by Robin Fox
"In the process of social climbing people have to learn to like
caviar, artichokes, snails, and asparagus, and scorn dumplings, fish and chips,
and meat and potato pie – all more nutritious, but fatally tainted with
lower-class associations."
"The insecure will cling
desperately to home food habits: English housewives on the continent even
break open tea bags to make a “proper” cup of tea (the taste is identical)."
"It took the elaborate dining
habits of the upper classes to refine the use of multiple forks (as well as
knives, spoons, and glasses)."
"There is no nutritional sense to the timing of eating."
"Sweet should not be eaten before savoury,"
"A knowledge of
foreign food indicates the eater’s urbanity and cosmopolitanism."
"The very word “gourmet” has become a title of respect like “guru” or
“mahatma.”"
"This can vary from the inevitable putting on
of the kettle to make tea in British and Irish homes, through the bringing of
bread and salt in Russia, to the gargantuan hospitality of the Near East where
if the guest does not finish the enormous dish of sheep’s eyes in aspic the host
is mortally affronted."
"The French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, like all his countrymen
attuned to the niceties of food customs, notes how we reserve “rich” food for
the grandest occasions. The ordinary daily menu is not served, he says, and
cites saumon mayonnaise, turbot sauce mousseline, aspics de foie gras,
together with fine wines. “These are some of the delicacies which one would
not buy and consume alone without a vague feeling of guilt,”"
"It is food meant to be shared, and to be shared with
those we wish to impress."
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