Saturday, March 25, 2006

'What the World Eats'


The day began with rain and a bit of sleet and a bit of snow. SPRING??? HA! Poor flowers!

I read the New York Times' article on food in Rome as I ate my English muffin and drank my morning coffee. Our plans to begin yardwork being 'rained out,' we decided to see the exhibit 'What the World Eats' at Exploris in Raleigh (www.exploris.org).

We ate lunch at the Carolina cafe and then drove across town to the Museum. WHAT A NEAT EXHIBIT! Portraits of 30 families from all over the world (including Raleigh!) were displayed with a week's worth of typical groceries (some included Australia, Ecuador, England, Greenland, India, Japan, Kuwait, Mali, rural China, Turkey, Mexico, Greenland, Italy, France, Germany, India, etc. Alongside the portraits was a list of all the foods and their respective costs (including costs of eating out).

From the least amount of money spent on food for a family of four in Bhutan (I think it was $30 US currency) to a family of four or five in Germany ($500 US currency) for a week- not only the cost of the food but the different (as well as similar) foods was eye-opening! One could clearly see the influence of pre-packaged and fast foods. (KFC is the biggest Western fast-food chain in China) and of the 30 families featured in the exhibit, only 11 did not have a Coke or Pepsi product represented in the photo!

We spent a good amount of time reading each feature and grocery list! The exhibit has a book "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats," Material World Books and Ten Speed Press, if you're interested. The exhibit sure gave us a lot to think about!

Afterwards we did a bit of grocery shopping and made it back home in time to cook dinner.

After a day focused on food .... what did WE eat???

Porcini Mushroom Tortelloni with Peas covered with a Basil Cream Sauce!

AWESOME!

6 comments:

Sue Seibert said...

Rain, sleet, snow!!! What is North Carolina coming to? Wow, it was about 70 here and really a lovely day.

Lindsay said...

I wonder if this exhibit is coming to Chicago? Looks like a good one. INteresting facts too on fast food. And now France's obesity rate is climbing too...wonder why???? Thanks for a lovely post

Anonymous said...

That looks LUSCIOUS, Miss Lin!

Linda said...

Lovely meal, and it sounds like a really interesting exhibit. I wonder who thinks of putting these things together?

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a very interesting exhibit. Hope it comes to NY sometime. Pretty cold and gloomy up here, too.
Have fun, cara!

Terri said...

Fabulous Lin!! When I come over there, I definitely want to come to your place for dinner! (g) Your food drawings are superb!