Thursday, February 15, 2024

If Food Be Love

everyone is emerging from either a good or bad Valentine's Day. There were probably excellent stories of lobster and engagement rings .However there could be bad ones dealing with fights and a quick stop at McDonald's. Whichever way  you look at it food  and relationships are tied together.

Regular contributors Becky Hughes and Ella Quittner arranged a compiliation of stories for yesterday's New York Times wednesday Food section. There are all sorts of tales .Two involved cooking a dinner at home. On was a first date which could be kind of romantic if you know the person. The second involved a couple with the guy cooking mapo tofu with bok choy to impress the girl. She thought the meal was slightly too hot despite the effort he put into it. The best bet for that is head to a place with a cuisine both will like. As for the first date, head to a coffee shop and just get to know each over over lattes.Other stories involve couples cooking. There can be fights as seen in a couple from New Hampshire. One does the most elaborate things to prepare a dish like individually boil lasagna noodles.Other couples fight over one's love of chicken or if they use the KitchAid too much. According to therapist Dr. Orna Goralush food fights are just the tip of the iceberg. There are bigger issues at stake here.

The worst stories Ms. Hughes and quittner collected are those break up ones, people do get dumped over dinner as rare as it might be.Taylor Swift has written songs about it. The scene was featured in "Legally Blonde". This is not the way to go. If there's an opposite of a meetcute this is it. One woman Kristen Mizzi was dumpd three times at Jaleo , Jose Andres famed restaurant in Washington Heights. The food may have been phenomnal . The histrionics were not. even fast food joints like Wendy's aren;t immune to such failings . Erin Harper could not return to her local one in Madison wisconin. worst yet it was akk about the chicken nuggets. She can;t returun to it because of the bad memories. Her advice? Don'tt break up in a place that you love. It's better to end a relationship in familiar territory such as the living room. It's quiet.It's relatively private and you can retreat to the bathroom for a good cry afterwards. Although tere are perks. Newly ex partners are left with exorbitant tabs and the tips are reallly high thanks to the waiters have to witness the drama.

Despite all this there was probably some romantic dinners last night. Stories of food and hate are few and far between. Love rules. Food rules. Together they are powerful.