Thoughts on Meals

When I think about food I automatically think about the time that I spent at DiBrunos. For the time that I worked at that store I almost never bought a grocery item, I very rarely prepared food in my home, and I almost never was left wanting for things to share if I invited a friend over impromptu. I spent entire days in the midst of food and in a way, the ritual aspect of a lot of my experience of food was lost. For all the amazing things that I had around me, food almost became blasé. I enjoyed most being able to share the things I was around with others. I invited friends over constantly. I loved feeling like I had this huge store of items to share. I liked to spend long amounts of time preparing something exciting for a friend that they had never tried before. The food that I had to sell became an extension of myself. I would only let people I knew try things I personally liked or felt most proud of, despite whether they’d express interest in something else. I often felt overwhelmed by the amount of choice I was always bombarded with. Because of this I think that I would focus on a specific few items at a time, a turkey burger and broccoli rabe one week, chicken salad or baked penne the next and only eat those things until I tired of them.

Even now I rarely make Italian food or think of it as something to seek out when going to restaurants. That cuisine, at least the south Philly variety of it, feels almost part of my body, in my veins or at least coating them. I almost literally ate nothing but the food of DiBruno Bros for nearly 2 years. I contrast this constant presence with the food that I eat ate Thanksgiving or even Christmas, the kind of food that has a specific once a year-ness in my family and part of my wishes I hadn’t been around those foods so much. I talked to cooks while I worked at the store and all of them had an amazing store of food knowledge but an almost disdain for the cuisine itself. I think of how different an experience a person who grows up with Italian food as a cultural icon would feel compared to my business oriented encounter. While I imagine I could rattle off the names of the food with similar ease, and could tell you what exactly goes into each dish, at least according to the chefs I watched, I doubt that the food for all its familiarity has the same sense of history or specialness.