Do Not Resuscitate!

If ever I cannot eat and enjoy food, do not resuscitate!   Both my daughter and husband made this comment early this year while we were at a Japanese restaurant.  This is how important the enjoyment of good food is to, not only them, but this entire family.  Of course the comment was made all in jest so I don’t want to hear any negative comments on how hurtful this may sound for people who are worse off.  It was to express how much our lives are enhanced, and how much enjoyment we get in tasting and eating foods we love, and in experiencing new dishes.   Our lives surround the topic of food.  Not only is food a necessity of life but is also a form of entertainment, art, science, addiction (seriously…who can stop on one chip??), conversation item, experimentation, social gathering…and on and on.  Without food a big part of our enjoyment for living is missing.

Whenever I travel, my purpose of traveling is not only to relax and see the sites and culture of where I go, but to experience the most common dishes of the different cultures and try making them at home.   I am lucky that most members in the family are open and willing to try the dishes and spices of different cultures.  In my opinion, because of the multiculturalism of the North American cities, we need to experiment and taste the different dishes of the different cultures we are fortunate to have available to us.  Unfortunately, like every big family, we have one black sheep who is only open to the dishes of the Asian culture.  We are making some headway in converting this black sheep.  In his old age, he is starting to come around and has found that he enjoys the steaks and calamari dishes made at some of the great Greek restaurants we have in our city.  It only took 50 years!  Slowly but surely we will convert this black sheep.