food-centric conversationally challenged
thirty-seventh post in a Wednesday series detailing the food-centric truth’s behind Wendy’s singleness.
Reason # 37: food-centric conversationally challenged
Often I find food a rather dull conversational topic. It can be made interesting by focussing on the social, political, environmental and cultural practices that influence what is produced and how it is eaten. I sometimes find myself in the company of people who converse about food quality, production techniques, and restaurant reputation. Let’s call these people ‘foodies’. I am not sufficiently well equipped to deeply engage in a conversation with these foodies.
I’m not particulalrly interested in the varied subtle differences in the quality and preparation of various food-types or chefs. I have rarely if ever watched the food channel, or read the substantial dining section in the NYT. I have watched Jamie Oliver but that’s got nothing to do with my cooking or eating its about the political social cultural dynamics of eating. I am shamefully disinterested in learning about the differences between wines or paying to experience a subtle taste-difference. I’m happy with cheap plonk. I’m happier still if someone who does study and care about wine chooses it on my behalf so I don’t have to make a decision.
By contrast I do care about who I’m dining with and the way the place that I dine works to support our conversation. I’ll happily go to the same restaurant several times in one week to be in the company of gorgeous people where the background noise is sufficiently low to enable conversation. I’ll happily prance into a greasy spoon for a good giggle with a couple of rowdy friends, often this is preferable because it doesn’t dent my budget so badly. Foodies, eating out, are often expensive friends.
To help overcome my glaring social disability I have worked on the ‘Tea’ thing, you’ve seen this happen through the taking tiffin plog posts. It’s proved a popular series. I have been introduced to people as the freak wench lady with a blog about tea. I don’t get introduced as the crazy spinster lady with a blog about why she’s single. People even ask me about tea as-if I’m a specialist, very flattering, not really true, maybe that’s part of being a foodie conversationalist. People strike-up conversations with me about things that I’ve written-about in my tea series. Yet. A peak at my blog statistics clearly implies that snoopers are more interested in why I’m single. Few if any people actually strike-up a conversation with me on this topic. My tea theme is a socially acceptible conversation topic the reasons why I’m single seem less conversationally acceptable.
