Talking about food: you know we all do it!

[Gifted Gourmet]

article from the CS Monitor

I've asked cab drivers, receptionists, and many others about their favorite vegetables. I've found it to be a very inoffensive conversation starter - much safer than asking for their opinions about Iraq.  Food brings an enjoyment that few other things bring. And there's commonality: Eating is something we all do.  I love to hear someone go "mmm, mmm," when talking about their grandma's fried chicken. I delight when someone leaves their problems for a few moments to tell how they put sausage and meatballs in lasagna.  I see their eyes fill with memories as they talk about turkeys, corn bread, stuffing, and candied yams ...

Discussing food, as the author of this article notes sagely, is often a great ice-breaker. Food is generally a common interest for many and is usually neutral unless it becomes political or judgemental.

With that in mind, might I inquire:

Do you discuss food with others?

Whom do you usually do this with?

Is this something one can do with friends and strangers alike?

Does food chat add to your knowledge base?

Does it evoke nostalgic memories?

[ladyyoung98]

article from the CS Monitor

I've asked cab drivers, receptionists, and many others about their favorite vegetables. I've found it to be a very inoffensive conversation starter - much safer than asking for their opinions about Iraq.  Food brings an enjoyment that few other things bring. And there's commonality: Eating is something we all do.  I love to hear someone go "mmm, mmm," when talking about their grandma's fried chicken. I delight when someone leaves their problems for a few moments to tell how they put sausage and meatballs in lasagna.  I see their eyes fill with memories as they talk about turkeys, corn bread, stuffing, and candied yams ...

Discussing food, as the author of this article notes sagely, is often a great ice-breaker. Food is generally a common interest for many and is usually neutral unless it becomes political or judgemental.

With that in mind, might I inquire:

Do you discuss food with others?

Whom do you usually do this with?

Is this something one can do with friends and strangers alike?

Does food chat add to your knowledge base?

Does it evoke nostalgic memories?

←

yes i do discuss food with other people,

i discuss it with everybody i come across ,

as the author said its very inoffensive conversation. everybody eats so its a relativley safe topic to discuss with anybody

yes sometimes it adds to my knowledge base

and every now and then it evokes nostalgic memories

Edited October 28, 2005 by ladyyoung98 (log)

[purplewiz]

Do you discuss food with others?

Whom do you usually do this with?

Is this something one can do with friends and strangers alike?

Does food chat add to your knowledge base?

Does it evoke nostalgic memories?

←

Do I discuss food? Does the sun rise in the east? Does a bear...oh, you get the idea.

I know my husband gets sick of the talk sometime, but he's always willing to eat the results, so he puts up with it even though sometimes his eyes glaze over. (Hrm, glazed eyes.....) I have a couple of friends where our friendship started from discussing our shared love of good food and the fact that we're all stuck in culinary wastelands for now. We share sources and commiserate when we lose the good places. We chat darned near daily online about food, even if it's only to share what we ate for dinner.

In fact, friends of ours throw a weekend house party once a year, and a group of us end up talking food almost the whole time (we talk computers most of the rest of the time!). It's a great topic because people we've just met can chime in without knowing the entire history of how we all met .

Yes, it adds to my knowledge base - other folks think of combining flavors in ways that I never would, and it's often pretty darned good. When two friends and I all discovered we'd received free samples of English Prime Rib Rub from Penzey's, we spent at least an hour brainstorming uses for it. Then there are online discussions like, oh, say, here, where I learn about things like roasted cauliflower which makes my culinary world just that much larger and richer.

I'm not so much on the nostalgia because the things I eat and the way I interact with food is so different now, very different from most of the rest of my family.

Maybe I talk too much about food.

Marcia.

[Gifted Gourmet]

It's a great topic because people we've just met can chime in without knowing the entire history of how we all met  .

Yes, it adds to my knowledge base - other folks think of combining flavors in ways that I never would, and it's often pretty darned good.

Maybe I talk too much about food.

←

Sounds as if you are my separated-at-birth sister, Marcia!

Talk too much about food? Not possible ...

[BarbaraY]

Yesterday as I was checking out my groceries, the clerk said he was selling a lot of leeks. I said it was probably because it was it was cooler and people might be making soup.

He grinned and commented, "Hmmmm? Leek and Mandarin soup."

I laughed and told him that the Mandarins were for a tofu stir-fry.

The woman behind me immediately perked up and the conversation started on how to make the dish.

Yep! It happens all the time

[Pam R]

Do you discuss food with others?

Of course.

Whom do you usually do this with?

Anybody I see in person or speak with on the phone.

Is this something one can do with friends and strangers alike?

As the writer said, it's really inoffensive. Add to that the fact that everybody needs to eat... and everybody is knowledgeable on a certain area of food (whether it's home cooking, fast food restaurants or high dining)

Does food chat add to your knowledge base?

often.

Does it evoke nostalgic memories?

Depends on the person I'm speaking to. I work in a Jewish/Kosher food company. Most of the people who come in to my store read my kosher cooking columns, so it can evoke many nostalgic memories... especially if my column's topic has a nostalgic theme.

Edited October 28, 2005 by Pam R (log)

[Aileen]

I talk about food with my sisters (who both also love to cook) all the time, pretty much every time we talk.

I've also found that food is a good topic of conversation when I have a "team outing" at work. There are no other women on my team, so when we are in a social situation I've found food/restaurants/cooking to be a good way to keep a conversation going. I've also learned a lot about my co-workers this way.

[MT-Tarragon]

I know my husband gets sick of the talk sometime, but he's always willing to eat the results, so he puts up with it even though sometimes his eyes glaze over. (Hrm, glazed eyes.....)

←

Glazed eyes... mmm, sacrilicious.

I've found that there is a lot of talk about food at work. We've got a CEO who likes to keep anyone from talking to anyone else, but when people do sneak in private conversations, it's often about food: who made what; what can I do with X; have you baked anything lately, and so forth.

Edited October 28, 2005 by MT-Tarragon (log)

[birder53]

I love to talk about food! I've only been interested in cooking for a few years now, but finding good food has always been a passion. My husband enjoys good food, but really doesn't want to talk about it. I have lots of friends and relatives who love to talk about food, and they are the ones I enjoy entertaining the most. It's so much fun to talk about food with those who share your joy. I haven't gone so far as to start a food conversation in my doctor's waiting room, but the seed has now been planted.

My mother would always ask her co-workers about what they planned to cook for dinner and that was a great way to try new foods, stores and recipes. She would also ask people shopping at the butcher or grocer for ideas. You have to realize that back then making meatballs and sauce was considered exotic in our house, but she eventually went on to wonderful dishes like paella.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Updating this thread with another idea/question:

Who talks more about food: men or women?

With the advent of such chefs as Ming, Emeril, Bobby, Mario ... I kind of thought maybe no more "how 'bout them White Sox?" ...

Still women chat only?

[Jenny McClure]

My Husbands observations.

That women can switch from talking about copmlaing abput not loosing weight and diets to an in depth discussion of food all in the space of 15 minutes. Also when we are having lunch we are already discussing dinner for that night and what to have tomorrow.

[MT-Tarragon]

Who talks more about food: men or women?

With the advent of such chefs as Ming, Emeril, Bobby, Mario ...    I kind of thought maybe no more "how 'bout them White Sox?" ...

Still women chat only?

←

I have a very few male friends with whom I can talk food. Mostly, male talk is still "how 'bout them <insert sports team>."

[purplewiz]

Sounds as if you are my separated-at-birth sister, Marcia!

Talk too much about food? Not possible ...

←

Ask my husband sometime....

The funny thing is that he can talk about his antique radios and his writing and computers with the same length and intensity, and really not notice it!

I find I tend to talk about food with both men and women - it's more a matter of who's interested more than gender.

Marcia.

[Ling]

I talk to people about food all the time. I have great conversations with people twice my age about food and cooking...the ladies at the gym love me. We share cooking/baking tips and watch FoodTV together. I also tell them about my favourite restaurants and my favourite dishes at those restaurants. I also talk about whatever dessert I've made that week, and they tell me about what they like to cook for their families.

A few days ago, I was working out next to two ladies who were puzzled by what they were watching on TV--a cook was cutting butter into flour with a pastry cutter, and one of the ladies thought he was making bread.

[Suzanne Podhaizer]

I've joked in the past that I can get into a conversation with anybody and have them talking about food within five minutes. As other people have suggested, it's one of the few topics that's completely universal. And most people (although not all) enjoy eating enough that they like talking about food, at least for a time.

I find that knowing about what a person likes to eat gives a lot of insight into other aspects of his/her personality. When I'm at the grocery store, I always examine what people are buying and try to guess at what they are like. I know that this can create stereotypes, so I don't take myself too seriously, but it's a fun exercise. For the same reason, I love to ask people questions about their food preferences.

In my experience, most Americans consider themselves to be novices in the realms of cooking and nutrition. Often when I'm walking home from farmer's market, strangers will ask me questions about what I intend to do with my vegetables. Once people (whether strangers or acquaintences) find out I'm a foodie, they seem to ask lots of questions, such as--how would you make pesto for someone who can't eat nuts, or, I saw a quince in the store the other day, what's a quince?

Since my graduate studies revolve around a study of the American diet and American food culture, I consider all of this talking that I do to be schoolwork!

[suzilightning]

i alsways talk about food(unless it is september - november when i also talk about hawk migration) to anyone and everyone. at work with staff members and patrons, in the grocery store, with friends ... with everyone but my husband's family.

remember my mother-in-law was raised by a diplomad german cook though she would rather hang out with her boyfriend than actually cook. she never taught my sister-in-law how to cook - wouldn't even let her turn the stove on to make a cup of tea when she was 13 years old. had her mother's funeral lunch catered by subway - then took all the lettuce and tomatoes out of the subs. i could go on and probably will when i find out of which boxes christmas dinner will be cooked(i insist on bringing fruit and fresh vegetables).

thank goodness my husband indulges me and my friends here are adventurous in trying new recipes or a new restaurant. actually i went to a new restaurant last week for lunch with my dangerous dining companion(friend 'chelle) and started exchanging recipes with the owner/chef.

[mizducky]

I've been known to get into random conversations in the check-out line about the food I'm purchasing--usually starting with someone looking at my order and asking "So what do you do with <insert name of item here>, I've never known how to cook that." But I actually have relatively few friends who are into cooking the way I am--which is why I hang out on eGullet.

Actually, I'm dying to relate a fascinating little food-conversation I had late last night (or more accurately, very very early this morning). I had just hit the road after spending an evening at a little jazz/rock dive in LA called The Baked Potato (a part of said adventure also documented here), and had pulled into a 24-hour convenience store to pick up some munchies for my motel room. The extremely animated cashier cheerfully demanded to know how I'd spent my evening, and among other things I wound up mentioning that the club I'd gone to served baked potatoes with various toppings. He excitedly began asking me all kinds of questions about what kind of toppings, etc.--then he wanted to know if they topped any of them with "shrim". To be sure, English was apparently not this fellow's first language, but even allowing for his accent I could not guess what "shrim" was. He got strangely agitated when I told him I didn't know what "shrim" was--"What? You're American and never heard of shrim????" Even when he spelled it out -- S-H-R-I-M -- I was clueless as to what he meant.

Finally he mentioned it was seafood, and the lightbulb went off: "Um, actually it's spelled with a 'P' on the end." Fortunately, he was only briefly abashed, and continued on enthusiastically chatting at me about food until I succeeded in fleeing into the night with my purchases.