Food is Essential

Conversations, gossip humour and ideas flow freely in the relaxed atmosphere of the kitchen. (de Lore, 2000). When the time comes to make dinner in my flat, one of the others usually comes to the kitchen to help out or just keep the other company. It is a place where we can chat about anything and everything. It’s an exciting time, waiting in anticipation for the deliscious dinner that’s being cooked, then to have it and watch TV together. It happens the same every evening, it’s become a flat routine that dinner is ready by 7pm in time for Shortland Street. This is so different from my home environment with my parents. We always eat at the dinner table together and say a prayer before we eat. The conversation and language used at home and in the flat are so contrasting and so are the meals. But I have managed to bring some of my meals from home and introduce them to my flatmates. I have already told you about mums bacon and egg pie that I was so proud to introduce to my flatmates; I also got them to try and now love this dinner that mum makes with sausages, onions, tomatoes, and herbs – so simple yet so tasty! Another food I introduced in the past couple of weeks is falafel. I first made it at home with my brother and his girlfriend and since it’s so healthy I decided to give it a try down here. Instead of making it from scratch though we bought a ready-made packet of falafel mix, so we cheated a little bit. Anyway I made the mix into small balls and baked them. We had them in pita breads with salads, humus, and other sauces. It was amazing. How good does this look…?

Food is ‘everyday’‐it has to be, or we would not survive for long. But food is never just something to eat (Visser, 1986, p.12). We need food to survive, for our bodies to continue functioning. But we also need food to survive with the social atmosphere that comes with it. There’s food for every occasion, we couldn’t live without it.

Reference

De Lore, C. & Brooke-White, J. (2000). Every kitchen tells a story. Harper Collins Ltd. New Zealand.

Visser, M. (1986). Much depends on dinner: The extraordinary history and mythology, allure and obsessions, perils and taboos of an ordinary meal. Grove Press, New York.