Category: culture

An Open Letter to a Social Experiment

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This is in response to an article that I read about a black man’s experiment in wearing two different sets of clothes, one dressing up/ business casual and one dressing down/ sweatpants and sweatshirt combo, and how differently he was treated wearing either outfit.  He did the same activities in both fashions, and then talked about how he felt and how he was treated by the general public.

A Black Man’s Experiment in Fashion

You don’t even have to read to article to know what the conclusion was.

My argument is that race has nothing to do with this experiment.  I am not in any way trying to downplay racism and the struggle that people of color have to go through.  It is not fair, the world is actually against them- people love a scapegoat, love to put another down to make themselves feel better, love to blame other cultures for why their life is hard, love to judge, love to hate, love to make themselves feel better by berating our fellow species.

My argument is that race doesn’t have anything to do with how you are treated based on business dress code system.  The office attire successful look- although is not flattering-  will get the immediate attention and respect of strangers.  This is why people dress like that.  It is a societal rule that exists, and although the fashion is not great, the program has been established.

Clothes denote power- this has already been proven, and it is a rule that applies to everyone- race, gender, social standing, and age are unaffected by the universal understanding that what you wear speaks volumes about who you are.  I am not saying  I agree with this truth- ties are inherently dumb and not flattering.  I hate this system, so let’s try to change it instead of placing the blame on race.

Playing the race card at when it is not applicable only hurts the cause, only pigeon holes the minority further.

Although I disagree with the business attire dress code, the article under scrutiny does nothing to promote an alternative way of dressing.  If the man is not wearing fancy clothes, then he is wearing sweatpants.  Of course people are going to treat you like a bum, you are wearing pajamas in the outside world.  If you can’t even be bothered to get dressed, then no, I will not take you seriously.  These are house clothes, something to wear while getting ready to sleep or to watch TV.  It’s just like extreme sagging- if I can see your butthole before we have even exchanged a greeting, no I don’t want to get to know you.

This is about self respect.  Sweatpants, joggers, yoga pants, stretch pants are for children and if you want the world to treat you like child then wear this in public.  But if you want to gain a slice of respect from strangers, feel good about what you wear- make a statement, feel confident about your outfit.  And no, you don’t need money to pull this off, you just need a basic sense of style, pants that can’t be pulled down by a soft blowing of the wind, a display that you are ready to interact with the world.  Instead challenge this nomenclature style with something different that is also visually appealing.

You can argue that social standards are dumb, because they inherently are, but don’t turn this into a race argument.  These are two separate issues.  Instead, this article should be about how much better you look in clothes that makes you feel confident, smart, savvy, primed, prepared, dandy, and dapper.

Geometrical Patterns

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Ok, ok so if art is breaking the rules, that means that you take something that you normally try to avoid and twist it around some so that the negative becomes something you embrace, transforming in the bad into the good.

Today’s topics: crystallization.    This is the reorganization/unstable transformation of the structure of a substance, normally making it an inferior/subpar quality.  Primary examples include: butter once it has melted, does not solidify the same, chocolate will bloom if it has not been properly melted down, ice cream will get gritty if ice crystals form from the latent water content.

Granite, or shaved ice, has been around for a long time.  This technique takes a solid frozen confection, then shaves the ice block to form a slushie.  This takes advantage of the ice crystals to create a both a liquid and a solid, both a wet and a textured product.

This method is a precursor to ice cream, a continually rotated while freezing invention, where the solidifying happens at such a small scale, that when initially frozen, this product is still a liquid (think soft serve ice cream)

What I need to focus on is the beauty of naturally occurring ice patterns.  These are highly visually appealing, perfectly symmetrical, yet all so unique.  Normally this is avoided, but what if I purposely form these as a decoration?

 

 

 

Subtle Appeal

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Toasted is my favorite flavor: Milliard reaction, the slightest browning of sugar and protein, a nutty scent that is more pungent then the underlying sweet and delicately earthy flavor, an aromatic taste.

Iridescence is my favor color: A prism reflection, the rainbow that you see in a soap bubble, the colorful glitter that is so surprising coming from translucent, basically clear material.

Subtly, although this has never been my passion, is becoming more appealing.

Dissecting Microscopic Details

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What I like about working with a controlled and highly selective area of cooking is that it really lets you dive into the diversity of a singular resource.  For example, I use many different kinds of sweeteners in my dishes.  I resort to refined white sugar only when necessary when make a caramel or meringue when you absolutely need pure sugar for the process to be successful.  Other than that, I use all sorts of raw, unrefined, fruit sourced, and naturally occurring sweeteners to add a unique flavor profile that highlights the quintessential sweet sensation of the last course.  My desserts are not just sweet, they are interesting, which in turn makes them memorable.

I have been thinking a lot about alternative fat resources, which includes using coconut oil a lot more.  Bacon has a been a recent dessert phenomenon, a movement which I have embraced, but what about other animal fats?  Sheep, cow, duck?

I have also been thinking about how yeast can affect the flavors of the final product. Baking yeast is highly commercialized, serving a function more than a flavor.  You increase the yeasty flavor with time- as in sour dough and fermented yeast, but think about how brewers use different strands of yeast to change a define a flavor of their brew?  Can I do that with baking?  With bread?  With cake?  Crossings, brioche, muffins, doughnuts?

Personalize Diet Plan, Named

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Real food diet, ground to mouth, that’s my plan.  Simple foods, minimally processed and whole singular ingredients only.  Although the ingredient list many be long, that is not because of what is on the label of the can or plastic packaging, it is because I strive to eat a very diverse amount of meat, vegetables, fruits, roots, seeds, nuts, spices, vinegar, fats.

Bread, you say, has but 4 ingredients: flour, water, yeast, and salt, so why then are you of the skip-the-bread clan?  How can this easy list go wrong?   The problem with bread is that the flour highly processed. It offers no nutritional value per se and now I am sure that all flour has come from a GMO crop, and almost all of it has been bleached, stripped completely of any traces of minerals and vitamins.

I also try very very hard to limit my cheese consumption which I difficult given my Dutch blood.  Although cheese has but two ingredients: milk and culture, the problem with dairy is how the cows are treated, what they are fed, the medicines they receive to produce a lot, and what milk has gone through to get to the table: homogenization, pasteurization, and overall low quality.  Nothing about the dairy farm is natural.

So when people ask me how I eat, I don’t want to say Paleo- that sounds limiting and also the worst diet name ever.  I eat real food, whole foods, minimally processed, like you cook it some and it’s ready to go. Real food doesn’t have any ingredient list, that’s my diet.  Real food doesn’t specific what’s not in it (growth hormones or preservatives) and definite does not come in plastic.

Individual Eating

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The fear of sharing food, and the American standard of everyone getting their own plate is strange, yet this weird and selfish eating style is never addressed. Each plate is composed like a miniature meal.  You go to a restaurant and order your meal, it’s meant for you and you only.  You have to ask the person you are dining with for a bite of their plate.  It’s ridiculous.  You should decide what sounds good for the group, and the restaurant brings the food out as it is ready and you dig in.

The fear of sharing food permeates into the shared plate movement found at tapas places, where still we get it wrong.  One large plate is brought out, yet people insist on putting a small portion on a small individual plate before bringing it to their mouths.  Like setting it down momentarily somehow is polite.  It’s like if you eat out of the serving bowl you are a barbarian.  Instead people take tiny spoonful’s and place them on a lonely side plate, insuring that the food gets cold immediately. Really you are ruining the integrity of the dish.  You are two people sitting next to each other, you might be on a date, you probably just had that persons tongue in your mouth 30 minutes ago, but god forbid you eat out of the same bowl.  Horrifying.  What are you so afraid of?  Why we feel the need to create so much distance between ourselves and our food?

Eating is supposed to be unifying, to bring everyone closer together, to share something as a collective, to create a bond.   Instead, we give everyone their own personalized plate that has no direct correlation to any other dishes.  You can go out to a restaurant and everyone is eating something completely different from one another, inspired cuisine from all around the globe.  Everyone pretends to like their plate, but really everyone is envious of what everyone else is eating.  We need to get back to family style dining, where what’s for dinner is not a negotiated globally treaty.

Music and Meal

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Music is a quintessential part of the dining experience.  Can you imagine going out on a dinner date and eating in silence?  Shutter.  What if it was a first date and you don’t have anything to talk about? That is the most mortifying situation my creative mind can muster.  What if you had just gotten in a fight and you are trying to null the differences over a steak, but there is so much silence that the tension only increase?

The finest of fine dining could never exist without music, yet this area is so overlooked.  It seems almost like an afterthought, like right before the door open, somebody is like oh yeah, what should we like put on?

Music is just as important for mood as is the interior design.  Restaurant planners pay so much money for all types of mood enhancements and designer’s expert advice, but the music issue is hardly ever addressed.  This is a niche that need to be filled, a profession that needs to be established.  I see a restaurant future where there are dj’s to create and enhance the mood, where what you hear is as important as what you are eating and the curated wine list provided.  Now this is a well rounded experience.

Treats for Today

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Life, simply, is so good.  What more do you need besides simple satisfying food, a couple great people who inspire you daily, and a stress free early spring afternoon?  These things are virtually priceless, requiring the bare minimum to provide such a feeling of joy.  I complain about money a heavy amount, and I do think that in ways what I don’t have in the bank account values my worth- “what I can do” echoes since fun and experiences make life the most rewarding, it seems, but really, it’s not.  It’s a simple meal, it’s a good connection with the people around, it’s embracing the small treats for yourself that come from a value system defined from within.

Tricks and Time

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Swimming competitively in high school taught me the value of time down to a second.  A split second, as it turns out, is a lot of time.  I worked hard for years, trained twice daily in the early morning, in the cold, in the peak of summer time bliss to shave down a split second of a time in a race.

So when the train takes 8 minutes to arrive, and the connecting train takes 10 minutes to arrive, sometimes I get stressed over all those nanoseconds of wasted time when I could be at home in bed, or at work on the clocking getting paid, precious time wasted in my schedule chopped full of rest, fun, and personal projects.  I am concerned about getting back home as soon I can and soaking in the bath tub.

That 18 minutes, though, of time waiting for the iron chariot to arrive at the platform stop, is not really that much time.  It is only 3 minutes longer then 15, which is nothing but a wink in time.  It’s a coffee break, it’s a gossip break, it’s a few text messages on the phone.

Funny thing is, though, that as I was hyping myself for not being mad at myself for not running to catch the train, for telling myself that I can be a few minutes late to work- I have all day after all, the train that I ended up boarding got stuck on the rails for a full 30 minutes- no moving, locked inside with the explanation about a delay happening.

Ironic, that even the most well intended pep talks, isn’t always enough.  Fortunately though, there is always tomorrow, with a new train to catch, and new minutes to idly pass while dreaming of maximum productivity.

Mechanical Dreams

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I am making up for not completely understanding modern technology (or not understanding at anything all)  with my plan to bypass the actual learning part, and instead becoming a robot- as you know.  I have talk about my magnetic fingers: If Magneto Were an Ordinary Girl, I have discussed how google is replacing the old concept of church and god: The Oracle and Matrix meets Dr. Who

My co-workers are well aware that I am currently working on learning robot language- a communication system based on beeping and booping sounds primarily- I am already at the intermediate level.  I am already well versed in the use of sonar technology in robotic linguistics.  My transformation is going as well as can be expected, given that this is not actually a thing yet- currently rooted at the theoretical stage.

I have to admit, though, that I feel guilty when I am signing up for something online or interacting with a website, and I have to check that box that says “I am not a robot.”  It makes me feel guilty, in a way, that I am betraying my commitment to being replaced with a robotic version of myself, in order to continue to be relevant in the modern society, because I have to tell the website what it wants to hear.