Food for thought.

Our middle grandchild’s junior school class is apparently studying Spain as a topic. I suspect it may go a little wider than just Spain as she keeps playing on her iPad a very annoying song which is supposed to help her learn the countries of Europe. However, I have been told that Spain is the topic and in connection with that my culinary expertise has been sought. My daughter has asked me to make some food that the children can try. So I’ll be making tortilla española, set enough to be cut into cubes for tasting, and possibly some sort of chickpea and chorizo dish that can be served cold. This is taking me back to when I used to make tortillas whenever we had an open evening for prospective students at the college I worked at. A tortilla, some brie cheese and whatever we could come up with that was remotely German provided a “taste of Europe” for interested teenagers thinking of studying A-Level foreign languages. 

As well as cooking for my granddaughter’s school, I have been asked to come up with a list of tapas that the children can prepare themselves in one of their lessons. Now, this is a little more demanding because the school, like most primary establishments, does not have a fully equipped Home Economics (what we used to call Domestic Science) suite. So I have produced a list of things that can be chopped and stuck on cocktail sticks or on rounds of bread. A nice bit of group work is in the offing I think. 

As I planned all this, I reflected on how much fun it can be to prepare food. There’s little I like better than inviting a group of family or friends round for a meal, sorting out the menu and getting a bit of a feast on the table. Christmas and birthday meals are great but it doesn’t have to be a special occasion. Just making a good meal and then sitting down with people whose company you enjoy is one of the best things in life. Well, that’s my opinion anyway. 

I thought about this when I came across an article headlined: “Could ‘Soylent’ replace food?” ‘Soylent’ is a drink that claims to have all the nutrients the body needs. It’s the brainchild of a 25 year old called Rob Rhinehart who invented the stuff and has been living on it for a year now. He even jokes that he’s entirely made up of Soylent because by now all his body cells have regenerated from the nutrients absorbed from this stuff. By all accounts it’s going to make him rich because he’s had tens of thousands of orders for his potion and there are reports that the US military plans to test it. 

One of his clients is a San Francisco playwright who talks about “the efficiency of getting everything you need for your body without the time consuming hassles of shopping and planning for, and preparing meals.” She continues, “It’s frustrating how much time is spent on dealing with food.” 

 Well, I ask you, why bother with proper meals when you could just drink a sort of chalky milk-shake-like substance? No need to bother going to restaurants and trying new dishes, or repeating some of your favourite choices. When you travel abroad, you don’t have to waste time eating local delicacies. Your cookery books can go to charity shops. Ah, but no-one will buy them because they too will live on Soylent. It sounds like a nightmare to me. 

And experts, well some of them, seem to agree with me. Firstly, this concoction misses out a few things that the body really needs such as sulphur and something called lycopene, both of which prevent certain diseases. And then there are professors who say that control of appetite is more complex than just filling up the stomach. Moving your mouth when you chew releases hormones, or so I read, which contribute to the body’s well-being. So there you go. 

I heard something else about chewing today. According to a friend of mine, children need to learn to chew and swallow more complicated and lumpy food because the process helps the development of the mouth in preparation for learning to speak. So you shouldn’t blend absolutely everything a child is eating as it progresses onto solid food. This is the kind of stuff you learn when you go out for lunch with friends. 

Yes, today a couple of friends and I became, not for the first time, ladies who lunch. We do this about once a month when we all manage to be in the UK at the same time. Today we went Italian in the centre of Manchester. The food was good, the service friendly and the owner of the place kept popping over to check that everything was in order. Each time he nodded approvingly, whether at our choice of food, our impeccable manners, our stylish dress or our bright and breezy chat I have no idea. 

Maybe it was just the fact that we were there, eating proper food and not sitting at home drinking food substitutes!