[Sca-cooks] food likes and dislikes and ettiquette

Saint Phlip phlip at 99main.com
Fri Aug 28 05:53:01 PDT 2009


OK, Judith, since you're the most extremely Kosher person I've talked
to at any length, perhaps you can answer me a question.

I realize that people keeping kosher will not expect to eat in a
non-Kosher home, and thus would avoid, for example, dinner parties and
invitations of that nature, however, food IS a large part of our
culture, and often a niblet is offered to a guest who might be there
for whatever reason- in one case, anyone who dropped something off at
my ex boss's house was fed SOMETHING, even if not more than a bit of
cheese and fruit from the dining room table display.

So, that being the case, if a person such as yourself were to come to
a non-Kosher home, and we knew that you kept kosher, is there anything
we might offer you safely?

My thought, supposing I knew you were coming, would be to hit the
grocery (or, if one were availble nearby the Kosher grocery) and look
through the stuff marked K for something that you might find pleasant
to nosh on. It would seem to me, that served on new disposable plates
with disposable flatware, you'd be covered.

Would this be something you could do? How about beverages?

On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 8:29 AM, Judith Epstein<judith at ipstenu.org> wrote:
>
> On Aug 27, 2009, at 6:31 PM, Lisa wrote:
>
>> I do feel that this discussion is getting a bit emotional, but I also feel
>> that much of the issue is related to cultural differences.  My impression
>> is
>> that to Judith, food is a labor of love and very much a part of her life
>> and
>> culture.  For most of the rest of us, food is a way to satisfy an empty
>> gut,
>> as much as we love the process of getting it to the table.  To my
>> husband's
>> grandmother, who moved to the US from Sicily to marry his grandfather,
>> refusing to eat something she cooked was the greatest insult you could
>> give
>> her.
>> Elizabeta
>
> Yes. And likewise, to serve something without making sure a guest could eat
> it is the biggest insult that a host could offer. It seems very weird and
> foreign to me -- not saying invalid, just very alien to my personal mindset
> -- that making sure NOT to offer insult could wind up creating offense to
> those who don't like being "grilled."
>
> Also, maybe I'm just spoiled thanks to being in a very food-minded family
> and having access to Food TV, but in my family, everything we cook gets
> evaluated. "How's the soup? I noticed you didn't eat much; was it too salty?
> I thought it might be." Then that gives my family/friend/guest the
> opportunity to say "Actually, the soup is perfectly seasoned, but it's a
> little hot right now. I'm waiting until it cools," or else "Yes, it's a bit
> salty. But the balance of the other spices is very well managed." It's just
> an opportunity to make a constructive comment and help the cook be a better
> cook for next time. It really never occurred to me, until conversing on this
> list turned into such a minefield, that this could be taken in any other
> way.
>
> In my shock at this revelation, I probably got short with a good number of
> people, for which I apologize profusely, but truly I'm just still flatfooted
> with surprise.
>
> Judith
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>



-- 
Saint Phlip

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.

Priorities:

It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith.

.I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary
notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow



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