value highly today. While the food (at least in my opinion) was never very good, the setting of eating provided the social context for us to laugh, cry, debate, console, and grow. Who can forget the antics of Joe, who I believe caused more than a few of us to wonder if we would choke to death as we laughed with him? While these dinners did not happen as often when we moved out of the dorms, we all got together for food social events when we could (St. Patrick's Day and other holidays, birthdays, Grandma Noetscher's, etc.) Out tastes got more sophisticated than Sbarro's pizza night but the social essence remained the same.
I feel strongly that this is why we each value quality time together spent around preparing and eating food. This has grown into our hobbies, whether it be beer brewing (I started with Chris at Planet 504), bee keeping, wine making, or the gourmet cooking each of us tries in the backcountry and around dinner tables. When we get together, it generally involves eating well prepared and delicious meals. (I am craving some gnocchi right now just thinking about it). We eat, drink, socialize all around the table and the kitchen, something that is near to us perhaps dating back to the ESF/SU dining hall experiences.
I guess maybe what I am seeing is that we are our own 'convivia' which is a very good thing.
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An excellent post. Each meal is a memory. Not all of them were good, i.e. pasta surprise. In fact all the meals Kevin and I made that first year at Lancaster, even the corned beef and cabbage, were not very good. Neither were the dining hall meals.
ReplyDeleteSome of them have never been equaled. Steve's sauce, and grilling. Some of the wines I had at JoAnna and Bill's upstairs apartment. Apple picking weekends. St Patty's in Albany and the 4 hour lamb stew. Every single New Year's. Jon's stout beer.
Man, I'm hungry now. When do we get together again my friends? I've got 6 maple trees tapped...
Soon, I hope. I am out of maple syrup and almost out of honey. Ok, so I know that's what grocery stores are for but its not quite the same.
ReplyDeleteSix maple trees!!! How exciting! I hope the weather is cooperating and the sap is flowing.
ReplyDeleteJon - you made me realize this is probably why I really like the kind of eating that involves sharing, such as fondue at the Melting Pot, or communal platters at Ethiopian restaurants. Mmmm. Or tapas.
And I am ALWAYS craving Steve's gnocchi. For our holiday lunch at work we went to a rather hoity toity DC restaurant where everyone was wearing suits and they only served imported bottled water. I got their gnocchi expecting great things and was very, very disappointing. Not 10% as yummy as Steve's.
I was reading a different book about Slow Food and living, In Praise of Slowness, and the author stated that the word "companion" comes from the Latin "with bread", something I found interesting.
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