Surroundings

June 17, 2009 | thoughts, travel

There is a beautiful park in Seattle (one of many in the city) nestled right in the heart of the Capital Hill neighborhood. About a block from the park is one of the cities most charming cafe’s, simply named Volunteer Park Cafe. It’s huge windows let in a tremendous amount of light (important in a city where sun is scarce) which bounces off the warm wood floors, tables, and huge oak bar. There is a big main table down the center of the cafe, a community table, where people sit in groups. They serve their pizzas on wood pizza peels, their garlic french fries in antique tin buckets, and have an array of flowers dotted down the tables in various jars, bowls, and cups, looking like they were picked right from the owner’s yard that very morning. The big community table in restaurants is nothing new but is always interesting to be a part of or people watch. My evening at Volunteer Park Cafe not only spurred on new found friendships, but was an amazing meal to boot. Was it the relaxing, cozy, euro-esk environment, the big community table, great company, or just great ingredients that made this meal taste so good? A little of all the above I would imagine. After all, they do go hand in hand!

(Hazelnut, fried goat cheese, and pear salad…a classic)

The interesting question is why do they go so well together? Like peas in a pod, environment can be crucial to how we think something tastes or how we like something at all. Any restaurateur will tell you this is true and lives by it at their own restaurant; the restaurant, after all, conveys a message through its decor and design. But I am thinking more along the lines of the millions of people who eat whatever is put in front of them at any place or any time, without giving it two cents of thought. True, when we are hungry, sometimes that primal urge gets the best of us and we must eat! However, somewhere along the way, I feel like people have lost that urge to connect through food, both with themselves and others. In such a high tech, individualized, and self-sufficient world, this idea has seemed to evaporate as we connect more and more through less tactile means: the internet, texting, twitter, etc. This also, is nothing new. But I find myself reflecting on it frequently, especially when I think about my own passion about food, people, and connections. Am I a product of my generation, back lashing to the intense amount of time I/we spend in front of a computer and away from human interaction? Maybe. But, maybe not. Food has always given me a visceral response. I can remember tastes and textures as some of my first memories as a baby. When I was about eight years old, I tried to explain how much I loved the taste of a certain cake to my mother by telling her it was like the reaction a pack of wolves have with fresh meat. Pounce! I must have it! Geeze, was all she said, tilting her head and giving me a strange look. That moment, along with several others, I knew that my relationship with taste and the kitchen was different than most. It was and still is a driving force. Only now, it drives me to not only make food, but make it in a way that brings us to the present, to think about the here, the now, and explore some things a little deeper. And that is even more rewarding for me than a slice of cake .