The New Gastronomes

My cousin always used to tell me, “Shan, you are the only person I know who takes photos of food.” It’s true; among our close group of friends, I am the only one who takes pictures of food. Most of the time, I take these photos for various reasons – it could be that the presentation of the food is beautiful and I want to preserve that image before we all dig into it and destroy it. Or there may be a certain memorable event that occurred while we were consuming that food and I want to have a visual representation of that memory, such as the time the two of us decided (unspoken, but at the same time) that we wanted to try mixing chili-cheese dip with cookies-and-cream ice cream. Hey, I never said that we were normal, and surprisingly, it didn’t taste all that bad!

However, although I may be the only person I know back home who takes pictures of her food, I most certainly am not the only person in my class here who does.  During the first night in our new apartment in Parma, my roommates and I gathered together for our first supper. Prior to sitting down and consuming the food, however, we each picked up our cameras to take photos and document the meal. Although I do have photos of the food that we ate, I feel that the photo I have included in this post is the truest representation of that night. As I was taking the pictures, I took a moment to step back and reflect on the adventure of the past 24 hours and, looking around, I snapped this image. Even now, almost four months later, when I reflect back on my first night in Parma, this is the image that comes to mind: three people from different areas of the world (Pennsylvania, California, and Israel), gathering in their new Italian kitchen, learning about one another, and my realization that yes, other people do take photos of food.

Reena (l) and Naama (r) documenting our first meal together.