Jumping food
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There’s many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip and also
between fork and mouth and spoon and tongue.
It is easy to assess what some children have eaten
in the course of a day, as there will be reminders on their clothes. In dire
cases, when clothes have not been washed for several days, they could. be
soaked to form the basis of a soup.
I’ve written about jumping beans before, but this little essay is concerned with other forms of mobile food, like soup or scrambled eggs or curry or kedgeree. As soon as concentration on eating goes, because there’s a theory to be expounded or an explanation to be voiced, the food starts behaving in a most immoderate way. This is sometimes because expansive gestures are used to emphasise a point.
We have a lot of jumping food in our house and I’m
considering creating some large napkins. Actually, I think they could be the size
of a tablecloth, or perhaps an adult sized version of the all-in-one bibs that toddlers
wear. Possibly they could be the moulded silicone type with an inbuilt catch-all food
pocket at the bottom.
Maybe we should return to a Victorian way of life,
sitting formally and precisely – ‘all joints on the table to be carved’ and
that sort of thing, but where would be the pleasure in that? Sharing a meal is
a social occasion and inappropriately positioned food is soon cleared away.
Jumping food is here to stay.
It is interesting that everything to do with health comes back to diet
ReplyDeleteIn our house we had jumping peas, my hubby taught the kids how to balance a pea on a spoon or fork then tap the handle (I think) and send that pea flying. I don't remember exctly how it's done and won't be teaching the twins.
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