![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saturday evening recap
Feb. 7th, 2009 05:41 pmlast night jack and i went to a friend's birthday party. i like going to her birthday thing every year, because she knows such an interesting group of people... she's very involved/known in the philly arts and improv scene, so her parties are usually a mix of musicians, comedians, and artists... some of them a few fries short of a full happy meal. always makes for a colorful evening. B (the friend) started taking a samba drumming class a year ago, and her class performed at the party... totally awesome. i love brazilian music, especially the big boomy drums (whatever they're called)... if only i lived closer to the city, i'd totally suck up more of my free time by trying to learn.
one thing struck me this morning after the party though. it was billed as a potluck, with a request to bring booze and/or snacks to share with everyone... there were easily 30 or 40 people in attendance at this party, and the food offerings were as follows: one person brought 2 loaves of pepperoni bread, with a warmer to keep them toasty... two people brought hame baked brownies... one person brought an enormous tray of beautiful cheeses and crackers... and one person brought a bowl of homemade pasta salad. everyone else, out of 40 people, brought some permutation of chips and hummus. potato chips, pita chips, hummus with garlic, hummus with sundried tomatoes... i've never seen so many containers of store-bought hummus in one place in my life.
so i was just struck by what we've become as a society... that someone spends a nice chunk of money to rent a giant loft in philly to throw a party, and invites the people she loves to celebrate with her... she asks her music class to attend and perform for everyone... and we all respond by swinging by the supermarket on the way and picking up $6 worth of chips and dip. what happened to the days when "potluck" meant that you took the time the night before to make an actual dish to share with everyone? the days when people had a couple of "signature recipes" that they'd bust out at times like this, and they were happy to make the effort to actually cook? can you imagine if, in the 1960s, someone brought anything to a potluck that came in a box, bag, or tub? the shame! are we all really that busy? not to mention the fact that the birthday girl doesn't eat anything with sugar or refined flour... and so the only thing in the entire party that she could eat was some cubes of cheese from that cheese platter.
speaking of food -- i must learn to not watch the food network when i'm hungry, because i am very suggestible. jack and i didn't eat breakfast this morning, so when we were flipping channels and saw a food network show all about pizza, we had an instant violent craving for it. we went to a local pizza joint we'd been wanting to try, and ordered a death bomb covered in sausage, pepperoni, ground beef, and bacon. urk. i had 3 slices, and 5 hours later my body still doesn't know what to do with it.
one thing struck me this morning after the party though. it was billed as a potluck, with a request to bring booze and/or snacks to share with everyone... there were easily 30 or 40 people in attendance at this party, and the food offerings were as follows: one person brought 2 loaves of pepperoni bread, with a warmer to keep them toasty... two people brought hame baked brownies... one person brought an enormous tray of beautiful cheeses and crackers... and one person brought a bowl of homemade pasta salad. everyone else, out of 40 people, brought some permutation of chips and hummus. potato chips, pita chips, hummus with garlic, hummus with sundried tomatoes... i've never seen so many containers of store-bought hummus in one place in my life.
so i was just struck by what we've become as a society... that someone spends a nice chunk of money to rent a giant loft in philly to throw a party, and invites the people she loves to celebrate with her... she asks her music class to attend and perform for everyone... and we all respond by swinging by the supermarket on the way and picking up $6 worth of chips and dip. what happened to the days when "potluck" meant that you took the time the night before to make an actual dish to share with everyone? the days when people had a couple of "signature recipes" that they'd bust out at times like this, and they were happy to make the effort to actually cook? can you imagine if, in the 1960s, someone brought anything to a potluck that came in a box, bag, or tub? the shame! are we all really that busy? not to mention the fact that the birthday girl doesn't eat anything with sugar or refined flour... and so the only thing in the entire party that she could eat was some cubes of cheese from that cheese platter.
speaking of food -- i must learn to not watch the food network when i'm hungry, because i am very suggestible. jack and i didn't eat breakfast this morning, so when we were flipping channels and saw a food network show all about pizza, we had an instant violent craving for it. we went to a local pizza joint we'd been wanting to try, and ordered a death bomb covered in sausage, pepperoni, ground beef, and bacon. urk. i had 3 slices, and 5 hours later my body still doesn't know what to do with it.
