fandomhigh | Philosophy of Food, Friday period 3

There was no food on the table today.

"Before we begin," Hannibal started, "as we are now halfway through this session, I encourage you to discuss your class project with me now or during office hours, so that we can schedule time." He nodded to them.

"So." He sat on the edge of the desk. "To this point, we've mostly discussed how we approach food due to other influences, such as culture. Now, we turn that around. How is food itself an influence on other parts of life?" he asked.

"The types and amounts of food available to a culture, the sorts of foods that are valued as delicacies and the sorts that are discarded - these all can help to dictate the development of society, not to mention arts and leisure activities. We still evaluate earlier cultures on the basis of whether they were hunter-gatherers or agricultural," he pointed out.

"In each of your cultures, what foods are common or valued, and what expectations or industries or cultures have grown up around them? Beyond that, how much a part of your routine revolves around food? Do you cook, eat in the cafeteria, order food - and how does that change your day? The picnic to welcome us here - what would you have thought if it didn't include food? What about the fact that I've set out no food today - have you come to expect it? How has that expectation altered your behavior and thinking?"

He sat back and waited.

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"A lot of my everyday routine is sort of centered around food," Evan offered, but less for me, and more for my pets. I take Old Lace out hunting in the preserve every day, because she needs the exercise and most high school kids can't really afford to feed a dinosaur." He shrugged his shoulders a little. "I'll bring snacks to eat along the way, and that's usually my breakfast. And then for the rest of my meals I kind of make do with the cafeteria food, or I'll eat out if I can afford to."

Evan, you were getting a pained look for that. Didn't you know how important breakfast was?

"How does eating in the cafeteria," you poor person, "affect your day? The food and the experience both."

At least Evan looked sheepishly aware of just how pained that look was?

"It's really not the greatest food in the world," he admitted, scuffing his toe against the floor. "But it's fast, so I have more time to study and to train, and it's affordable for students to eat there. I only work part-time, and books and school supplies and keeping myself clothed all cost money, and a lot of students here don't have family back home sending them an allowance or anything. I'm pretty sure the cafeteria is where a lot of the students here go, for lack of any other options."

Hannibal raised an eyebrow at him. "I spent many years in a Soviet state orphanage; I'm well acquainted with eating for necessity rather than pleasure."

He'd let that sink in for just a second. "That doesn't mean you shouldn't eat real food when you can," he chided, gently disapproving. "A cafeteria egg sandwich," yes, Hannibal was aware of the sorts of things cafeterias sold, lord help you, "is better than prepackaged snacks for breakfast. Growing teenagers need proper food."

"I... oh." Evan looked down, chewing at his lip. "I can try to steer Old Lace toward the cafeteria in the mornings before we go out to the preserve, I guess? She's usually pretty hungry and extra ready to get going by the time I wake up every day, and it's way easier to grab an apple or some granola on the way than to try not to get dragged outside by a small dog and a big deinonychus..."

In fairness, Ozzy was way more insistent than Old Lace was. Telepathic dinosaur, or a corgi/husky cross who was ready for walkies? The dog would win every time.

"Or you could grab the apple and granola, and eat more breakfast later," Hannibal pointed out.

But after walkies, there was training! And then class or work, depending on the day, and there were books to read and there was research to be done, and...

"I... could try," Evan hedged, after a moment. "I don't suppose there's any sort of guideline about what constitutes a proper breakfast?"

"There are guidelines for the day as a whole, but not for breakfast specifically," Hannibal answered. "And as those are made for a baseline average human, I suspect they would have limited use in your case. If you have a doctor or nutritionist who's familiar with your metabolism, you could ask them," he suggested.

"Otherwise, I would simply point out that you should eat a variety of things, preferably healthy ones, and enough to keep you going until lunch time." Or learn to make healthy, filling snacks between cafeteria meals, but if he suggested that, Evan would probably just buy more apples.

Apples were amazing! And maybe he'd even intersperse those with some oranges! Oranges!

"I don't really have either of those things," Evan admitted, wrinkling his nose a bit, "but eating a better variety is a good start, I think. Thank you, Doctor Lecter."

"You're quite welcome." Hannibal nodded and considered it at least a minor success.

Damnit, Evan, he was a doctor, not a nutritionist!

Philosophy of Food, Friday period 3

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