Saturday, July 8, 2006

It must’ve been something I ate

I’m reading a highly entertaining book by Jeffrey Steingarten, Vogue’s food critic. I’d like to share some of the points he’s made so far (I just started it.)

- What he calls the “calamari index”. In the 60’s, calamari consumption in the US was the lowest in the world. Now, almost every restaurant offers calamari as an appetizer. This is his indicator of how far we’ve come as a nation of eaters over the past 30 years. I agree! Menus offer so many things not available in the US even recently. And I don’t mean just creatures with tentacles. Balsamic vinegar is an example Luca and I were discussing over dinner the other night.

- Steingarten read in a medical journal that “profound interest in good food may be caused by a lesion in the anterior portion of the right cerebral hemisphere of the brain.” Gulp.

- He notes that people are extremely unlikely to utter the following: “I feel light as a feather this morning. My mind is clear as a bell. I’ve got a smile on my face for the whole human race. It must have been something I ate.”

The book is “about the primordial glee we feel every time we’re called to dinner” which made me think “I DO feel a primordial glee every time I’m called to dinner!”

No comments: