I have many loves in my life – you’ve heard them all before: food [of course], theater, travel, fashion, words, New York.
I love a lot of people as well – family, friends, artists, writers.
However, those two lists don’t always mesh. My dad, for instance, shares my appreciation of travel and live theater, but fashion is unsurprisingly not high on his list. Recently, I realized: every person in my life has just one thing in common: food.
No matter where we are in the world, no matter which stage of life we’re in, no matter what time of day or how we are feeling, food unites us. Whether our preferences match up or diverge completely, we all still need to eat.
Consequently, I have many associations with certain people and certain foods. It’s a nice way to look at it – beyond flavor, texture, nutrition – these connections are about emotion instead.
Peanut butter, for instance, always stirs up thoughts about my mom: how she didn’t eat peanut butter for years, but now enjoys it regularly. How I grew from having one jar of opened nut butter to six at a time, and how my mom has moved from a single open jar to [at my most recent count] three.
I share memories of pineapple with a travel friend, with whom I googled “how to cut a pineapple” during the early stages of our post-collegiate “get healthy” journey.
The list goes on: I’ll always smile about my oldest friend in the world when I purchase a box of raspberries, as I could never forget her childhood attempt to force-feed me one in her swimming pool [it was drown or consume fruit, and my teenage produce-fearing self leaned toward the former].
i keep my greek yogurt simple: pom seeds + granola.
I think of my sister whenever I dip my spoon into Greek yogurt, because I am responsible for her addiction to it, and she stirs up a bowl with loads of mix-ins nearly every evening as dessert.
There are the waffles that were a Sunday morning tradition with my roommate senior year, or the chocolate chips two of my high school friends put in their weekly batches of cookies.
Though I’ll never eat one, I can’t see a hot dog without thinking of my grandfather; he tried for so many years to convince me to taste one during our pre-Yankees game deli meals.
the bee’s knees, apple butter, wheat germ on epic-ly sized bread.
I’ll now likely associate monstrous peanut butter sandwiches with Mel, Michelle, and Rebecca, as they were my dining companions at the Peanut Butter & Co. sandwich shop this past weekend. I love building new food memories.
Tell me, what foods do you associate with the loves of your life?
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I associate beets+carrot cake with my dad, waffles with my mom, lemon pepper seasoning with my paternal grandma, raising bran+fresh squeezed Florida orange juice+Ben and Jerry ice cream with my maternal grandma…so many happy memories and emotions with these foods! Lovely post.
Most of my past loves associations to food have negative condensations to them but the positive ones stand out the most. My mom and her brown sugar chocolate chip cookies and her lassagna. Or my dad’s chicken, egg and rice dish. Especially the way my nonna burnt her sourdough and used european butter and boysenberry jam only. Beautiful memories for beautiful people.
Thanks for this lovely post :)
Maggie
Such an interesting perspective. I definitely know there are foods that remind me of certain people, and I think it’s interesting to note that some of them I might not even like, but they still make me happy when I’m reminded of who does enjoy them.
i love this post- so beautiful ! i was just talking to my mom about this actually. We were talking about the prevvalance of eating disorders & how it is because food is essential to life, everyone eats, so it sometimes is bound to turn bad? you know? but anywayss i associate certain foods with family- cant think of what exactly at the moment! i think baked potatoes remind me of home, actually.
My grandmother + bread. But what’s funny is that I wasn’t there for those memories. It was retold to me in stories by my mother. When my mom married my dad, she couldn’t cook at all. She spent every Saturday morning at my grandmother’s house trying to learn, and they always made bread. Even though I wasn’t there, I always try and imagine those times and what they were like.
Five outta six :) twinsies. See you tonight!
Waffles always make me think of college – Sunday mornings, the university served waffles with an imprint of our mascot in the center. There was always a loooong line when the cafeteria opened at 11 with hungover students wanting a hot waffle or two.
Peas always remind me of my mom, how she mixed them in with mac & cheese and mashed potatoes to get us to eat them as kids. As an adult, I still mix peas with my mac & cheese because I like the taste. ;)
Leslie, your posts are always such a joy to read. :) your words produce the best mental photographs.
coffee reminds me of my mom. when one of us goes to a Starbucks we usually give each other a call and say, “hi, I just got a soy latte and I’m thinking of you…”
hehe :) oh &… I am DYING to go to the PB&Co. cafe. gotta make it up to NYC soon!
<3
Cheese and crackers with my mom – always :)
I associate ketchup with my mom, because she loves it so much. I really like this post. very true.
Love this post AND I loved meeting you!! I will always associate gigantic PB sandwiches with you guys as well. Along with the quote, “I wear skinny jeans because that’s just how I wear pants sometimes.” Not that I’ll ever say that again because it made absolutely no sense! <3
Oh my, this is the cutest post! How cute about your grandpa and hot dogs :)
Cinnamon bread and scones remind me of my mom, because those are her two breakfast staples. Tuna sandwiches, on potato bread, remind me of my dad because he used to make those for me when I was little on the weekends. I think of the best vanilla soft serve ice cream that my siblings and I used to get at the beach every summer. My best friend represents candied ginger + dark chocolate, her two loves.
Hope all is well, Leslie! <3
great blog! i can’t wait to catch up on your entries.
peanut butter is so so tied up with memories…