Category Archives: cooking

I did not realize growing up just how significant family meals were. Several times a week my family would gather at our dining room table for our evening meal. My two brothers and I were expected to either participate in the preparation or the cleaning up. My parents would ask us about school, our friends and hobbies.

The importance of the meals that I see in hindsight has to do with our bonding and feeling a part of a whole. They were also for my parent’s education as to what was going on in our lives – and who we were becoming.

My brothers and I did most of the talking. Thinking back, we probably did reveal a lot about ourselves at those meals. Not that we were paying particular attention. But I figure my parents were listening.

As we got older, meals would sometimes be take-out Chinese food. Even then, though, my brothers and I would be hands-on with setting up or cleaning up.

It is this connection with food, with nurturing one another and nourishment, that is, in my opinion, both literally and figuratively a big part of human development.

Through time, people’s lives revolve around feeding ourselves and our loved ones. Whether it is bringing home the bacon or serving it up. Whether we are eating too much or too little, healthy or unhealthy, from our own yards or someone else’s fields … sharing food is a big part of communities and family.

Nothing, in my opinion, bonds us exactly the same way – or with the same meaning – as sharing a meal. Whether it is at a restaurant or at home, the common table is a place to come together and learn about one another. To nourish our bodies and souls communally.

I look forward to plans for dinner, lunch, coffee, tea. For beer or wine and shared experiences. I typically prefer to cook at home over going to a restaurant. But meeting out works better sometimes.

We should only eat with those who feed our minds and souls. To place food in the mix of an association that is toxic doesn’t really go down well at all. I think it adds an air of dissociation to the process of food assimilation. If we are not connecting with the person or people sharing our meal we are not really connecting to our food either.

I come back to common connections a lot in this blog. There really is nothing more important. Nothing more simple yet complex. Kinda like food.

A while back I had a conversation with a lady at Rockefeller Center in New York City. (I am pretty sure I have mentioned this meeting before in my blog.) We met each other that night at the skating rink. She was visiting from England. Her husband had surprised her with the trip for her birthday.

The lady from England and I talked about our lives and life in general. I don’t remember all the specifics but I do recall one thing. A question we raised for one another. What, besides survival basics like food, shelter, clothes and water, do people need to be happy.

We agreed that in order to be happy we all need to feel a sense of belonging.

And there is no better place to solidify that connection than at the dinner table.