Announcing the Ordinary Times Food Symposium
Beginning November 19th and just in time for Thanksgiving, Ordinary Times will be hosting our next Symposium. The topic will be Food.
Consider this a call for guest submissions.
Like all of life’s simplest things, the meaning we give to food is greater and more complex than appears at first blush. Yes, at it’s most basic concept it represents the most fundamental foundation of Maslow’s Pyramid. But we humans have made food so much more.
At times, food is a doorway to the most pleasurable and carnal of our sensual pleasures; at others, it is a deeply ingrained part of our most humble observances toward God. The topic of food is feasts, but it is also famine. (Is there a more starkly poignant an example of inequality than those who go to bed hungry in a word where others casually throw their excess food into the garbage?)
The way we discuss food is the way we talk about health and how we talk about sickness; how we define self-sacrifice and how we define gluttony; how we build our cultural borders and how we tear them down. Discussions about food show where we’ve come from, and where we are going. Food is as deeply personal as it is communal.
Without food, a table is but a place of convenient storage, a suspended plane where we temporarily discard books, car keys and the daily mail. But set food on that same table, and it magically becomes a place where we raise families, solve the World’s Problems over wine, celebrate, mourn, break hearts and fall in love.
When we talk about food, we talk about about art, and politics, and religion, and business, and family, and government, and freedom, and tyranny, and love.
When we talk about food, we talk about everything.
As always, we will take a look at anything that directly or indirectly touches upon the symposium topic, whether it be political argument, cultural observance, personal essay, poetry, photography, music, or — especially in this case — recipes. And as always, if you know someone with special expertise, insight or passion on this topic who is not a regular reader, please encourage them to send something in to me.
Thanks in advance.
Till then, here’s a musical appetizer…
with draped silky fabrics and large shoulder pads
weight loss tips Integrated Math in Metro Atlanta
quick weight lossZacks’ Bear Of The Day
I am so happy with this symposium idea that I find difficulty putting together enough words to express it.
The classic definition of the word symposium was an eating and drinking party where people exchange ideas.
My challenge will be restraining myself from offering about 600 posts and letting enough other voices be heard that it becomes a true symposium.Report
@burt-likko
+1
I am going to have to create some kind of NCAA-style bracket with potential topics to keep myself from posting too much. I am limiting myself to two but man is that going to be hard.Report
The traditionalists among us should certainly be getting drunk during anything called a “symposium”Report
Migas, shrimp and grits, crawfish etouffee, hot chicken, biscuits and sausage gravy, BBQ ribs.
Symposium done!Report
Why did you have to put grits in this list? I was all set to agree entirely.Report
I’m sorry to hear that, butReport
I loved grits when I was young, but don’t really like them much anymore. However, shrimp and grits isn’t really grits. With the sauce, it becomes something that transcends grits.
Add sweet tea, and it’s the perfect lunch.Report
@will-truman
The Contracts lecture for Barbri was a guy named David Epstein. The guy had the worlds biggest Southern accent. He liked to tell Jewish jokes as part of his lectures. He told a story about how once in Los Angeles he was accused of being anti-Semitic and his retort was “I know I sound like a gubber but my name is David Epstein…..”
He gave a lot of examples using failure to deliver kosher grits during Hannukah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_G._EpsteinReport
Will – you’re missing out. Grits are fantastic when well done. I will brag though and say we do them far better in KY than they do in SC, although their shrimp is probably better (or at least fresher).Report
Good grits are amazing.
There’s a lot of crap out there, though.Report
Cheese grits. With jalapeno and bacon.Report
I agree that cheese grits are the way to go. That’s always my complaint in South Carolina. They cook these amazing shrimp and throw them on top of plain grits. If you order grits here in Ky they are going to be packed with cheese and probably garnished with something delicious like bacon or oven-roasted peppers.Report
http://www.goldenisles.com/files/photos/gi_event/shrimp-and-grits-01.jpgReport
@chris
That looks exactly like something you would get in restaurants around here…or occasionally in my kitchen 😉Report
What time’s dinner?Report
I’ve had excellent grits without cheese – stock and cream go a long way, but most of the good dishes contain plenty of cheese.Report
@mike-dwyer
Regarding cheese grits and shrimp and grits. Any decent southerner is going to put cheese in his shrimp and grits. Preferably a nice smoked gouda! I feel your pain. But I’ve had great shrimp and grits in SC and there has been cheese……Report
I love Eat, Drink, Man, Woman!!!Report
Nah, “Tampopo” is the ultimate foodie movie – the themes and characters from a Western, an appreciation for really good ramen, and vignettes that manage to both be universally touching and poke Japanese culture in places that it really could use poking.Report
Tod,
This:
“Without food, a table is but a place of convenient storage, a suspended plane where we temporarily discard books, car keys and the daily mail. But set food on that same table, and it magically becomes a place where we raise families, solve the World’s Problems over wine, celebrate, mourn, break hearts and fall in love.”
I actually choked up a little bit reading that. Absolutely beautiful. Awesome intro to the symposium.Report
🙂Report
I’ll be sure to offend all the foodies with my submission.Report