Duck!

[osprey_archer]

My roommate said a sad thing today.

We were walking back from the dining hall, me bubbling about the duck they served for dinner (duck! with cranberries and apples that had been baked and slightly caramelized, and the duck itself tender and lovely), when she says, "I don't really care about food. As long as it fills me up..."

She's only been in America for a year and a half. Either it's only taken that long for America to destroy her appreciation of food, or the Europeans are way less food-tastic than every food memoir I ever read led me to believe.

***

On a happier note, via exuberantself: When you see this post, post your favorite poem.

I've already posted my favorite, so I'm not going to do so again, but here's a poem by Theodore Roethke that I recently read and enjoyed:

Epidermal Macabre

Indelicate is he who loathes
The aspect of his fleshy clothes, --

It's short, pithy, rhyming and rhythmic, delightful and creepy.

Comments

[minervasolo.livejournal.com]

It partly depends where in Europe she's from; Northern countries have a very different attitude to food than Southern countries, hence all the food related slurs (frogs, rosbef, krauts). Britain is infamous for it's "fills you up" attitude to food: all our national dishes are hot, stodgy and keep you going.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I've never seen anyone called a rosbef before. What nationality does it refer to?

She's from Bulgaria, right between Greece and Turkey. I know the Greeks are supposed to love food (which is good, because I love Greek food), but all I know about Bulgarian food is that they make a yogurt that's famous in Japan.

[minervasolo.livejournal.com]

Rosbef is the French slur for the British, since they think it's all we cook. Apparently, in medieval times, we taught the French how to spitroast beef, which is where it originally came from. Roast beef is very much a national dish, but we don't like it still mooing, as the French do.