Playing with Food

[Pontormo]

What do you do?

How do you do it?

When did you start?

Anything else you wanna tell me?

[Daniel]

Playing with food in terms of decorating a Christmas Tree with Popcorn.. Or sculpting with mash potatoes, or giving the kids dough to play with like clay, or decorating Easter Eggs.. Or like playing with food in terms of experimenting with dishes..

The other day I bought a dozen eggs at the store just to practice working with them.. I sawed off the tops of a couple of them, I soft boiled a few, I made three different texture versions of scrambeled eggs.. I made a crepe, and poached yolks.. Didnt eat any of it, I was just playing..

Edit to add:

This week I have been playing with pizza dough.. I have been making various wraps and pizza's.. Some went to the doorman, some went in the garbage.. Last night I made a breakfast stromboli type thing.. I took scrambeled eggs, mozzarella, roasted cayenne peppers, onions, and garlic and baked for awhile.. Ate it this morning.. It was pretty damn good..

Edited August 25, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[ermintrude]

Sodium Alginate

[Andrew Fenton]

Anything else you wanna tell me?

You know, I sat there at the Monopoly board with that stuffed pepper for HOURS, and it just didn't do anything. I even let it be the top hat. But nooo...

Finally, I had to conclude that some food just doesn't play well with others.

[jgm]

I started to answer this yesterday, and realized it was a more involved question than I had at first realized.

After thinking about it overnight, I realized that just working with food is a form of play for me. A lot of my kitchen equipment could be thought of as my toys.

Even a mundane activity like peeling and slicing a cantaloupe is something that I find myself turning into play. Using a really sharp knife to cut through the melon, is a lot of fun. How close can I come to the rind, without having any green places on the melon slice? When I dice an onion, how quickly can I do it? And how uniform can I make the pieces?

And then when I make something that turns out really, really well... that's a home run!

It's probably important to point out, however, that I don't cook for a family every night, and most of the cooking I do is purely for my own pleasure. That probably makes a difference.

[Pontormo]

I was shucking corn the other night and remembered Sunday afternoons on a screened-in porch in the summer, being shown how to make dolls out of the husks with cornsilk hair. I wondered if anyone was passing on that kind of tradition within their own families.

Then there is the wishbone, brined or not, drying out on top of the refrigerator.

So, yes, decorating eggs and popcorn chains are perfect examples of what I had in mind, at first. However, because there are so many ways to think about playing with food, I decided to be terse when starting this thread.

As for stuffed peppers, you'll find the majority tend to be armchair socialists.

[miladyinsanity]

Food is play for me.

Which is why I always end up baking much more than I can eat. And I eat a lot.

[Daniel]

This was the result of playing.. I ended up taking these cayenne peppers a co-worker gave me and roasted them.. Then added scrambled eggs, mozzarella cheese, grilled onions and a little garlic.. Wrapped and baked.. Had it this morning for breakfast..

[petite tête de chou]

Well, I still like to roll spongy white bread into little balls and eat 'em.

I guess I could take it a step further and use a bread stick to play pool with them.

[scubadoo97]

Home alone so I got to play with my food. I made some shrimp pot stickers with coconut milk and kecap manis/sweet soy sauce.

I guess this also answers how the internet changed my cooking and eating. Posting pictures of food on eGullet.

Edited August 25, 2006 by scubadoo97 (log)

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Well, I still like to roll spongy white bread into little balls and eat 'em.

I guess I could take it a step further and use a bread stick to play pool with them.

←

And after that, a sword fight with your little brother.

With the breadsticks, I mean.

[tino27]

Well, I still like to roll spongy white bread into little balls and eat 'em.

I guess I could take it a step further and use a bread stick to play pool with them.

←

And after that, a sword fight with your little brother.

With the breadsticks, I mean.

←

Pretending to be the Corsican Brothers?

[mamagotcha]

I'm a juggler, so a trip to the market is always a temptation. I do, however, purchase anything I juggle.

I've never done bar flair (juggling and manipulation with liquor bottles) but I love watching it, and someday I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to learn...

And, of course, there are dozens of things from this handy little tome that I haven't quite gathered the gumption to try... yet!

[Carolyn Tillie]

All these responses brought back something I had completely forgotten about... When I was four or five, my sister taught me to macrame (it was quite the late '60s/early '70s thing to do).

On a road trip to Oregon, I asked my folks to buy me some red vines (the long, thin kind) and gumdrops. I would macrame the red vines and using a toothpick, use the gumdrops as beads.

Makes me want to try again, just to take a picture...

[MGC]

When I was a kid, there were two times we ever had Tapioca Pudding (mmmm, pudding....).

When we were sick. Because 'it was good for you'.

Whenever my sister, brother and I had friends over, either for a campout or because school was closed because of snow. The object of making tapioca pudding then was to see who could make the prettiest / ugliest colored pudding with normal Red/Green/Blue/Yellow food coloring. I don't remember if anyone actually ate it after they were done playing with it. (I probably did - it takes a lot of food color to make pudding taste off-flavored, and I'm not about to waste pudding!)

I no longer color my tapioca pudding now, nor do I wait until I'm sick to make it.

[mizducky]

And, of course, there are dozens of things from this handy little tome that I haven't quite gathered the gumption to try... yet!

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And then, there is always this little literary classic.

These days, my "playing" with food is mostly of a utilitarian sort--the product itself, while often quite pleasing, is not especially playful, but the experimenting and exploring required to create it most definitely is. An exception: my lovely Peep Treets.

Erm ... and oh yeah, as mentioned in another recent topic, there have been certain experiments, over the years, with certain confections apocryphally ascribed to Alice B. Toklas ...

[Pontormo]

So no one else create(s/d) dolls or any other kinds of toys from edible substances?

The reference to tapioca pudding reminds me of peeled grapes used in haunted houses to feel like eyeballs.

* * *

Carolyn, we're waiting for the pictures. At least, shape something cute out of home-made cheese.

[purplewiz]

Playing with food always brings to mind marshmallow taffy.

We'd take a large marshmallow (or about 5 mini marshsmallows) and squish it between the thumb and forefinger until it was squooshy....um, soft and pliable. Then we'd pull it: grab the main part of the glob between the other thumb and forefinger and pull it away. Then grab the glob with the first hand's fingers and pull back.

It was a very relaxing motion, and after awhile, the marshmallow would get all smooth and taffy-like. Which we'd eat with wild abandon.

We had to do this when the parents weren't around because they would tell us to stop playing with our food.

Marcia.

[mizducky]

Playing with food always brings to mind marshmallow taffy.

We'd take a large marshmallow (or about 5 mini marshsmallows) and squish it between the thumb and forefinger until it was squooshy....um, soft and pliable. Then we'd pull it: grab the main part of the glob between the other thumb and forefinger and pull it away. Then grab the glob with the first hand's fingers and pull back.

It was a very relaxing motion, and after awhile, the marshmallow would get all smooth and taffy-like. Which we'd eat with wild abandon.

We had to do this when the parents weren't around because they would tell us to stop playing with our food.

←

You reminded me of the one instance in which my mother actively encouraged me to play with my food. I clearly remember her demonstrating how to make "canals" in my oatmeal by pouring a little milk over it and then dragging a spoon through it so that the milk would collect in the resulting trenches--and the relish with which she would tell me that she used to do this all the time when she was a kid.

[Rebecca263]

Gee, we play with food all of the time here! But, the things that immediately came to my mind were the following two memories:

Read this thread and find out why... I'm qualified to say that I DO not recommend this activity.

making lickable stickers with many a child over the years, using Kojel and drawings on paper

Edited September 9, 2006 by Rebecca263 (log)

[racheld]

You know, I sat there at the Monopoly board with that stuffed pepper for HOURS, and it just didn't do anything.  I even let it be the top hat.  But nooo...

The pepper might have just been asleep, all that unaccustomed protein and carbs. But they are all notoriously passive-agressive, plus they all want to be the SHOE. They just sit there and pout til you figure it out on your own.

[srhcb]

My grandson Zach, like most three year old boys, is an expert when it comes to playing with food! He considers the tactile, aerodynamic and adhesive properties of his meal just as important as the flavor. While experimenting he's come up with some interesting combinations, like paper towel and ketchup in milk, or pairing Hot Wheels Hum-Vee with mashed potatoes.

In order to entice him into actually eating more food than he drops to our pack of miniature canine, who circle below him like vultures soaring above a dying steer, I resort to a bit of food play myself.

One of my tactics is using cookie cutters to make his food into interesting shapes. One favorite is using my bone shaped dog biscuit cutter with cheese slices, (aka: "dog cheese").

Another shaping trick I learned from my Mother. She used to make us Toast Boxes, which we thought were something real special, and I'll be damned but the trick still works!

Sometimes his meal will have a theme. When we have rotelle, (choo-choo wheels), I'll slice carrots/pickles/olives etc into rounds, and make circular toast boxes. (well, maybe they're hat boxes?) Other themes involve colors or other shapes. Anything that's long, thin and pliable so it resembles a "snake" is always popular.

Giving a dish a funny name works too! Another childhood memory was elbow macaroni and tomato soup with sliced wieners, which was for some odd reason known as "Mixed Ghetti Soup"? My famous Tickle Me Cake also falls into this category

I was afraid I'd really miss this when he outgrows food games. But last month Zach became Big Brother to Baby Jenna!

SB (Advocate of fun with EVERYTHING!)

Edited September 18, 2006 by srhcb (log)

[hosinmigs]

hummm...when I read the topic, I thought, "sure, my girlfriend and I throw bread at each other in restaurants some times." yes, we're one of those. And yes, she starts it. But hey, it keeps us young!

[racheld]

But hey, it keeps us young! 

←

Young is as young plays. Welcome to eG---you'll fit right in.

[phaelon56]

My memories of eating date back to a fairly young age - perhaps to shorlty after the time when I began using utensils. For most of us born to Depression era parents (i.e. their formative years were during the height of the Great Depression) playing with your food was not an option - not ever.

But I did cross the line on one memorable occasion and soon regretted it. During a summer vacation trip, when I was about age 6, my older brother convinced to drop some Root Beer Fizzies into a glass of milk when we were having lunch.

He was 100% correct that it was cool looking and great fun to watch. But my mother was less than amused when I discovered that the resulting drink was foul tasting and unpalatable. Ten minutes later I had finally downed a ten ounce glass of sickly sweet root beer flavored carbonated whole milk.

I don't recall ever playing with my food again