This is a wonderful and most appropriate response. I am thinking of all the Ukrainians and Palestinians bombed, wounded, displaced, homes destroyed and (if lucky) able to leave for safer havens. We need to prepare the table for them (and many others under similar circumstances). I will invite my Ukrainian friends over soon.
Food is political—as well as a pleasure and a necessity. In your writing about food in your columns since quitting NM you have emphasised the differences between the US foods and those you encountered on your travels—politics and education nicely joined to nutrition.
I love this, Alisa! I can't tell you how much I want to sit at your Table. I listen to your voice whenever you post something new and it feeds me. Thank you.
I am adrift. Feeling out new things. Enjoying every adventure, always mourning the loss of the America I mistakenly thought existed. Looking for the new one arising. Sliding through Spain soon, will invite you to a party in Bordeaux in Nov if you like. Cheers.
I an European and I have been reading your more recent posts with pleasure and some relief. Many Europeans I know have been trying to explain to US Americans for years - years!!! - that they may see us as lazy, old fashioned, conservative-with-a-small-c, uninspired. While we have been trying to explain that we see balance, diplomacy, the importance of social cohesion, the rule of law. Legislation on food quality standards is not primarily focused on blocking imports but rather on protecting health. Your posts have been amplifying that message but in a USAmerican to USAmerican audience which has greater impact. The reader who has unsubscribed has perhaps not fully experienced this difference.
As an American, I hope you'll reconsider these generalizations. Many of us--at least half the population--have always believed in, voted for, and taught the values you say you've 'tried to explain' to us. Today we're in shock and anguish at the destruction, danger and cruelty inflicted--in our name--on human beings, both here & abroad; on health, safety, law, freedom & alliances; and on the planet itself. We are trying to counter the ignorance and prejudice fostered by R-Wing, billionaire-owned media; trying to stand up to tyranny, protect the most vulnerable, and hold on to hope. While Americans have apologized to the world for the heinous acts of those in power, we--victims and opponents, as well--do not deserve to be shamed.
Nourishment for the body, eyes and soul is what I experience from your food pics and artful good nights. These offerings ARE revolutionary acts. Yes! to dogs asleep in the sun! Yes! to Madrian tapas! Our simple acts are testimonies to life. Thank you for living another day, Alisa. We are all the better for it.
This is a wonderful and most appropriate response. I am thinking of all the Ukrainians and Palestinians bombed, wounded, displaced, homes destroyed and (if lucky) able to leave for safer havens. We need to prepare the table for them (and many others under similar circumstances). I will invite my Ukrainian friends over soon.
This was nice.
You are always welcome at my table, and bring Baldwin. My hero.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Food is political—as well as a pleasure and a necessity. In your writing about food in your columns since quitting NM you have emphasised the differences between the US foods and those you encountered on your travels—politics and education nicely joined to nutrition.
Mi español es horrible, pero mejoro poco a poco.
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship
anchored late at night in the tiny port
looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
all the years of sorrow that are to come.”
― Jack Gilbert, Refusing Heaven: Poems
I love this, Alisa! I can't tell you how much I want to sit at your Table. I listen to your voice whenever you post something new and it feeds me. Thank you.
Food and the Welcome Table have always been a location for representation and for change. Psalm 23’s table and the Last Supper come to mind, too.
I've learned a lot from you. Keep it up.
Love you, the food you eat, and all you share from your brilliant, empathetic, inquisitive mind.
I am adrift. Feeling out new things. Enjoying every adventure, always mourning the loss of the America I mistakenly thought existed. Looking for the new one arising. Sliding through Spain soon, will invite you to a party in Bordeaux in Nov if you like. Cheers.
Lovely, Alisa. 💙🍷🥘
Thank you for this! Puts into words what my heart feels.
I an European and I have been reading your more recent posts with pleasure and some relief. Many Europeans I know have been trying to explain to US Americans for years - years!!! - that they may see us as lazy, old fashioned, conservative-with-a-small-c, uninspired. While we have been trying to explain that we see balance, diplomacy, the importance of social cohesion, the rule of law. Legislation on food quality standards is not primarily focused on blocking imports but rather on protecting health. Your posts have been amplifying that message but in a USAmerican to USAmerican audience which has greater impact. The reader who has unsubscribed has perhaps not fully experienced this difference.
As an American, I hope you'll reconsider these generalizations. Many of us--at least half the population--have always believed in, voted for, and taught the values you say you've 'tried to explain' to us. Today we're in shock and anguish at the destruction, danger and cruelty inflicted--in our name--on human beings, both here & abroad; on health, safety, law, freedom & alliances; and on the planet itself. We are trying to counter the ignorance and prejudice fostered by R-Wing, billionaire-owned media; trying to stand up to tyranny, protect the most vulnerable, and hold on to hope. While Americans have apologized to the world for the heinous acts of those in power, we--victims and opponents, as well--do not deserve to be shamed.
Nourishment for the body, eyes and soul is what I experience from your food pics and artful good nights. These offerings ARE revolutionary acts. Yes! to dogs asleep in the sun! Yes! to Madrian tapas! Our simple acts are testimonies to life. Thank you for living another day, Alisa. We are all the better for it.