I remember the first time I tried sushi. My aunt usually takes my siblings and I out on special occasions. This was my 12th birthday. Before this the only sushi I had tasted was Costco’s California rolls, which isn’t “real” sushi. We started off with a bowl of Udon soup with a piece of fried shrim. The soup was the most relaxing thing I’ve ever tasted. The shrimp was a perfect complement to the soup. It was cooked perfectly, making it slightly crunchy on the shell with a delicate inside. The sushi was the best part of the meal.
The sushi plate itself looked like a something by Paul Klee. Each piece of sushi was delicately crafted with vibrant orange and green ingredients, highlighted by the contrast of the pure white rice and darker seaweed. The visual experience was only the beginning. I carefully dipped the corner of a yellowtail roll in a small plate of soysuace-wasabi mixture and took a bite. My entire mouth danced with flavor. There were so many levels of taste and complexity, yet it had a clear dominant flavor which made it simple. It was like looking at a painting for the first time; there was so much to discover in the details. With every bite I felt like I tasted something new.
One of my favorite things to do is try new foods from different cultures, and I don’t mean Chinese takeout. I mean authentic food that was created from a different viewpoint. The art of a culture is like a window into what their life is like. It’s part of human nature to be curious about the way people live, and about people’s ideas that seem foreign to us. To taste what people eat gives us a unique view into the way they think, not just on a cultural level, but also on an individual level. Just like an artist can use different colors and mediums to communicate an idea, a chef uses different flavors and textures to let you taste what the’re thinking.
A more recent experience of mine was when I tried Vietnamese food. The restaurant's speciality was the Pho bowl. The dish consisted of rice noodles, brisket, a large variety of herbs ranging from sprouts to dandelion leaves, and topped with a small dab of Sriracha (a type of Asian hot sauce). I hadn't tried most of the Ingredients before, let alone that combination, so this was a very new experience for me. Despite this, there was something homey and familiar about the taste. It reminded me of something I would eat for lunch on a cold day after shoveling the driveway. I found it interesting that like a carefully written song, this dish could take me to a specific place. Even though I had never tasted it before, I was still able to gain some understanding of where the food came from, and despite it being invented in a distant country, I was able to relate.
Even though art can help us find common ground with other cultures, it still isn't universal. A friend of mine who composes music told me a story about a successful musician in Africa named Salim. Some of Salim’s western friends wanted to show him what a symphony orchestra was like, so they took him to London to watch Beethoven’s 9th Symphony performed. He watched with fascination during the course of the symphony. At the end His friends asked him what his favorite part was. “The first song,” Salim replied. At first his friends assumed this meant the first movement, but after further questioning they realized he meant the part where the orchestra was tuning. He liked how all of the sounds blended together. What his western friends thought was chaos, Salim had interpreted as music. The same is true with food. Most of us wouldn’t enjoy some exotic tribal cuisine, and they probably wouldn’t think hot dogs and apple pie are fit for eating.
Giorgio de Chirico, a pre-surrealist painter, said this about art: “To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.” I think food as an art form has a head start. While food cant be as profound as other art forms, it also doesn't have the natural limits that visual arts do. Food doesn’t need to conform to philosophers ideas of what it should or shouldn't be, and it isn't required to imitate reality in some profound way. Because there are no such limitations with food, it just flows out of a culture, unrestricted. This doesn't reduce its importance as a component of humanity, it just means that it's a natural one. Regardless of where you’re from, what you’ve tasted, and what you’d like to taste, the art of food is something that we can all appreciate and enjoy. Bon appetit.
A more recent experience of mine was when I tried Vietnamese food. The restaurant's speciality was the Pho bowl. The dish consisted of rice noodles, brisket, a large variety of herbs ranging from sprouts to dandelion leaves, and topped with a small dab of Sriracha (a type of Asian hot sauce). I hadn't tried most of the Ingredients before, let alone that combination, so this was a very new experience for me. Despite this, there was something homey and familiar about the taste. It reminded me of something I would eat for lunch on a cold day after shoveling the driveway. I found it interesting that like a carefully written song, this dish could take me to a specific place. Even though I had never tasted it before, I was still able to gain some understanding of where the food came from, and despite it being invented in a distant country, I was able to relate.
Even though art can help us find common ground with other cultures, it still isn't universal. A friend of mine who composes music told me a story about a successful musician in Africa named Salim. Some of Salim’s western friends wanted to show him what a symphony orchestra was like, so they took him to London to watch Beethoven’s 9th Symphony performed. He watched with fascination during the course of the symphony. At the end His friends asked him what his favorite part was. “The first song,” Salim replied. At first his friends assumed this meant the first movement, but after further questioning they realized he meant the part where the orchestra was tuning. He liked how all of the sounds blended together. What his western friends thought was chaos, Salim had interpreted as music. The same is true with food. Most of us wouldn’t enjoy some exotic tribal cuisine, and they probably wouldn’t think hot dogs and apple pie are fit for eating.
Giorgio de Chirico, a pre-surrealist painter, said this about art: “To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.” I think food as an art form has a head start. While food cant be as profound as other art forms, it also doesn't have the natural limits that visual arts do. Food doesn’t need to conform to philosophers ideas of what it should or shouldn't be, and it isn't required to imitate reality in some profound way. Because there are no such limitations with food, it just flows out of a culture, unrestricted. This doesn't reduce its importance as a component of humanity, it just means that it's a natural one. Regardless of where you’re from, what you’ve tasted, and what you’d like to taste, the art of food is something that we can all appreciate and enjoy. Bon appetit.
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