For those unfamiliar with the market chain Trader Joes (I’m not sure how far the chain reaches), they’re a sort of funky, cheap place to get lots of semi-gourmet stuff that other markets don’t carry. They send out a monthly pamphlet called the “Fearless Flyer”, a small newsprint thing filled with blurbs about various products they’ve added recently, or are featuring. The writing is snappy and it’s filled with 20’s clip art- It’s a pretty fun little read.

However, I was taken aback by something I read in the latest installment, in a blurb about frozen blackberries. It reads: “If you’re unfamiliar with blackberries, they’re akin to raspberries, but a bit more tart and etc etc etc“. Unfamiliar with BLACKBERRIES?!?! Who isn’t familiar with blackberries? That’s like saying “If you’re not familiar with apples, they’re a crisp, thin-skinned fruit that fits handily into a number of popular applications, like pie, cobbler, and throwing at the homeless.”

However, the crazy thing is, somebody in marketing at TJ’s must have told somebody in advertising, “Now, Jasper, not everyone out there is privy to our advanced berry knowledge. Wouldn’t want to alienate the public- fill them in a bit.”

Well, if you really are unfamiliar with blackberries, they go a ‘lil something like this…

…anyhow, the point of this post isn’t to rail on folks that don’t know their rubus fruticosus from a hole in the ground- if they don’t, it’s not their fault. It’s more of a call-to-arms for folks to get out there and take some food risks. I go out regularly and buy small amounts of things I don’t understand, for reconnoissance’s sake. Things like:

* Herbs at ethnic markets that aren’t marked in english and look like alien shrubs.
* Fruits that have never been represented in children’s cereal (in the west, anyhow).
* Dusty, threatening-looking bottles of sauce
* Soy creatures from the black lagoon

Sometimes I’m treated to something wonderful and unexpected, and sometimes, I’m both appalled and bouyed by the strength of human diversity- the fact that there’s somebody, somewhere that absolutely loves this stuff. I don’t ask that you do this, but to me, it’s a matter of course, and well, it’s just plain fun.

American’s fear of anything but the primary colors in cuisine is something that’s passed down from generation to generation. Parents feeding kids what they were fed as kids. Parents feeding kids only what they think the kids will eat. Kids growing up on processed foods and having little contact with the fruits, vegetables, grains and meats that make up these meals-by-the-yard, and doing unto their children as was done to them.

It’s a vicious cycle, and it’s nobody’s fault, apart from the giganto-food-corps that steamroller away more of our collective comestible history every moment. It’s far easier to sell greyscale when nobody’s seen CMYK. I once met a girl who hit the age of 20 before having ever tried an orange.

Yes. That thing ^ up there. Never.

How’d that happen, you ask? Her parents had just never thought to feed her one as a kid, and by the time her ‘teens rolled around, she was afraid to try one- surely there must be some reason they never exposed her to such a vile menace. I rectified this, of course. All in a day’s work, but this illustrates why this chain must be broken. People fear what they don’t understand, and food isn’t something to fear. Unless it’s gone really bad, I suppose.

Of course, fresh produce is hard to come by in some areas, not to mention ethnic food, vegetarian stuff, or haute anything, and it’d be an unfair thing for me to push my hoity-toity lifestyle on anybody anyhow. I’d just like to put a little of this spirit out there, to anybody who needs it.

Try new things, seek out the unknown, read some food blogs, troll Wikipedia, cruise ethnic markets, and if you’ve got kids, feed them with an eye to the future, not just what will keep them quiet for the duration of Yugi-Oh! Do your best to surprise and illuminate your palate and those around you whenever possible. Tedium’s not hard to come by in today’s world, is it? Why tolerate it at the dinner table, that vast canvas of the imagination?

(a hint: don’t)

Filed under: Philosophy

One Response to “Food-u-mu-cation…”

1. patrice Says:
   May 18th, 2007 at 12:50 pm

   Hear, hear!

   Jay was the one who saved me from the boxed food doldrums. They told me “taco bell is mexican food” growing up. OH, how I missed out!!

   Now, the famers market is my food orgy.

   FEAR THE BOX. Love the plant/farm/pond, whatever…

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