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| The feast ended with everyone happy, content and an inbox of new friends |
Food has always been the right place for people to sit
around together. You can use it to take away the worst tension when you need to
discuss serious stuff with business partners, have a relaxed evening with your
new lover, or have a chat with long-time-no-see friends or family.
That food is a good place to sit around and spent some time
together hasn’t always been acknowledged. During the last centuries the time we
spent on buying, preparing and eating our meals has decreased
seriously. While the amount of food we consume in the short breaks has grown.
To compensate for our hastily meals on normal weekdays we
tend to spend more time on eating during weekends and festivities. The most
well-known in our Western society are Christian festivities like Christmas and Easter.
As will be confirmed today or tomorrow
when you have an Easter brunch with friends or family.
But with the declination of religious people the importance
of these get togethers’ also decreases. As soon as there is an opportunity we tend
to go on holiday thereby ‘leaving behind’ the rest of the family not knowing
who to share the table with.
In exchange for these family meals there now is a new trend
going on. In 2011 for the first time a restaurant day was organized.
There are numerous apps where you share
meals you couldn’t finish eating yourself and – the latest trend – there are
people who invite others to their houses
to share a breakfast,
lunch or dinner.
On a rainy Sunday morning I spent some hours at one of these
events. I knew
I was going to spend my money on a delicious breakfast but I didn’t know who I was
going to share it with. So it was quite exiting to enter the apartment of a
stranger full of other strangers.
But besides the strangers – which appeared to be all very kind
and as curious as I was about the happening – there was a table full of
home-made foods. We guests were supposed to try as much as we liked; granola,
breads, soft-boiled eggs, pancakes, ciambelline
and fresh orange juice.
It was this table and food that made us feel comfortable
immediately. We chatted, we exchanged experiences on all kinds of themes and in
the end we all exchanged addresses. It was a perfect example of an event where
food helped to make strangers friends within seconds. And that’s exactly what
makes food so interesting for me.
Have a happy and shared Easter.
