kamsa in the evening...

food list

breakfast: banana (chaquita, with a stick on it that said “to-go” as if a banana is ever anything else but ready to go wherever!), soy latte

lunch: tangerine, sweet potato bread (which tastes a lot like pumpkin bread), Korean noodles and lettuce

snack: blue corn chips

dinner: a tangerine (so far), salad and tea to come!

where it’s from

blue corn chips are from garden of eatin’. they are gluten-free and made with organic blue corn. they have no sunflower oil (which I’m also allergic too… how do i eat anything?!) and they’re really, really blue. garden of eatin’ is based in new york, but i didn’t figure out the carbon footprint of my bag of tortilla chips (my guess is that it would be similar to my smart dog). i am interested in whether i could make my own tortilla chips out of corn—i guess so, since i can make my own cornmeal. this will be a project for the summer/fall when real, local corn is available.

i learned today that tortilla chips are less than a hundred years old, having been invented in the 1940s in los angeles (http://kitchentraveler.com/?p=124). if you assumed that they were from some place in latin america, i would be right there with you. here’s what you learn when you research food.

reflection:

i know i talked about the blue chips above, but here i want to talk about korean food. at mccormick, a significant portion of the student body is made up of korean students. i’ve been lucky to work and study with so many of them and i’m grateful to call so many of them my friends. some of them had been friendly with me when we first met, but our relationships changed when we started sharing food together.

i have learned more about korean culture and individuals from sitting around many tables with my korean friends. i don’t like some of the food (one might only look at what food from my own culture i like!), but i like most of it… mostly for how its served. gathered around the table, we eat from common dishes. we find uncommon places of connection over bowls of kimchi and japchae and rice.

eating korean food with my korean friends might violate some of my intentions to eat locally… but it signifies for me how eating different foods builds relationships. my friends spend so much time in unfamiliar spaces using a non-native language; over a meal, i’m the one in a new space learning new words. and for a little while, i’m invited into their homes and lives and hearts.

food and eating isn’t just about what we put into our bellies. who makes our food matters too. who we share a meal with matters too. i’m mindful of all the times jesus gathered with people to eat and teach, and i’m mindful of all the time the bible records that jesus ate with other people. it mattered to jesus who shared his table (just ask the woman who crashed a dinner at a pharisee’s house in order to anoint jesus), and it matters to me who shares mine.