You are what you eat we have been told. Personally I was brought up on boiled potatoes, gravy and variations of pork, and occasionally fish at the end of the month when money were running low. That was the stable diet of most people when I was a boy.
Things changed when I went to university. I was part of the large post-war generation who got the chance to study. There were many of us, the first from our families to go into higher education.
We were quick to adopt to new ways of life and, I must say with some shame, quick to reject the ways of our parents and hold them in derision. Arrogance is quickly learnt.
Food was a major change. We had to try out the cuisine of other countries. Globalisation started with food. In the students hall we shared a kitchen, and we did not often eat boiled potatoes. Although we were all for the working class, we were too sophisticated to eat what they ate.
One of the new ingredients that we learned to use was garlic. It was cool to eat garlic. If you eat a lot of it, other people are likely to find out if you are close to them.
One day I overheard a conversation between two of the girls in the hall. One was Marianne (this is, of course, not her real name), and I have forgotten the name of the other. They had been to the cinema the night before, after having had a meal with plenty of garlic in it. They were in a good mood. They didn't talk about the film. They had heard to elderly ladies sitting near to them complain to each other about the reek of garlic. That made their day.
Is there anything more rewarding than feeling superior to other people. Feeling more sophisticated.
From then on they never went to the cinema without first having a healthy meal with lots of garlic in it.
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| Where we come from - The Potato Eaters by Vincent van Gogh |
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