I visited Japan when I was a teenager. I loved the food there, stands at every corner dishing out bowls of hot ramen, seaweed-wrapped rice balls at the convenience stores, even the McDonald’s where they carefully (and without a trace of irony) arranged the plastic fork and knife in the center of the folded paper napkin on the plastic tray. Everything was so neat and clean and beautiful, even the streets and subway tunnels, and it makes the tragedy and destruction all the more horrible to contemplate.
It seems like a lousy time to think about a food blog, but I think Ruth Reichl strikes exactly the right note when she writes about why food matters.
It is precisely because we are so fortunate that we should do what we can, and appreciate what we have.