Continued Camping, eating in style
by Daniel R. Hirtler on 01/06/11
After finding a rightful place for oneself, establishing access to the means to perform basic living functions in peace is the next order of business in transcending mere existence. First to be discussed is making a place to prepare and consume food soulfully.
Whereas homelessness, and homemaking are equally the object of questions about living well, recreational camping gives us a louder clue as to the basic qualities of making a good place to eat. In recreational camping, the issue of finding a rightful place has already been accomplished, and one's personal condition is not desperate or hurried. Eating is admitted to be one of the high points of a camping trip.
As eating becomes a social event, its role in existence pushes to move into the realm of living. Social eating requires a structured relationship between the food, and each of the people in the group. The more unified the event, the fuller the experience becomes. A table or a blanket, set up at an adequate size and arrangement to allow the whole group to sit and eat comfortably, would be the binding feature of the meal. Presentation, and access to the food over this surface in ways that makes it psychologically accessible and consumable permits the focus of the group to move to the qualities of the meal, and the kinship with the others of the group. After a successful social meal, the whole person is satisfied.
Preparation of healthful and memorable food requires a surface to clean, arrange, and alter it to become something that will attract the group as well as nourish it. Tools to carry out the preparation tasks are important, but, just as important is the size, arrangement and access to the surface on which the preparation is to be done. Camping accentuates this need in that there may not be an existing feature that meets it, and an element such as the blanket of a picnic will not work as a good food preparation surface. The usual picnic solution is to carry food which is already prepared (this is the homeless, and busy worker solution as well).
A place to cleanly and safely store the materials for the meal is required. Guarding the material personally is the lowest level to be achieved, having defensible containers is the better approach. Perishable food needs a container that can have its temperature controlled adequately.
There needs to be a way to clean the tools vessels and food. This should be a clean place to rest the material to be cleaned and access to clean water (hot water and detergent perhaps).
Making a flat, level cleanable surface at a comfortable work height, with access to it on all sides allows the preparation of food to be a social activity. Preferably there would be a single surface of this type. There should be a receptacle to collect waste material from the preparation.
If the food is to be cooked, (and if hot water wants to be produced for cleaning), a source of heat under a level grate would be useful.
Each of these elements is separate and, when camping, it matters very little what the spacial relationship is between them, because the number of meals and the responsibility for making them is not endlessly repeated. The best, most enjoyable meal will come from each of these elements being well created.
The same can be said for the occasional party meal in someone's home. If each of these elements, to prepare as well as to eat can be created, then the party will be a success for all. Those elements which are lacking will degrade the quality of the party to the extent that it disrupts the desired effect.
Ordinary meals, in the interior of a home, if they are to enliven those in the home, have the added challenge of needing to work well outside of a social context. Often the meals are produced by one person, alone. Directness of preparation substitutes for the social enlivenment of the party, when one is cooking alone. This means being able to interract with the food without alot of extraneous actions so that the actual transformations in the food can be one's company. The materials should be easy to find and lay out; there should be an easy way to clean the materials; there should be adequate space to transform the food; a heat source with workspace around it to change the food in that way; and a place to gather it together in vessels to be brought to the table. Each of the elements should be usable at the time they are needed, even when others of the preparation activities are happening at the same time.
Enlivened eating inside a home requires a surface around which all who eat together can sit, facing each other, with enough space on the surface to hold the vessels of food, as well as the plates and implements to serve each diner comfortably. An additional element of an indoor dinner is circulation. Each diner should be able to access their spot at the table without the help of other diners.
Most of us think we know what it takes to perform our life functions well, modelled on things we have seen, but I would argue that simply modelling a new behavior on one that has been shown to work, does not always yield intended results if the components, the context, and the intent are not consciously understood and reproduced too. Living, instead of merely existing, requires that that understanding be made, and in our own existences, it would help us all to see what is common, good and essential in all the things we do.
