A couple weeks ago, I went with Jess Thomson (our recipe maven) and Angela Murray (our social media editor) to a preview of the current exhibit at the Burke Museum, called Hungry Planet. You might already be familiar with some of the images, from the Time Magazine "What the World Eats" photo gallery that's been online for a couple of years. Seeing it in person--really lovely supersize prints, nicely curated--is well worth it. Even better: a curator at the Burke worked with some local Salish folks to do a fascinating companion exhibit about our local food traditions. And PCC is sponsoring a pile of regular events, including health-related discussions and food traditions around the world--that list of events and dates is here.
The main photos of Hungry Planet are very simple: the idea was to capture what food a family eats each week somewhere in the world. As you might imagine, what makes up a family unit (and their weekly food supply) varies greatly from the US to urban China to the Andes. Some families--like Japan-- have everything in tidy little packages. Others, like Ecuador, have only a giant burlap bag as packaging. One in particular (guess who) includes a lot of fast food from various global brands.
As Jess, Angela and I wandered around looking at photos and reading the signs, we got inspired to try a little project ourselves; some Burke employees have signed on as well, and I'll be pestering some of our regular contributors to participate in the coming weeks. I thought it only fair that I kick it off myself. What we wanted to see is what Seattle eats in a week, the same way that the exhibit shows--with a photo, and a list of what the ingredients are. As it turns out, arranging a photo of a week's worth of groceries was nearly impossible for me. There are only two people in my household, and we don't do a "weekly" grocery event. I have a pantry filled with dry goods, and a freezer filled with meat from my buying club and frozen fruits from last summer's garden and market. With no kids to plan for, we tend to eat on the fly. And, not surprisingly, we eat out some.
What's not shown in this photo? A birthday celebration dinner at Kingfish and a night out with friends at El Pilon. Two working lunches with contributors--one at Eltana and one at Five Fish Bistro. Three separate coffee dates for me, all of them at the Columbia City Tutta Bella, each with an 8-ounce latte. There are also small portions of things--spices, leaveners for baking, dabs of mustard and hot sauce--that aren't on display.
What's overly represented here? Well, my husband and I will not drink the entire half gallon of milk or a quart of half-n-half or the whole bottle of cider vinegar in one week. We will not eat the full 5-pound bag of flour or box of butter or slab of Parmesan cheese. I will turn some of the ingredients into a batch of cookies, and some into a loaf of bread; I will add bits of whole grain flours from the freezer into those recipes. I will eat a pickle or two from our homemade pickle supply. At some point, I am likely to buy a bar of perfectly terrible candy, like a Snickers. I didn't try to estimate how much tap water we'll drink--it's many gallons.
But even with all these caveats, it's interesting. It looks like so much food for two people! Granted, half the pile is fruit or vegetables, which is pleasing. And again, some of the packaged goods represent more volume than will actually be eaten. But the pile covers about 3/4 of our kitchen table. I'm glad that with the packaging, all but the baking chips have either recyclable or compostable wrappers. I'm glad that all the proteins, almost all the produce, and all beverages but the calamansi juice are WA-grown.
I've tried to list the ingredients in a way that's similar to what you'll find at the Burke exhibit; I chose to not include my husband and myself in the actual photo, which is different than the exhibit.
Jill Lightner, Columbia City (Seattle), 2 adults
Dairy: 2% milk, half and half, unsalted butter, cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, whole milk Greek yogurt
Other beverages: ESB beer, white wine, pear hard cider, calamansi juice, black tea
Meats: ground beef, canned salmon, eggs*
Condiments: cider vinegar, olive oil, peanut butter, raspberry jam, honey, sugar cubes
Produce: bananas, apples, onion, lacinato kale, carrots, grapefruit, lemon, crimini mushrooms, canned tomatoes, salad greens
Pantry goods/baking: unbleached white flour, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, semi-sweet chocolate, brown and white sugar blend
Snacks: 1 bag Halfpops
*I include eggs are part of meat because I've always found it absurd that grocery stories include them in their Dairy section. Eggs have exactly nothing to do with dairy products!
I'll be posting more photos from other folks in the coming weeks--the exhibit extends into early June. If you'd like to participate, we're looking into setting up an online gallery via Flickr, but for now, you're welcome to send images to me at editor @ edibleseattle.com. Be sure to include a list of what's pictured, what neighborhood or city you live in, and how many adults and children are in your household.
