Dinner: The Civilized Ritual

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, a film by Luis Bunuel: Image from www.filmforum.org

Breaking bread together is a nourishing ritual in many ways. It is not only vitamins and minerals that are lost by consuming fast food. After digesting these rich books and movies, you may think the epithet 'fast food' is an oxymoron.

MUCH DEPENDS ON DINNER

by Maragert Visser Collier Macmillan, Toronto: 1986 394.12 VIS

"Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner." (George Gordon, Lord Byron)

Imagine an ordinary dinner as the key to civilization. Visser does, and assembles her narrative as a hypothetical universal meal with chapters devoted to each of its components. Corn, the 'nourishing mother' from North America has many uses and is easy to store. Salt, the only rock humans eat, has preservative powers that spurred travel and immense fortunes. Butter was a product of agricultural societies and made possible the glories of French cuisine. Chicken accompanied the knife and fork revolution to the table in the 16th century Europe. Rice, staple for half the earth's population, can be grown in both dry soil and water. Lettuce is the original fast food; eaten raw, it resists processing. Olive oil comes from a tree, beloved by the Mediterraneans for its tenacious search for moisture. Lemon juice is prized for its ability to intensify other flavors and the bright yellow nippled fruit is extremely attractive. And so, through the ordinary daily dinner, Visser illustrates much about how we got to be as we are.

THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (LE CHARM DISCRET DE LA BOURGEOISIE)

A film by Luis Bunuel, with Stephane Audran, Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, et al France: 1972 VC & DVD 791.43

Centorius interruptus. The master surrealist turns his magnifying glass on the middle class at table. A group of friends attempting to share a civilized meal is repeatedly interrupted. It's the wrong night, the hosts try to escape from their guests, there's an army camped out in the dining room, the restaurant where they take refuge is a stage play, and one of the guests is a drug-running South American diplomat on the lam. A satire of the highest order.

TAMPOPO by Juzo Itami, with Nobuko Miyamoto, et al Japan: 1986 VC &DVD 791.43

Tampopo is a young widow struggling to support her little boy by work at her Tokyo noodle shop. The restaurant attracts all kinds of characters as customers. Goro is a stetson wearing truck driver who fancies himself a cowboy. Pliskin drinks hard in the Russian tradition. An itinerant noodle maker sporting a beret is obsessed by the intricacies of classic French cuisine. A sinister man in a white suit and his girlfriend perform erotic rituals with food. Imagine a French New Wave film in Japanese and - voila! - you have Tampopo.