Not too long ago I had a conversation with someone who lives in the deep south. Somehow we got onto the topic of staples - not the little wire things that are supposed to hold sheafs of paper together but the things that are always in your kitchen cupboards even if you never actually eat them.
It occured to me that these things are just as often talismans as food. We keep the things our parents kept because that's what we do. The way you use food, even the food you don't eat, tells a lot about who you are and where you come from.
In my kitchen cupboards there are usually sardines, custard powder, lentils, molasses, flour, ancient packets of "flu-soup" (liptons dried chicken noodle, which i never eat.) beans, tomato paste, tomato sauce, pasta, cocoa, sage (which never even gets opened) chilli powder (ditto) dried mustard, wasabi powder, (in Ottawa - completely useless), star anise, cumin, coriander and a can of peppers in adobo sauce.
It's a northern kitchen. You can tell from that list, my mother came from the maritimes, (sardines, molasses, custard powder, cocoa, sage,) I came from the west coast, (wasabi powder, star anise, lentils) my father was a cook, (peppers, cumin, coriander, dried mustard) and I am a little insecure (dried pasta and tomato sauce, just in case, flu-soup as a talisman against the stomach flu).
There should also be saltines, (maritimes) summer savory, (Acadian), maple syrup (eastern Canada), oatmeal and dried coconut - maritimes, baking stuff. But those things do get used so they ebb and flow. God - could I be any more boring? Next post will be better, promise.
What's in your pantry?
random thoughts on the passage through an ordinary life.
About Me
- Stephanie Farrington
- I figure if there's an average person, it's probably me. That is to say, I have lived in a few places, probably about average, I have a post-secondary education and an unfinished MFA - which is probably average for people who pursue and education, I'm hitting middle age, my job has been downsized and resized so many times it's safe to say I've never had any job security. I live an average life on the precarious edge of the middle class. I'm happily married to an American, I hold Canadian citizenship, for now. But I'm so disgusted with just about everything going on in Canada that I may pursue changing my citizenship to match my husband's. I am fiercely loyal to American ideals, in part because they make sense and in part because I am descended from a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The idea of an equitable democracy, a meritocracy - that appeals to me. I write, I read, talk, take pictures and worry - just like everybody else. The hopes I hold most dear are for the health and well being of my immediate family, myself included, and the continuance of my happy life with my wonderful husband. Everything else seems manageable.
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