Food History

I lost a day. I think it was Sunday. Sorry about that. When I find it again, I’ll let you know.

Saturday was a great deal more interesting foodwise than Sunday. A friend and I went to the multicultural festival. It’s basically a food fair. A giant food fair. I started writing down all the different stalls and their food so I could do an analysis of modern multicultural celebrations in Canberra, but there were just so many and I wrote so quickly that I got home and found I couldn’t read a word.

I kept thinking that there is a real Jewish affinity for food, even in a town like Canberra, with its miniscule Jewish community. Sarah and I kept running into people we knew (not so surprising) and they were all Jewish (which was).

I shared a Finnish cheese tart and a bag of Samoan pastries (which were simply deep-fried dough) and had a really lovely glass of Algerian mint tea. I love mint tea made that way – thick and sweet and warming. I don’t make it myself, though, because if I were to eat that much sugar I would be jumping off the ceiling. My ceiling is one of those 1970s ones, with fire-disencouraging grey pebblethings, and so is not one to encourage jumping. If ever I get a nice white ceiling, maybe I can drink thick and sweet mint tea regularly.

One thing I noticed, simply because it was impossible not to notice. This was the biggest food fair of its kind I’ve seen in Canberra. Everyone came out and enjoyed eating. Add that to my course being booked out (and another one being set up in may for people who missed out), plus the newspaper article, plus the radio interview, plus the fact that there was Greek food yesterday and other foods at the Carnivale next weekend, plus the various farmers’ markets, plus the gourmet meat production and the wine and the growth in other local gourmet products and…. You can see where I’m going. There is an increased focus on food and its production and its history in Canberra right now. A wonderful emphasis, to be honest, because food is very powerful in bringing people together in friendship.

If someone were to write a snapshot of places and times and find out what is important to people in that place and at that time, then obviously fine food and interesting food and sharing food are all important right now in Canberra. It makes me wonder how many of my readers live in places where food has suddenly taken on a special significance?