Food, glorious food...

I just got home from my friend Shannon and Sean's. They hosted a dinner party to invite a few of their local friends to meet Shannon's best friend, Abby and her husband and family who are visiting from Boston. Both Abby and her husband are UCC clergy and there were two other clergy, including myself, present. It was really a fantastic evening. One of my favorite ways to spend an evenining, dinner, great conversation, and a lot of laughing. Somehow we talked a lot about poop.
I made a caprese salad (tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and olive oils.) I used these fantastic heirloom tomatoes. Heirlooms are beautiful to look at but even better to eat.
I think really good food is so sensual. Last night I saw the new Pixar film, Ratatouille. One of the key elements of the movie is the food. It is a feast for the eyes. (It is really amazing what is being done in animation.) It is a lovely story but in the end its the city and the food that are the stars. The dish that is the biggest hit is the ratatouille which all of the hoity toity chefs refer to as peasant food. But it is the food that reminds the critic of home and floods him with memories of his mother and his growing up. We all have those foods that when we taste them flood us with such warm memories. For me it really is fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. Still whenever I visit my family, my grandmother will make chicken and mashed potatoes. Food carries story. Another theme of the movie was that food should be savored not just pushed down without even really tasting it. These tomatoes tonight were meant to be savored. There is a whole new movement taking place largely in California but most likely spreading throughout the rest of the country called slow food. The idea is to return to locally grown food that is not frozen or overly processed; not fast food but slow food. And I really think what comes with that is the idea that food is meant to be appreciated and life is meant to be lived at a slower pace than we tend to live it.
Life really should be lived out around a good bottle of wine and over a long beautiful conversation that is full of laughter and sometimes even talk about poop. It should be savored not just pushed down to get to the next moment. Food carries story but it also reveals how that story is told and lived.