Three Sisters, slow food, and indoor skiing
3 short stories
Hi friends, Happy Curated Friday! Here are three thoughts and three quotes for this week.
Thoughts
1.
I recently read about how indigenous farmers in Mesoamerica grow crops. It’s genius. One science writer calls it “one of the most successful human inventions ever created.”
The method is called a milpa. It’s essentially a field where complementary crops grow together in a symbiotic way. The classic milpa, known as tres hermanas or “Three Sisters,” consists of maize, beans, and squash. The beans stabilize the corn in the ground and turn nitrogen into nourishing nutrients, while the cornstalk becomes a trellis for the beans to climb and access sunlight. The squash plants’ broad leaves shade the ground, keeping the soil moist and preventing weeds.
It’s perhaps no surprise that the products are also complementary from a dietary standpoint. A traditional meal consisting of the Three Sisters is incredibly nutritious: complex carbs from the corn, amino acids and minerals from the beans, and fiber and vitamins from the squash.
The word milpa comes from the Aztec Nahuatl language—milli and pan—which beautifully translates as “in inheritance.” Milpas still exist in countries like Mexico, but monoculture—growing a single crop in one place at scale—rapidly replaces the traditional practice.
A fun fact: the city of Milpitas in California means mini milpas in Spanish.
2.
I am reading Alice Waters’ We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto this week. This book has some interesting points on fast food versus slow food. It introduces a framework to consider the hidden social costs of the industrial food system, which prioritizes convenience, uniformity, speed, quantity, and constant availability.
One theme throughout the book is how food is interconnected with almost every aspect of life: how we spend our time, what we value, and our relationships with each other and the environment. It reminds me of my mother, who spent much time visiting the market and cooking most days. Our house, like most, had a tiny kitchen with a small fridge. My mother didn't drive, nor did we have a car for most of my childhood, so bringing ingredients home alone required much work. Her shoulder and wrists still bother her today from over a decade of carrying groceries by hand. Depending on the day, we would have dishes like eggs with tomatoes, bone broths, fish steamed with soy sauce, stir-fried meat, rice, and steamed Chinese broccoli with barely any salt (which I actively avoided). For most Asian families, feeding your loved ones fresh food is the easiest way to express your love without words. In Chinese, one of the most common ways to greet someone is, "Have you eaten rice yet?"
While living in France in the 1960s, Waters appreciated how the French shopped for fresh food in small batches and enjoyed food as a community. The desire to bring that way of life back to Berkeley became a seed for her first—and still only—restaurant. Waters was a Montessori teacher in her prior life, and none of her partners had professional culinary training. Yet, they were undeterred by the challenge or the risks (her parents mortgaged their house to support her venture). In the early days, they followed cookbooks and prepared dishes like they would at home. She joked, “If you burned the corn soup, you called it grilled corn soup!” They kept the menu and the kitchen simple and did most of the tasks by hand. The tradition remains today.
One of Waters’ friends loved to tastefully decorate her home with second-hand vintage items on a budget. That inspired Waters to do the same when she struggled to find money to furnish the restaurant dining room in the early days. She found mismatched silverware, second-handed chairs, and vintage rugs from flea markets and salvage stores to make the space refined and welcoming. I appreciate that attitude of seeking beauty while being resourceful.
The Montessori idea of instilling hope and pleasure into work also struck me. “I opened Chez Panisse because feeding people good food felt like the only hopeful thing I could do,” she writes. “There’s a pride and satisfaction you get from making something from scratch and feeding it to other people.”
Waters challenges the categorical assumption that more is better and favors quality over quantity. "I couldn’t imagine having more than one restaurant,” she writes. The blind pursuit of scaling as the only way to grow, she argues, “leads to a loss of individuality and a loss of a sense of community.”
Some may think Waters’ views are idealistic and elitist—she acknowledges that risk in the book. Food affordability is a real concern in the U.S., especially with high inflation over the last few years. In America, access to food intertwines with other social issues, especially economic and racial disparities. In any case, Waters' key points on today’s food system and the underappreciated value of slowness are still worthwhile to consider.
3.
I am surprised that my dad has recently decided to learn to ski. He felt inspired when he saw someone on the slope during a trip earlier this year.
There’s no snow or outdoor skiing facility in Macau, but he discovered a small ski school with an indoor “skimachine” that works like a giant sloped treadmill. The school invited him to come for a free trial class. During the first class, my dad sheepishly asked the instructor, “How old is the oldest student you’ve taught?” The instructor said, “Sixty. How old are you?” My dad answered, “I’m sixty. How about you?” The instructor said, “I’m sixty, too.” That somehow convinced my dad to sign up for skiing and snowboarding.
He picked up basic skiing after a few weeks of classes, but snowboarding was a struggle. He told the instructor he would retake the snowboarding class.
“It bothers me that I can’t figure out how to do it well. I feel compelled to do better,” he told me. “My body can still do it. I don't know about the future. The time is now.”
Quotes
1.
“Trust those who are seeking the truth, doubt those who have found it.”
—Andre Gide
2.
“But where the danger is, also grows the saving power.”
—Friedrich Hölderlin
3.
"What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun."
―Ecclesiastes 1:9
Have a great weekend! If you like this post, you may also enjoy my past weekly curated notes and other posts.