Very likely this is not an original thought, but has it ever occurred to you that our national cuisines are affected by the utensils we use to eat them?
In the British/ Teutonic culture, for instance, everybody had his own knife to stab into a piece of dead animal flesh. Hack and cut and chompa chompa chompa.
Whereas in China, only the cook had the knife and everything was chopped into tweezer-sized pieces and consumed delicately (or slurpily) with chopsticks.
Is this possibly a result of a more metal-centric culture because of readily available natural resources or—oh my, you could just go back and back . . .
fair warning: on block island or manhattan or in missouri, we can be a little salty
What about guns? Does this mean there is a future for Americans where we shoot our food right at the dinner table?
ReplyDeleteWell, consider the poor lobster. . .
ReplyDeletean absolutely fabulous essay at
http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster?currentPage=1
Does a vegetarian need a knife at all?
ReplyDeletewhereas the cuisines of large parts of Africa are consumed with the hands. And we should note that Africa has huge natural resources. Which seems to be the problem. Yay King Leopold.
ReplyDeleteThis line of thinking does go unexpected places.