There's a dark side to the gastronomy dining sector, and it's the implication and presentation that good food is a luxury item.
I have a whole essay in mind about how home cooking is the foundation of all lifestyle decisions and mentality, but it's low priority against other stuff I want to work on right now. The upshot is that the only thing you lose by cooking is a little bit of time and convenience, and slightly higher need to clean, but everything else you gain is fundamental to good life, good health, good finances. If you're literally not able to make that simple trade off, there's really nothing anyone can do to make you happy.
That sounds like the perfect complimentary piece to this and it sounds like we see it exactly the same way. It’s all about holding yourself to a certain standard because you see yourself as someone who is worth caring about, who deserves to be happy and have good things. Strange how people either don’t see things that way or have a distorted hall of mirror version of this where what they deserve is periodic bought of overindulgence and excess which are actually more damaging than truly pleasurable.
I look forward to reading what you come up with, mate.
I love how you can unravel a meal into such an insightful essay on culture - if all philosophers or statesmen could have such dragonfly eyes. This is a banger! I learned that word from Craig, and I figure it works here since before I understood it as a compliment, I thought it was just a sausage.
Kind of you to say. And yes, the banger/banger compliment works perfectly. I guess a banger was a rave song with a big beat drop which we’ve now taken to mean any essay or whatever that ‘slaps’, as the kids say. I think I might be getting old. Hahaha.
“ It's just sad ultimately. I’m all for bottom-up culture and the working man and having unpretentious tastes and a sense of humility, all can be fine and noble attributes. But what I don’t understand is an attitude of ‘that’ll do’. ”
Agreed on this fully. Imo, the perfect blend between unpretentious and fine dining tastes is simple food that’s executed with just a little more effort (fried chicken that’s brined or using a thermometer to get a tritip roast to a proper medium rare)
Exactly AJ. I’m not saying we have to all cook fussy Michelin standard dishes and mess with blow torches and molecular gastronomy, but like you say if you’re gonna cook a burger, then really *cook a burger*
There’s a huge satisfaction that comes from taking pride in your cooking and going that extra mile with presentation. The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
"Where you find great food you will find people who know who they are and where they are. Where you find crap food you will find people who are alienated from their own past and environment, only to be blown around by the day-to-day forces of whim, appetite, novelty, and advertising."
Here are two sentences that encapsulate a point that few people, it seems, understand. Nicely done—although this essay is specific to a culture and a country and even a time period, I think it's much more universal, and people from quite distant places will relate.
Late to reply but have to comment that like Charles, I thought this paragraph was so relentlessly true. Damn, it hit to the marrow. Quick illustration that shows this paragraph's worldwide coverage: Up until the mid 1990's, it was sacrilege to show up at a rural Southeastern US annual church homecoming lunch/dinner with something in a box or fast food. Even if basic white bread triangle pimento cheese sandwiches, you had the pride to take the time to prepare. You had enough community roots to care enough to craft something, even a small something. I started noting in the mid 1990s though, enough grandmas had died, enough recipes lost, and life had become harried enough, to sadly cross the threshold and break this unwritten rule. The meal is now ephemeral. It is tables full of conformity and void of memories. The event is as disposable as those infernal fast food boxes. Thanks for the cross Atlantic rallying cry TJB.
Sad to hear. In some ways it feels like we need to (re)build from the ground up, starting with such supposedly small things as food. Like you say, it’s all about having pride and standards. The problem is though how do you encourage people who are now thoroughly used to doing the bare minimum to put more effort into everyday actions when the promised rewards are all internal and intangible?
I guess we simply have to model a better way until that itself becomes attractive and gains traction. Thanks for the great reply, Worth.
Cheers Charles. Hitting the universal via being very specific is the goal. A hard target to land on- and you yourself can never be the judge- but it’s extremely satisfying when you are told you’ve hit it.
Based on my own experience, three of the best meals I've had were from pubs or stands from North Yorkshire:
- Best cheeseburger (cheese in particular was a wonderful cheddar)
- Best beef stroganoff (the sauce was rich, the beef nicely tender)
- Best battered fish with mushy peas (though that might have been East Yorkshire, tbh)
On the other hand, one of worst jam filled doughnuts I've ever had was on the train between Manchester and York. Such a waste of sugar and dough and felt like it'd been trapped in plastic for too long.
I can believe it on both counts, Mark. And train food, is a sub topic all to its self but I thought the people can only tolerate so much cuisine based complaining in one go!
Thanks! I’m glad that it holds up. It was a weird one because Jim (who’s amazing) has a whole team and was super prepared as a result. He’d clearly gone back and read *everything* I’d ever written and was able to ask amazing questions regard something I’d put out like a year before. Put me a bit on the spot, haha.
But it was a fantastic experience. Would like to do Round 2 at some point, maybe once the STSC has put out some more work and established itself a little more.
Learned, heartfelt, and compelling. And I learned something about baked beans and WWII.
There's a dark side to the gastronomy dining sector, and it's the implication and presentation that good food is a luxury item.
I have a whole essay in mind about how home cooking is the foundation of all lifestyle decisions and mentality, but it's low priority against other stuff I want to work on right now. The upshot is that the only thing you lose by cooking is a little bit of time and convenience, and slightly higher need to clean, but everything else you gain is fundamental to good life, good health, good finances. If you're literally not able to make that simple trade off, there's really nothing anyone can do to make you happy.
That sounds like the perfect complimentary piece to this and it sounds like we see it exactly the same way. It’s all about holding yourself to a certain standard because you see yourself as someone who is worth caring about, who deserves to be happy and have good things. Strange how people either don’t see things that way or have a distorted hall of mirror version of this where what they deserve is periodic bought of overindulgence and excess which are actually more damaging than truly pleasurable.
I look forward to reading what you come up with, mate.
I love how you can unravel a meal into such an insightful essay on culture - if all philosophers or statesmen could have such dragonfly eyes. This is a banger! I learned that word from Craig, and I figure it works here since before I understood it as a compliment, I thought it was just a sausage.
Kind of you to say. And yes, the banger/banger compliment works perfectly. I guess a banger was a rave song with a big beat drop which we’ve now taken to mean any essay or whatever that ‘slaps’, as the kids say. I think I might be getting old. Hahaha.
I had no clue! I didn't even know tho "slaps" ha. Thanks!
Not sure I do either, just trying to appeal to the youth demographic, you know?
“ It's just sad ultimately. I’m all for bottom-up culture and the working man and having unpretentious tastes and a sense of humility, all can be fine and noble attributes. But what I don’t understand is an attitude of ‘that’ll do’. ”
Agreed on this fully. Imo, the perfect blend between unpretentious and fine dining tastes is simple food that’s executed with just a little more effort (fried chicken that’s brined or using a thermometer to get a tritip roast to a proper medium rare)
Exactly AJ. I’m not saying we have to all cook fussy Michelin standard dishes and mess with blow torches and molecular gastronomy, but like you say if you’re gonna cook a burger, then really *cook a burger*
There’s a huge satisfaction that comes from taking pride in your cooking and going that extra mile with presentation. The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
"Where you find great food you will find people who know who they are and where they are. Where you find crap food you will find people who are alienated from their own past and environment, only to be blown around by the day-to-day forces of whim, appetite, novelty, and advertising."
Here are two sentences that encapsulate a point that few people, it seems, understand. Nicely done—although this essay is specific to a culture and a country and even a time period, I think it's much more universal, and people from quite distant places will relate.
Late to reply but have to comment that like Charles, I thought this paragraph was so relentlessly true. Damn, it hit to the marrow. Quick illustration that shows this paragraph's worldwide coverage: Up until the mid 1990's, it was sacrilege to show up at a rural Southeastern US annual church homecoming lunch/dinner with something in a box or fast food. Even if basic white bread triangle pimento cheese sandwiches, you had the pride to take the time to prepare. You had enough community roots to care enough to craft something, even a small something. I started noting in the mid 1990s though, enough grandmas had died, enough recipes lost, and life had become harried enough, to sadly cross the threshold and break this unwritten rule. The meal is now ephemeral. It is tables full of conformity and void of memories. The event is as disposable as those infernal fast food boxes. Thanks for the cross Atlantic rallying cry TJB.
Sad to hear. In some ways it feels like we need to (re)build from the ground up, starting with such supposedly small things as food. Like you say, it’s all about having pride and standards. The problem is though how do you encourage people who are now thoroughly used to doing the bare minimum to put more effort into everyday actions when the promised rewards are all internal and intangible?
I guess we simply have to model a better way until that itself becomes attractive and gains traction. Thanks for the great reply, Worth.
Cheers Charles. Hitting the universal via being very specific is the goal. A hard target to land on- and you yourself can never be the judge- but it’s extremely satisfying when you are told you’ve hit it.
Based on my own experience, three of the best meals I've had were from pubs or stands from North Yorkshire:
- Best cheeseburger (cheese in particular was a wonderful cheddar)
- Best beef stroganoff (the sauce was rich, the beef nicely tender)
- Best battered fish with mushy peas (though that might have been East Yorkshire, tbh)
On the other hand, one of worst jam filled doughnuts I've ever had was on the train between Manchester and York. Such a waste of sugar and dough and felt like it'd been trapped in plastic for too long.
I can believe it on both counts, Mark. And train food, is a sub topic all to its self but I thought the people can only tolerate so much cuisine based complaining in one go!
Thanks for stopping by, mate.
BTW, great Infinite Loops interview!
Thanks! I’m glad that it holds up. It was a weird one because Jim (who’s amazing) has a whole team and was super prepared as a result. He’d clearly gone back and read *everything* I’d ever written and was able to ask amazing questions regard something I’d put out like a year before. Put me a bit on the spot, haha.
But it was a fantastic experience. Would like to do Round 2 at some point, maybe once the STSC has put out some more work and established itself a little more.