Lifestyle... Issue 0502-01
February 12, 2005
Food, growing or catching, preparing, and especially eating in the leisurely company of family and friends, is at the center of Mediterranean living. When I was growing up, all meals were an occasion: whether a weeknight home-made chicken soup, rice and good Italian bread before retiring to hours of homework, or Sunday meals with spaghetti, meatballs, bread, salad and fruit...or the holiday extravaganzas that would start at 1:30 PM and extend for or five hours, with never a lapse in the conversation: soup, followed in order by pasta or ravioli, ragu and meatballs, chicken cacciatore or a fish dish with roasted potatoes, tossed fresh salad and tomatoes, fresh fruit, dried figs and nuts, and finally dessert - like my favorite "pastiere", now called Italian cheesecake but with more ingredients (like orange rind and citron) and more imagination. And, of course, red wine...first a little in water, and then straight. Then the men would retire to the living room for more conversation, and the women would clean up. (Whoops, did I say that? That was in the "Old Days").
Today, families fly in and fly out, like some rapidly turned kaleidoscope. Not good, for digestion, for family cohesion or for individual development. But maybe there's hope. Did you see the recent ad for KFC, where a nuclear family is uncomfortably sitting at table wondering what they are doing there, only to have Mom save the day with a bucket of fried chicken and "a meal."
GS
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