The Philosophy of Food | Wednesday, 3rd Period

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal arranged everything on the desk carefully, then sat and waited for everyone to arrive.

Once they were there, he nodded. "We discussed last week what makes something food, why some things are or aren't. This week, we have another question. Why do we eat?"

He waved at the food and drink. "There are the obvious answers; most people will say, 'we eat because we're hungry'. But it is rarely so clear-cut. Each section here is a pair of foods. You may eat or drink only one from each pair. Choose one - or neither - and explain to us why. Feel free to debate it with each other as well. Feel free to ask me or each other questions."

He leaned forward. "Remember, there are no wrong answers; it's the reasoning we're after."

Comments

Sign in!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

Just be thankful he nixed the food games.

Re: Sign in!

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

Rilla Blythe

Re: Sign in!

[robinonadderall]

Stiles Stilinski

First pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"This one is simple." He taps each of two carafes; they have glasses and ceramic cups nearby. "Hot water; iced water."

Re: First pairing!

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"It is far too hot to drink hot water right now," Rilla said, taking a glass of iced water.

Re: First pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"I agree." Hannibal smiled. "So, warming or cooling would be another way of evaluating our food, then?"

Re: First pairing!

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Zhari grabbed the ice water, too. "Much too hot," she agreed, nodding at Rilla. "And hot water doesn't taste good by itself."

Re: First pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"I'll admit I don't expect to see much variation for this pairing today. What makes hot water taste differently from cold?"

Second pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"Paté. With fresh-baked, lightly toasted bread and garnish, or as a lump." He grimaced slightly at the latter; after the time spent preparing it, it nearly physically hurt to present it like this. Still, at least with Mavis...indisposed...there would be no worries about the garlic in it. "These are the same basic food, although the first does have accompaniments."

Re: Second pairing!

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

Rilla made a tiny face but didn't say anything unflattering. "I choose the first one because I know I like toast," she said, "and the food looks prettier than the lump."

Re: Second pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"It does indeed. Did you notice that you called the pretty one 'food', but not the 'lump'? This is one reason presentation matters."

Re: Second pairing!

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Zhari wrinkled her nose. "The lump just looks gro--err, unappealing. And there's nothing to eat it with. The toast is neater."

Hopefully Mr. Lecter wouldn't mind that she'd almost said one of the banned words!

She tried the paté and beamed. "Hey, this is really good!"

Re: Second pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"Thank you." Hannibal gave her a little bow, pleased. He'd forgive her almost-slip, since she had corrected herself.

Third pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"Pan-fried salmon, or barbequed salmon head. I should mention," he added as he squared the plates up, "that the head of the fish has much more nutrition, particularly prepared like this."

Re: Third pairing!

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"I choose the first one again," Rilla said. "I'm not...used to my food staring back at me after it's been killed and I know that fried salmon is delicious."

One of the benefits of growing up on PEI.

Re: Third pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"It is a modern and largely Western bias to prefer food not to look like live animals," Hannibal pointed out. "You are not alone in that. What makes it unsettling?"

Re: Third pairing!

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"...I can't try both?" Zhari asked, looking at them. Sure, the eyes were hard to get past, but fish heads had the best meat.

Re: Third pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"For now, the challenge is to show and describe a preference." And he'd be pleased if anyone chose the fish head; this class would be dull if he couldn't get them to experiment. "But I'm sure there will be enough at the end of class to try the others."

Fourth pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"I considered coffee or tea for this," Hannibal said, "but I thought this would be better received, the weather being what it is. Which," he pointed out, bowing slightly, "is my contribution to the discussion. My beer is the contribution to this pairing; I'm afraid I don't make my own wine." Yet.

Re: Fourth pairing!

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

Rilla bit her lower lip. "I don't imbibe," she said finally.

Re: Fourth pairing!

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Zhari chose the beer. "I don't know enough about wine to know what's good or not."

She didn't know enough about beer, either, but that seemed less fancy.

Last pairing!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"Cotton candy. It's not so thready as the mass-produced stuff, and the dye is cabbage-based, though I assure you you won't taste it. And chocolate, anise, and sea-salt toffee."

Re: Last pairing!

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"The chocolate," Rilla said promptly, "because even bad chocolate is still chocolate."

Re: Last pairing!

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Yick. Anise.

"The cotton candy is lighter," she said, after deciding that 'yick, anise' was probably not a good idea to say. "Much better for a hot day. And I don't have to worry about it melting on my fingers."

OOC!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

Because there's never enough naked Mads.