Finding Meaning in Food

Appreciating the culture, traditions and history of the meals you eat helps make every meal more valuable.

No man desires drink only, but good drink, or food only, but good food;

For good is the universal object of desire.

Plato, The Republic

The Tradition of Food

Everyone is aware that each distinct region on our Earth has their own distinct cuisine, influenced and developed over centuries due to what crops and livestock are native to the region, what trade links the region has, colonisation and subsequent export of culture, and, importantly, local traditions. Many of the dishes we consider to be cultural staples today have only come into being in their current form in the past century or two, but they have been developing towards this point for much longer. It is strange and somewhat disconcerting, then, that in an era such as our own, which is characterised by a high sharing of culture and knowledge than any time prior in human history, are the traditions of cooking in local cuisines going extinct.

A large part of this is due to the industrial and technological revolutions we have experienced in the past century, which have given rise to many such things that hinder the ability of the individual to be entirely local with their consumption: international trade; the refrigerator; fast food; ready meals. The problem began several generations ago, in Western nations, as most problems do begin. With a focus on longer working hours and the commercialisation of pre-packaged “food” products (I use the word “food” in its loosest possible definition here), there was little incentive for families to make meals from scratch. This led to the children of such families not learning these cooking skills either, not only because a working family has little time to teach children such things, but because of the normalisation of the view that all children will need to know is taught in formal education; they are rendered useless outside of it. As time progressed, in metropolitan regions in particular, the tradition of food began to die out, being replaced with other more shallow forms of nourishment such as “convenience”.

Naturally this has a detrimental knock-on effect on health and well-being; during the coronavirus-riddled period of history, childhood obesity levels in the United States rose to 45%. Takeaway meals, frozen pre-packed food and shelf-stable atrocities filled high high-fructose corn syrup have become even more common meal substitutes since many shops closed their doors and real food imports became more difficult in metropolitan areas.

One of the most common questions we ask ourselves each day is “what will I have for dinner?” To answer such a question, we can take a lesson from Simon Sarris, who, among many other things, runs a particularly pleasant newsletter of his own:

It is said that traditions are answers to enduring questions, and so dispensing with them because we do not understand them (or "see the point of them") is an unfortunate way to squander this inheritance.

Back to your Roots

Of course there are many places where such traditions of food remain strong, notably those where traditions in other parts of life have maintained a hold on the community. Religion is one key facet here. I do not refer only to meals for religious purposes such as the Jewish Passover meal, but to the tradition itself of breaking bread with others which permeates all global religions as one of the simplest ways to do good for others. For good is the universal object of desire.

My thoughts immediately go back to 2018, when I spent a period of time in northern India. I wanted to experience more of Sikhism as a religion, for I knew very little about its teachings and practices, and was fortunate enough to be welcomed on one occasion by a local Sikh temple. Here, three times daily, a group of volunteers will prepare meals en masse from local vegetables and legumes, making curries and serving them with various flatbreads, all made within the grounds of the temple. Anyone who wishes to receive food can do so, free of charge, in the company of hundreds of other followers of the faith, sat together in one central hall in the temple. Three times a day, every day, for many, many years.

Some photographs I took of this experience

While this specific tradition is almost entirely reserved for religious purposes, it just highlights how food preparation, cooking and eating can still today be something with a history of purpose and meaning, and helps inspire an attempt to reignite other traditions yourself.

A Recipe - Carbonara

I am by no means a chef, professional or otherwise, but I am incredibly enthusiastic about cooking and the history and traditions which surround it. Most traditional meals are rather easy to make as oftentimes they emerged in part from a scarcity of ingredients. One easy and traditional meal which I make at least once a week is Carbonara, hailing from Rome and finding its origins in its current form in the middle of the 20th century.

Carbonara consists of very few ingredients: pasta, eggs, cheese, pork (in some form or another), salt and black pepper.

The pasta which should be traditionally used is spaghetti, but other similar variations can be used without any harm being caused, such as linguine or fettuccine.

The meat, traditionally, is guanciale, which is cured pork cheek. This can be hard to find depending on where you live, and so can be replaced with pancetta quite happily, or, in extreme circumstances, bacon lardons.

The cheese is pecorino romano. There is little scope to change this and still have a dish resembling carbonara, but parmesan can be used if no pecorino is available.

For one serving, use 100g of pasta, 50g of guanciale, 70g of cheese, and 2 fresh eggs.

1. First, boil water in a large pot, salt it until it is as salty as the sea, and add you pasta. It should cook until it is just shy of al dente as it will be finished in a pan.

2. Slice up your guanciale and add it to a cold frying pan and bring the heat up to medium. It should fry slowly, with its fat rendering completely, so there is no need to add oil. Fry until crisp.

3. Meanwhile, crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk well before adding the cheese and pepper. Combine this all together.

4. When the pasta has finished, use tongs to lift the pasta into the frying pan. Turn off the heat for both pot and pan.

5. Using a ladle, add some of the salty pasta water to the egg and cheese mixture and mix with a fork until the consistency is creamy. The water helps emulsify the cream as well as sticking to the pasta better.

6. Pour the cream mixture over the pasta while stirring and mixing it constantly so the eggs don’t scramble. When it looks thick and creamy, serve.

This is a very simple dish, prepared in the traditional way from scratch. You will love the taste of it and, hopefully, you will now be able to appreciate the importance of the traditions and culture that such meals have. At the very least, it will taste good. For good is the universal object of desire.

Take care.

AJP