Consumption Kaleidoscope
Jul. 23rd, 2009 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Over the last couple of days, the Stranger has been bringing my attention to two different faces of consumption. First, on Slog someone re-posted a pair of articles out of the New York Times and New York Post about American Fat Culture. The literature on the subject tends to be redundant (Americans are fat, we don't entirely know what to do about it, some people say accept it and move on, others want to hem and haw about the epidemic and its causes in the industrialization of the food supply, blah blah blah). Then, this week, there's an article in the Stranger about the overabundance of sweets shops in Seattle. I'm inclined to agree with Seling about the overabundance and overwhelmingness of it all.
I'm going to ignore the food matters brought up in these articles to focus on something else instead. Collectively, these articles raise questions about how we Americans choose to live our lives. Do we devote time and money and energy to obsessing over our weight and physical appearance? Do we go over the top in search of more and more sophisticated foods to titillate our minds and palates? To what degree do these places speak to a good aesthetic sensibility?
These sorts of questions came up sharply for me when we went to eat cupcakes at Cupcake Royale in Seattle. I'd been hearing about the Strawberry 66 cupcake for weeks on KEXP (sixty-six percent local ingredients! Fresh, local strawberries!), and wanted to see what it was like for myself. A man was standing out in front of Cupcake Royale, selling the paper Real Change (one of those papers for the homeless/unemployed, to help get them back on their feet). I did not buy a copy. I bought a cupcake instead.
I'm going to ignore the food matters brought up in these articles to focus on something else instead. Collectively, these articles raise questions about how we Americans choose to live our lives. Do we devote time and money and energy to obsessing over our weight and physical appearance? Do we go over the top in search of more and more sophisticated foods to titillate our minds and palates? To what degree do these places speak to a good aesthetic sensibility?
These sorts of questions came up sharply for me when we went to eat cupcakes at Cupcake Royale in Seattle. I'd been hearing about the Strawberry 66 cupcake for weeks on KEXP (sixty-six percent local ingredients! Fresh, local strawberries!), and wanted to see what it was like for myself. A man was standing out in front of Cupcake Royale, selling the paper Real Change (one of those papers for the homeless/unemployed, to help get them back on their feet). I did not buy a copy. I bought a cupcake instead.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-23 09:55 pm (UTC)There were all kinds of tarrifs set on sugar in 1977 and so high fructose corn syrup was found to be dirt-cheap and could be added easily to a lot of things. Thank you ADM!!!!!
So food became cheaper and portions slowly became larger.
It is easy to make HFCS the devil, but damn that stuff is so not good for you. So we have raised a generation or two on this stuff and we have obviously seen what it has done.
Just had to say my two cents on that subject.
As for the abundance of sweet shops, I suppose it is the natural reaction when things are complicated. Let's do some emotional eating. From a historical perspective I can point this out, I had some relations who owned a small restaurant during the depression. It wasn't fancy but they served good comfort food. They never ever hurt for business. In fact they did so well that they were known for years as the wealthy relations. They had been able to retire and travel around the world because of that comfort-food happy restaurant.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-23 11:26 pm (UTC)There's a part of the upswell in sweet shops that I really like, actually--it's the human part of it. But I think there's a difference between shops offering comfort foods and higher-end shops. A lot of the new Seattle-area shops seem to be catering to a slightly uppity foodie crowd (but maybe that's a misperception).
I guess I could get into it from the standpoint of how nice it is to enjoy food and community on a local level. I always figured coffeeshops could fill that niche. Perhaps it would be interesting to see what's happening with the coffeeshops relative to sweet shops, though.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-23 11:37 pm (UTC)Molly Moon I admire in particular because she makes her business a very present part of a neighborhood. She is there for meetings, neighborhood events, getting involved in political issues (healthcare, local businesses) and she is keen on working with other businesses. Her Scout mint ice cream -she puts out a call every year to girl scouts selling cookies to sell her thin mints. (she essentially buys a year's supply from a bunch of different girls) So it extends down to the kid level.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-24 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-24 07:07 am (UTC)http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/07/23/hot-ideas-for-hump
This reminds me of this:
http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/jello/index.html
Especially http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/jello/2.html
Your post, I mean. Not the call-for-porn. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because of the intersection of food, poverty, image, and society.
It's a little gauche to enjoy a cupcake in this economic climate. On the other hand, more and more so, the pleasures we have remaining are hand crafted creations of small institutions. I'd love to see a street-side cupcake vendor move in next to the taco stands in this neighborhood. Perhaps that's the form our humbled culture will take. Door to door cupcake and tomale sales. But if Seattle can maintain this vibrance and not turn into a sprawl of Biglots and Walmarts, good for it. Dunno. Tough question.
-scott
no subject
Date: 2009-07-24 04:08 pm (UTC)The NYT and New York Post articles are probably buried pretty far by now. But I dug them up (or at least the Slog post on them): here.
I'm still conflicted about the cupcake-enjoyment. An entirely austere lifestyle doesn't necessarily do anyone any good, either.