The Meal of a Lifetime

In the current issue of The Oxford American Magazine, Beth Ann Fennelly talks about eating the meal of a lifetime while New Orleans was in the midst of destruction from Hurricane Katrina. “I ate wasabi-pea-encrusted tuna, quail with figs and chanterelles, duck with port glaze, and truffled potatoes,” Fennelly said. “The lobster mac and cheese had not yet given up the ghost when the cornmeal-dusted Apalachicola oysters with tasso elbowed their way onto the table. Then the crabmeat wontons…And then they brought out the filet mignon…”And all the while, the magnificent city of New Orleans was flooding. “I suppose that’s a big part of my shame and guilt concerning that August 29th,” Fennelly writes. “Not just that I was dining while others suffered and died, but that the dinner was excessive, approaching grotesquery.”

Fennelly then goes on to discuss the rise in hedonism and the burgeoning food culture, and compares the “gourmet nation” of the prosperous to the “garbage nation” of the poor—those who rely on heavily processed, fattening food to sustain them because they no longer have access to fresh food, and/or can’t afford to obtain it. They are divorced from the land and reliant on the fast food industry. This, she points out, is creating a strange link between poverty and obesity in America.

Her goal, through this exploration, is to eat well and contribute to a sustainable environment. She ends the article by saying:

“My role as a good citizen of our ‘gourmet nation’ is to examine food-table connectivity. I’m encouraged to think about how my meal affects the food chain and the cost to the world’s energy sources, and I’m encouraged to take pride in making wise decisions. But now I’m beginning to notice other kinds of connectivity, some of which are less gratifying. I’m haunted by a simple coincidence—a lavish meal and a natural disaster. And haunted by the fact that perhaps it’s less of a coincidence than I’d like to believe…”

Have you given much thought to the “cost” of what you eat? Not just the money cost, but the social, the moral? Analyze the meal you eat tonight. Where did your groceries come from? How were they grown? Do you know? Don’t you think you should?