Leena Eats, Gourmet Communication ... Food, Travel, Gastronomy

Recently, one of the food bloggers I happen to dig wrote a long essay bashing the state of American food (mainly fast food). You can read it here. My pal AG makes some great points, most of which I agree with, some of which I would just like to play devil’s advocate to. What is the fun of an argument if you don’t consider all sides? AG starts out by explaining that in America, food is very much about competition. Some places you eat at because it shows your status in life. Some things we eat because we want to win at losing weight. One good point he made was that some places just want to brag about having the number one coffee or the best burger in America, or the highest number of customers served. Fair enough. But competitiveness in eating is by no means a new concept or a strictly Americanized one. As long as people existed who had more money than the rest, food has been directly linked to status. In France, back before restaurants were invented, if you had money, you flaunted it, and food was a great way to do it. At big events, food would be served a la francaise, which means food was already set out on the table for everyone to ooo and ahh at when they entered the room, and the more the better. There were so many dishes on the table; there was no room for drinks! This was to show off that you cared about what everyone?s eating preference was and had enough money to cater to each individual need. The food was often elaborate and wasteful, entire structures built out of pastry and sugar that most people merely looked at! Some royalty used to invite the poor to these events so they could sit there and admired the food the rich were going to eat! Now how is that any less evil than people who are willing to pay upwards of $200 for a meal by a famous chef? AG goes on to criticize Rachael Ray and her cheerleading of cooking the half ass way, with plenty of processed ingredients. Now, you will not find a bigger anti-fan of Rachael Ray than me. Girl is way too perky and needs to watch herself perform a little more often, because some of her hand gestures make her look like an epileptic midget. I am sure she is a great gal to get a beer with, but she?s just not my cup of tea. And I don’t dig how she advocates short cuts when in most cases, cooking the right way doesn’t require that much more effort. HOWEVER, as a friend/fellow blogger/mom once pointed out to me, there are people in America who are intimidated by cooking and frankly just don’t have the time. This particular friend has two small boys under the age of 3, and for a while, her husband was stationed in Iraq. Could you really blame her for appreciating the fact that Rachael taught her how to make a quick and yummy meal using canned veggies in between chasing after her two year old and while trying to breast feed her baby and let the dog out to pee AND keep her house clean and functioning? I saw it in action, folks, and trust me, it is probably one of the hardest and worst paid jobs in the world. The fact that so many people watch Rachael Ray and buy her cookbooks proves that there is a need for her in some parts of America. And you know what? Some of these fans may get so interested in cooking; they might actually spend time learning how to do it the correct way from scratch, with no processed foods. Again folks, just trying to play Devil?s advocate here. And then there is the complaint AG made about people choosing fast food over home cooked. As much as we would like to believe that most people are just making stupid choices about what they want to eat, I believe it goes deeper than that. There is a reason why so many fast food restaurants are built in poor neighborhoods and people chose to eat it… its affordable and its quick, its right in front of them. And you better believe that big business is right there, finding more places for these death traps, I mean, food chains, in neighborhoods they know they will get the most business from. It?s a shame and sad to witness, but difficult to combat. If you take down half of the fast food restaurants in a poor neighborhood (say, in Joliet, IL) and put up a few farmers markets with fresh produce sitting there right in front of people, things might start to change a little. But we are a long way from that. AG is right… cooking should not be a race. And for all those people who have time and can afford to go out and make a quick meal instead of swinging by the local Burger King for a Whopper but don’t, well shame on them. They are a bunch of jackasses who are going to scratch their heads and wonder where the hell their pot belly came from, or why they seem to get sick more often, or why they get winded when they walk up a flight of stairs. AG made a great point by saying we prefer private meals in front of the television over meals with friends that are cooked by us. It?s sad, really. Whatever happened to sitting around the table talking with friends and family about current events or which friend is mad at the other? My partner and I often sit down to a home-cooked meal together?in front of the television. It is a horrible habit we are slowly trying to break, but it’s hard, it is almost second nature to us now. But we do go out of way to invite friends over for dinner, so I feel it is a step in the right direction. AG is right?cooking for yourself is cheaper, healthier, and most of the time, it tastes a helluva lot better than dining at Wok in a Box. BUT, again devil’s advocate here, Rachel Laudan published an essay in Gastronomica, a kick ass American food and culture journal in 2002 that points out just how much we need fast food. First of all, fast food is not a new concept. We’ve had it as long as there have been people away from their homes in need of a meal. Bakers, butchers, they are the most basic form of fast food that have existed for centuries, and not only because people have always been short on time due to work and other responsibilities. Sometimes, people just can’t afford making food from scratch. In Iran, where the tandoor oven is used to bake breads that make up a huge part of their daily diet, many families cannot afford the underground oven, so they rely on bakers to make bread for them. The slow food movement, or the idea that we should use fresh, local produce and cook the old fashioned way, is all fine and dandy, but the fact is if it wasn’t for processed foods, our ancestors would have never survived. Not all vegetables or fruits were edible back in the day, and without refrigeration, meat spoiled and eggs went bad. But processing saved us from dying of hunger. Meats were salted and dried to make jerky, fruits were dried or canned to last longer, and vegetables with tough or bitter exteriors were cooked until they were soft and edible and could give us nourishment. All of that stuff equals processed foods and without it, we would not be here today. And what about street food, an early form of fast food that also helped feed our ancestors? Throw in a mascot and an electric deep fryer and you got yourself a standard modern fast food restaurant! Please don’t think after reading this that I totally want to bash on the AG’s post. It was a great essay, and he was speaking from experience. But since I am sort of studying art of food writing and have access to information like this, I thought it would be interesting to pose another side. In my mind, the fact that fast food exists and people eat it that is not so horrible. It is the fact that people are pretty much taking fast food at face value. People honestly believe that the fast food they put into their bodies is not going to harm them, otherwise, why would the food industry sell it? People who rely on fast food for every meal are just not making smart decisions and not bothering to inform themselves about how to be healthy. Too much of a good thing, no matter what it is, is never going to end well. And then there are those that know the dangers but chose to ignore them. This is why two teenage boys in Illinois got gastric bypass surgeries before they were 18… because their parents never taught them that a Big Mac every now and then is okay, but two a day 6 days a week might sort of kill you (read Eric Schlosser’ latest book if you don?t believe me). I don?t pretend to know everything, and I certainly don?t have all the answers on how to fix this mess we?ve gotten ourselves into. It almost seems impossible to fix. But maybe the point isn?t to change the way things are, but to work with them. And maybe the way we can do that is by starting to assume some responsibility on what we put into our bodies, because the government and big business sure as hell isn?t gonna do it for us. For those of us with the capabilities to read and process ideas, well, why don?t we? The information is out there, so why not look up how many calories are in that Whopper before you shove it down your throat? Sometimes it is not avoidable, but when it is, take the high road. And tell your friends about it. And your friends? friends. And the homeless person down the street who doesn?t have a computer? Fast food doesn?t have to be our enemy?after all, it helped our ancestors survive so that we could be here today. But it certainly doesn?t have to be our best friend either, the kind you talk to every day and invite over for slumber parties. Just think of fast food as the friend who froze your underwear while you were sleeping. No one likes that guy. ~LTG