humanity
Humanity topics include pieces on the real lives of chefs, professionals, amateurs, inspiring youth, influencers, and general feel good human stories in the Feast food sphere.
I Would Eat Them in a House and with a Mouse
Initially, when I think of summer, I think of a beach barbeque. I think of hot dogs, watermelon, pasta salad and even baked beans. As delicious as all of those foods are, they do not bring up the same level of nostalgia. Feelings are important when it comes to describing a food that brings you joy. When the smell, taste or look of a food can send you back down memory lane, it just adds to the satisfaction. The reasons why the foods I listed above do not do that, is because we continue to use them for many occasions outside of a breezy summer barbeque. For instance, Thanksgiving food has all the hype because we typically wait a whole year to eat all those traditional thanksgiving dishes. The wait and the anticipation is why our mouths water every year. This is why I decided to talk about a food that I rarely eat, that is green eggs and ham.
By Ashley Gilmore4 years ago in Feast
The summer catch
Fishing has always been a fun and relaxing way to spend summer with my family. From bass, blue gill and catfish me my grandpa and dad would catch a stringer full of fish from the pond behind my parent's house. I have great childhood memories of my grandpa teaching me how to catch and fillet the fish. My grandpa also had great skills of cooking our catch he shared with me. One of my favorite moments was when he taught me how to lay the catfish fillets in the pan to fry them. When my grandma and parents came back he hurried to his chair in the living room and acted like I was cooking on my own. We had a laugh about it I was only seven but learning how to cook great food. Another family favorite was his hush puppy recipe that is slightly sweet with a hint of onion. The dining room table had a large bowl filled with the fried catfish along with the hush puppies and fresh tomatoes and other vegetables from my grandpa's garden. Me and my older sister helped set the plates and silverware for everyone while my grandma made coleslaw to go with the catfish. We always had a great diner and the satisfying feeling of helping catch the fish we ate made me proud of our catch. To this day every time I think of summer I think of frying catfish even if I only caught one I would fry it for myself. Even if the fish wasn't biting I enjoy fried catfish at the restaurant me and my family go to with all you can eat catfish fresh from the fryer with coleslaw and baked beans. The restaurant also had a big pond with catfish in it. Me and my sister would ask our parents to buy fish food from the counter and we watched in amazement as the huge catfish came up to eat the food we threw for them. Even as an adult now feeding the catfish brings me great joy to watch them race to the kibble on top of the water like a group of vacuums they ate the food. Another great time was when I had some how lassoed a big catfish buy the tail with my fishing line while fishing with my dad at the pond. We still laugh at that story and how much I wanted to keep at least one fish to eat when I was a kid. I have lots of great childhood memories about catching and cooking fish and having fresh tomatoes and yellow squash with great food. That is why fried catfish will all ways be one of my favorite summer foods. And the sound of nature around the pond with a chorus of frogs and whippoorwills behind my parent's house as I fish is a good way to relax after a long day at work. Sometimes I bring a coffee can full of fish food and just watch the catfish eat just like at the restaurant. I keep the catfish well fed in hopes that they will grow big by the time I catch them. And just siting in a lawn chair and listening the fish peck the food from the top of the water is very calming sometimes I will even see a deer or two in the field on the other side of the pond. Even just a sandwich with a fillet and tartar sauce in it along with a few hush puppies or even a home grown tomato is enough to bring me back to eating our catch at my grandparent's house. That is how fried catfish became my favorite summer time food.
By Doug Lemons4 years ago in Feast
Endless summers and strawberries
Summer means different things to different people, partly driven by their climate. Folk in the northern hemisphere, often struggling in a snowy December, marvel at the idea of Australians in their midsummer, in shorts and barbequing at the beach: But that's the Aussie iconic summer image.
By Andy Killoran4 years ago in Feast
Operation: Deep Fried Reese's
Reese’s cups. Alone, they are more than enough. Their sweet, fluffy center with the perfect amount of crunch, filling your nasal cavity with the taste of artificial peanut butter that somehow tastes fresher than the actual thing. Their solid chocolate shell that provides the sufficient amount of protection for the peanut butter and satisfaction for its devourer when they take the first bite, feeling that dull crunch ushering their taste buds into a world of sugary goodness. If all that wasn’t enough of a draw, my favorite color was always orange as a kid. Again, Reese’s cups alone, are more than enough. After all, they made them into a cereal. But deep fried Reese’s cups? Well, that is a life-altering progression, and that is where this story begins.
By Kyle Maddox4 years ago in Feast
What do you like to eat in summer and why is it ice-cream?. Top Story - June 2022.
Dear ice-cream, I missed you so much. I know we had a rough time those past months. A cousin of yours was all over the place and we did not meet that much. I missed you. I missed all your tastes and variations, all your colours and presentations. Like every year, as soon as the sun comes back, you are the only thing I crave. Your existence itself is a cure for seasonal depression. Some say it is some kind of vitamin that I miss, but deeply I know it is you and only you.
By Amsha Olsan4 years ago in Feast
My favourite summer food!
I find summer so difficult, my body cannot handle heat and I always feel so drained. Even with fans on and a pool out it was too hot to function. Ice lollies dripping and children struggling to enjoy themselves because its too warm will always haunt my memories. The amount of times me or a sibling passed out from heat stroke was ridiculous. Not to mention the sunburn that you could still feel a week later. I’ve always enjoyed those late summer nights though, the ones where everyone comes over to have fun in the back. A bouncy castle for the special occasions or some water pistols for the other times. The promise of a barbeque as it sizzles away trying to light. That will always be my favourite summer food! It didn’t matter whether it was a massive barbeque that could cook more food than could be eaten and with so much variety of food or just a small throwaway one with just burgers and hotdogs. Every time we popped to Tesco’s of a Friday afternoon and grabbed burger buns we knew it would be one of those magical nights. My favourite barbeque food has always been those spicy strips of pork. The ones where the juices drip down your hands as you eat and each bite burns because you have no patience to wait for it to cool down. The burgers and sausages were always amazing as well even if they were the exact same ones you eat every single week, somehow barbequing them makes them taste so much better. I remember so many summer nights spent with the music playing and the barbeque burning away nicely that I think it will always be my most favourite time of year. It sure beats those days having the same old bland food that you come to expect when living from pay packet to pay packet. I don’t think I could name a single food I disliked on those nights even when there was so much choice you ate way to much. Summer for me will always taste just like those barbequed sausages and burgers. Even when they were burnt they were so much better than just regular sausages. I remember vividly the amount of times me and my siblings chose a barbeque over any takeout’s that were offered. I remember the summer holidays being filled with barbeques and sandwiches, being able to eat so much of an evening that you didn’t start to feel hungry until lunch time the next day. Every year the variety got better and more foods were added to the barbeque. It got to the point where we had to cook food in the ovens as well as there was just so much food and the barbeque didn’t cook fast enough. I laugh now but those days were definitely the best days of my childhood and are days I fondly look back on now I’m grown and have children of my own. I always thought getting all that food put together looked easy and cooking it on the barbeque made so much sense but since trying to have one of those evenings myself I realise just how much effort goes into making it a memorable night. I don’t quite know how my parents did it week after week and made it look easy. Even as an adult I still enjoy those rare get togethers with my family and showing my own children just a little piece of my childhood. Even if I never learn how to barbeque that well I know that will be one of my fondest memories for a lifetime.
By CosmicAngel4 years ago in Feast
Summer All Year Long. Runner-Up in Summer Camp Challenge.
Summer is food. Trying to sum it up in one food seems impossible. It makes it doubly hard because I spend my summers putting my fresh local vegetables and fruits in jars so I have them for the winter. Depending on the year, we can put up between 400-800 jars. We try to have a good supply of around 1,000 jars by the end of summer between one house and the other.
By Kathryn Wicker4 years ago in Feast
The Third Ingredient. Top Story - June 2022.
I am seven years old. We live in England, near Norwich. My dad’s business has exploded, and we are suddenly wealthy. He buys a proper English country house, something of a dream of his. It has a big garden, and my dad - rather optimistically, considering English weather - buys a barbeque.
By Madoka Mori4 years ago in Feast
