Food for Thought

One of my friends spent Christmas in the Dominican Republic

A magnificent idea perfectly executed.

Why? Because going away relieves the tensions of being at home for the festive period. If you say that there are no tensions then you are in denial. There are always tensions. People visit, people will bring other people and, sometimes, pets—like dogs, for example. Not everyone likes dogs; specifically, not everyone likes dogs in their homes. There are those, perish the thought, that will tell you that dogs create an odour in the house.

Young children are delightful in the holiday period. Unless your home is not set up for a visitation from small children, then it can become fraught. One does not wish to upset the sensibilities of the proud parents but...

Visitors bring tension. They cannot help it, it happens. Yes, we like to see people especially those people to whom we are related or those who are close friends. It is, after all, a time for family and friends.

Then there’s the cooking. More people equal more cooking.

More cooking equals more clearing up afterwards.

Mum’s job. Is it not? Unless you’re having a Seasonal Barbecue but few people, relatively speaking (sorry about that), live in the antipodes.

Decorations? The Tree? Wrapping paper everywhere?

Clearly, the answer is to leave your shores, apologise to would be guests and go. Go away to a hotel for the appropriate time that your wallet will stand.

It was the plan, in our family, to say, “How much were you planning to spend on a gift for me? Why don’t you spend that on yourself and in that way you will get exactly what you want and you don’t have to worry about wrapping it or the postage, etc.”

If you instigate this sort of plan in your family you may, magically, now have sufficient funds to spend somewhere nice for a week, or so. Somewhere like a disused Gulag in Siberia will give that wintery feel that so many of us yearn for. You may even find it an extremely economical holiday, too.

However, back to the Dominican Republic.

Many of my friends have been there and had a successful, relaxing holiday. One or two have had less than satisfactory experiences but one would suppose that, statistically, there are bound to be the odd failures.

I know many of you care deeply for statistics. However, I am aware that 87% of statistics are made up on the spot.

One of the aspects of the family visit to an idyllic, sunny, place for the mid-winter break was that the food was superb. Different, no doubt, to that experienced at home on a daily basis but a wonderful treat nonetheless.

Among the photographs posted on their ‘Facebook’ page were examples of carvings made from melons that, in some cases, were transformed into serving bowls.

Clever idea, that. Saves washing up and the juice in the melon will keep the contents moist and fresh.

In browsing through the culinary delights on offer in the Dominican Republic it occurred to me that lots of people post photographs of their meals. Including me.

Why?

Why do we go to so much trouble photographing our repasts and posting them on the ubiquitous ‘Facebook’?

Because food is important.

Food is the single most important thing in life. Without it we die.

Abraham Maslow demonstrated this by means of a pyramidal structure of many layers that he called the ‘Heirarchy of Human Needs’. It has since been modified slightly by other psychologists but the main root is still there.

Food and water. Survival.

We are ancient beings. As a race. We have existed for millions of years. Our habits and lifestyles were formed a long time ago, our social interactions were formed many years ago.

Technology has advanced but our social civilisation is still barbarous; much as we should like to think that we have ‘improved’ we have really not advanced very much.

The legislation has moved on—I hear that women are allowed to vote in some States of the US, but, deep in our hearts, we remain the same as ever we were.

When we, as human beings, ceased wandering around in our nomadic lifestyle and adopted a more settled existence in fortified villages we were subject to raids by neighbours. Perhaps we made war on them. These battles may have been on the grounds that the ‘grass is greener’ on the other side or it may have been for hunting rights. Or women.

But we fought. At the drop of a hat or, at any rate, head-dress we went into conflict that may have simmered for generations. In the end nobody knew what it was all about only that we ‘hated them’.

We still have jealousies, rivalries and hatreds of other clans and villages.

We still have that primordial layer of needs.

Eating is right up there with drinking as the most important. Survival.

So we post photographs.

Pictures are posted of the wonderful meal that we have just had. Now others can see that we are successful in our struggle to survive.

Sometimes I look at these photographs and think, “Hmm, that’s a good idea.”

Sometimes it is nice to see where the food was obtained if it is in a café or restaurant. If the person posting it says it was good then we may try it ourselves.

So now I am off to Restaurant Yusuf Haslam for superb Malay cuisine.

Only for survival needs, you understand.