It must be frustrating for an author of Fischer's taste to succumb to her child's mealtime preferences the way all parents eventually must do. Toddlers are tyrants at the table. You cannot make them eat anything, and they can outwait their masters for days, with no apparent consequences, until a jittery parent succumbs and gives them their cut-up Jenos pizza or a generous serving of Shrimp Poppers in lieu of taking them to the doctor for intravenous caloric support.
And to accept that TV commercials and peers' tastes will sway the child to a preference for sugary cereals, pizza and soda pop. I guess it's a precursor to when those forces will direct a child how to dress and act, and what she will read and watch and listen to. And a parent has to stand by and accept it.
My nephew Alex, 3, was eating Shrimp Poppers at Thanksgiving while the rest of us laid into various homemade hors d' oeuvres, and my grandparents began stealing them off his plate, and now they get the fried little snacks as appetizers to go with their daily "happy hour." (Which they have at 4 o'clock.)
Usually there's a link between Fischer's storytelling and the recipe that ends that essay. If you can place the context of snails in "J," do tell.
Has anyone eaten snails before?
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7 comments:
I think there was a reference to snails somewhere in the essay, but I don't remember what it was now. I've never tried them. My mom tried them 30 years ago and still talks about it. She enjoyed the buttery, garlicky sauce but despised the texture of the little beasts.
My mom was old school. You ate what she was cooking or you didn't eat. "This is not a restaurant" was my mom's line, which she still uses on Valerie. No frozen pizzas or snacks, no sugary cereals. The kids eat by her rules. Valerie is a STAUNCH character, but she always comes around eventually.
I love that Fischer tried to broaden her daughter's exposure to foods, that she made her try everything at least once. That kind of thing is important for kids, I think. It can make a big difference in someone's adult attitudes about food.
The specific reference to snails was only in passing ("with firm resolves never to make her eat anything, from oatmeal gruel to escargots à la mode de Bourgogne"). I think the connection may be that snails are the furthest thing from palatable to a child. Snails are a symbol of refinement that is the antithesis of juvenile simplicity.
I love snails. They are delish.
Christy, babe, I believe Fisher has no "c" in it. (I think I've made the same mistake.)
My mom was like Erin's, and I'm glad she was. We ate what she made or we didn't eat. Period. She also taught us to be respectful of people who cooked for us, whether we really "cared for" what they made or not. If we ate at a friend's house, she always ascertained whether we had thanked the friend's mom for cooking for us. And she was very, very big on table manners. I remember she inspected our fingernails before every meal and my brother was never allowed to eat shirtless, armpit hair and bare chest rightly being deemed unappetizing. If we ate too loudly or reached across the table instead of saying "please pass the ....," she would reprimand us. If one of us even thought of blowing our nose or belching at the table, she'd be beside herself. She wasn't totally anal, but I'm glad she was strict. My sister's husband was raised without any table manners whatsoever, and eating with him was always extremely unpleasant (and embarrassing for my sister). When they first started dating, he would pick at the food on his plate and sourly demand to know "what's in this?" or say "I hate that." Or he'd bring a giant Big Gulp type plastic cup to the holiday dinner table. I think he's gotten a bit better, and, thank God, my sister's daughters are more like her than him.
Do you guys have any thoughts on Fisher's writing style? My reaction is mixed. Often I find gemlike phrases or whole sentences, but I also have to reread rather frequently to get her meaning. I have a slight sense that her writing aesthetic/sensibility is a little over my head.
I've had that sense, too, and I reread fairly frequently. But I do quite often enjoy her turns of phrase.
I enjoy her writing style. It has a kind of refined detachment that I like, which makes her humor remind me of Henry Fielding. Some of it is over my head, but you can say that about anything I read, so it doesn't bother me too much.
I guess I should clarify that by juvenile dining tyrants that I'm talking about the 2-year-old set, the ones too young to understand "this is the only meal I'm serving."
My mom probably catered to the tastes of me and my sister, but certainly, what was set in front of us was the only game in town.
Thanks, KC. I don't know where that "C" keeps coming from.
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