Food & Memory; an ode to remembering some favorite foods

Gearing up for the SF Chocolate Salon, here is an ode I wrote last year that was inspired by one of the chocolates I experienced at the Fancy Food Show, which happens just before the Salon.

Each of us has memories that are tied to food. Lately, a lot of those memories have been surfacing for me. There are so many foods associated with memories, good, bad and otherwise.They can deeply affect how you eat later in life.

As a girl, I hated soul food, to my aunts disgust and ate mostly fruits and veggies, as well as seafood (to my older sisters' horror). Now, more willing to try new things, I also try to eat enough protein,, drink enough water and skip white bread.

But, oh for the days when we would eat toast (burnt for my family, they like it that way) & jam, light pouring into the dining room. Sitting around the table laughing, enjoying each others company.

Or Saturday morning cartoons, my grandmother yelling at us for eating cold pizza. Okay, well, I don't miss the yelling. But those moments, the innocence of childhood and eating with abandon....

Every Saturday, I got to go to my dad's work meeting. We would stop at the gas station, where he would buy me a small carton of orange juice & the box of chocolate cookies with the cat on the front. I was born to be a chocolate addict! And I lived for Saturdays.

Or going with my grandfather to the Dairy Queen, then owned by my family, for a cherry dip before my sisters' came home from school.....

Can anyone not say they have enjoyed fresh fruit, sun warmed and thought "This is what heaven might feel like"? Peaches, blackberries, strawberries, loquats, cherries, tangerines!

The Chuao Firecracker bar reminded me of something else: my grandfather used to sneak us poprocks! and soda! He thought it was hysterical and silly that his own daughter thought our heads would explode.

Food and memory serve us well, thus we should remember to honor both. The joy of what it feels like for the first berry of spring on your tongue. The memory of the first time you drank a glass of fresh cold lemonade.

The taste of fresh cut green onions on lemon seasoned fish.

A sip of wine or a sparkley drink. Take the time to slow down & enjoy your food, your memories will pay off in amazing ways.