Soy Sauce Packets & Epiphanies: Attack of the Yuppies...

"...hide in your fine homes and eat vegetables; put a greenpeace or naacp bumper sticker on your beemer if it makes you feel better. save the rainforest-by all means-so maybe you can visit it someday, on an ecotour, wearing comfortable shoes made by twelve-year-olds in forced labor. save a whale while millions are still sold into slavery, starved, f*cked to death, shot, tortured, forgotten. when you see cute little kids crying in rubble next to Sally Struthers somewhere, be sure to send a few dollars..."

yup·pie [yuhp-ee] noun - a young, ambitious, and well-educated city-dweller who has a professional career and an affluent lifestyle. [Origin: 1980–85, Americanism; y(oung) u(rban) p(rofessional)] [www.dictionary.com]

i came across this passage while re-reading anthony bourdain's 'a cook's tour.' he seems to reference california yuppies as natives. i find it interesting as i learn about the true differences between east coast and west cost living; night & day really. oddly enough, most recently i noticed some major opposites of coastal living while reading a survey bulletin posted on myspace by a friend of mine out in the seattle area. one of many noticable differences is margot's ideal sandwich consisting of turkey, avocado & wheat bread; while mine was a juiced up italian 'sub.' i also appreciated, as i always do, the discussion that i had with her and many others about what color american cheese should be. (yellow as far as i'm concerned.) i enjoy celebrating diversity, especially where food is concerned...

EXPERIENCE+CHANGE=2008

the story behind ssp&e:

so i'm not sure if you're anything like me, but being the 'off the cuff cuisine' chef that i am, i try not to let anything go to waste. you know, when you bring home some bk or mickey d's, and after consuming your poor excuse for food, have ketchup packets or sauce shots left over that you throw in the door and forget about. same goes for chinese food, and you know they always give you enough sauce to put out a fire at the pentagon with your order. you throw them in your refrigerator door and forget about them. then one day you're trying to impress some last minute guests that have decided to stay at your place for dinner and all you have in your 'gourmet' kitchen are some ramen noodles, frozen veggies and some leftover grilled chicken from last weekend's cookout. the makings of a superb, on-the-fly stirfry. but wait, OH SHIT!, how are you going to make a sauce for your stirfry with no sauce? you look in the fridge and all you see is a bottle of ketchup, french's mustard (i use the term mustard loosely when describing french's), and a jar of pickle juice. oh no, what to do, what to do. then you bust open the butter holder, that invariably has never seen a stick of butter in it's life, and VOILA! soy sauce, duck sauce, hot mustard! packets, but instant chinkychow sauce nonetheless! each one of those packets, collected over time, came from a meal, inevitably eaten over conversation, an argument or during a lone lunch of self-reflection, came from a time and place in the past. as are our lessons learned. we learn through the years how to cope, how to inspire, how to teach, and how to live. we don't always remember those lessons, as we throw condiment packets in the fridge we throw life-lessons into the back of our heads, until one day we find ourself in a situation where it becomes relevant and we pull them from the back of our minds as to not waste the advice and lessons of the past. the moral of this story, and the linking of it to my blog- our life experiences are our 'soy sauce packets,' our hidden links to our experiences of our past...

e·piph·a·ny - noun - a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. [www.dictionary.com]

the epiphanies that we experience in life, questions or situations that we find ourselves in, and don't know how to resolve, can most often be solved my raking our brains in search of a 'soy sauce packet.' an answer to a question. a solution to a problem. and so this, this blog, is simply an ever-expanding culmination of soy sauce packets in my butter box, and the epiphanies that have helped to make room for more butter in my fridge...

Soy Sauce Packets & Epiphanies

Linkbar

Attack of the Yuppies...

Saturday, February 23, 2008

1 comments:

Post a Comment

About butter:

the story behind ssp&e:

from the churn:

more ssp&e:

where it all began:

Copyright Fair Use Notice:

Our Blogger Templates Web Design