Food as Metaphor

February 22, 2013 — food, Good and Evil, MFK Fisher

I have a sourdough start that has been living for about 5 years.  I feed it potato water, sugar and potatoes to keep the yeast alive.  The yeast lives in the air and will be different in each geographic location.  Technically beer yeast and bread yeast are different strains, but they are both alive.  The sourdough is a domesticated life form growing in my kitchen.  Each time I make bread I take out half of the starter and add potatoes and sugar to the bowl.  After it grows for a day or so I refrigerate it because I have no need to make bread every 24 hours.  The ritual of making the bread and keeping the levain alive is important. Mine is unusual because I use no flour in the starter liquid.

Making and sharing food has deep significance.  Not everyone has time or interest in bread baking or cooking as a sport, but everyone gets hungry.  The way we deal with our appetites tells us something about our relationship to divine providence.  To be too strict or picky results in loss of joy, whereas to be undiscriminating will have the exact same result.  Culinary taste can and does vary greatly, but the full pleasure of dining is in the execution.  The delightful MFK Fisher wrote before the advent of Food Network and the crush of celebrity chefs as entertainers.  I have purchased tickets to see Anthony Bordain live on stage in Providence because he does the same schtick.  His travel and dining adventures are metaphor fairy tale food stories.  Once I saw that he and I will have traveled to the same city at the same time I knew I had to see his show Good and Evil, an obvious referral to food as life.  He and I do not eat the same things, but we dine with the same attitude.  I look forward to the evening with delight.  It will be tasty.