You may recall the rooftop bar personality test my friends and I developed this summer, for example. In Montreal one of the things I'm known for, at least by some, is constructing surprising scenarios with unusual constraints that, depending on how the person answers, turn out to reveal insights into the way they imagine themselves, others, and the world more generally. For example, if stuck on a hot air balloon for the rest of your life.... It turns out, when I'm feeling some kind of existential frustration I start imagining the world as a wealth of personality test insights, which I seem to use as a kind of acting out coping strategy. Odd, I know.
Anyway, so here's my latest. I've decided our food storage receptacles--how they're organized (or not), what they contain, etc reveal something deep, important, home-and-self related, and PERSONALITY INSIGHTFUL about us.
Fascinated? Stunned? Let's look. Here's mine.
Okay, here's what we can see in the fridge:
The Fridge* a ton of butter and walnuts and pecans, for one. (I like baking, and like giving other people baking treats.)
* Vegan Coconut Drinking Milk
* Yellow Onion in one reuseable storage container
* Bok-choy in another reuseable storage container
* Yams on the bottom shelf
* Carrots, celery, cabbage, kale, potatoes in the drawer
* Champagne, and sparkling peach juice on the bottom shelf
* Coffee, Yogurt on the middle shelf
* Homemade Salsa, Kahlua, Organic Maple Syrup on the top shelf
* Vegan Coconut Drinking Milk
* Yellow Onion in one reuseable storage container
* Bok-choy in another reuseable storage container
* Yams on the bottom shelf
* Carrots, celery, cabbage, kale, potatoes in the drawer
* Champagne, and sparkling peach juice on the bottom shelf
* Coffee, Yogurt on the middle shelf
* Homemade Salsa, Kahlua, Organic Maple Syrup on the top shelf
Here's what we can see on the storage shelves:
The Food Pyramid Shelving System* Bottom shelf: Vitamins and herbal remedies of various sorts, canned goods (beans, tomatoes, coconut milk for cooking), homemade jam, homemade honey, gourmet chocolate powder (Scharffenberger), garlic, organic grain 'bear mush' hot cereal, Tang (my great grandmother always kept tang in the bottom cupboard of her kitchen and would tell me "go make yourself some tank!" when I'd come in from playing. I was so happy to see it for sale in the grocery store I bought this container, though I never have and don't intend to open it.)
* Second-up bottom shelf: various spices in glass containers, gourmet baking chocolate (Scharffenberger), various organic herbal teas
* Second-down top shelf: baking goods in a reuseable storage container (coconut, marshmellows), my great grandmother's old wooden flour container, organic flours--wheat, gluton free alternatives, gluton free organic pancake mix
* Top shelf: the ten-year old's hot chocolate powder that was given to her as a gift, powdered sugar for baking, dried adzuki beans, organic rice, no-chicken organic broth
*p.s. that thingee hanging from the wall on the left side of the shelves is an uluquak my great-grandfather made for my mother a little after she was married
* Second-up bottom shelf: various spices in glass containers, gourmet baking chocolate (Scharffenberger), various organic herbal teas
* Second-down top shelf: baking goods in a reuseable storage container (coconut, marshmellows), my great grandmother's old wooden flour container, organic flours--wheat, gluton free alternatives, gluton free organic pancake mix
* Top shelf: the ten-year old's hot chocolate powder that was given to her as a gift, powdered sugar for baking, dried adzuki beans, organic rice, no-chicken organic broth
*p.s. that thingee hanging from the wall on the left side of the shelves is an uluquak my great-grandfather made for my mother a little after she was married
Mesmerizing!
My claim is that these things reveal a lot. But I'm gonna let whoever's bothered to read this intuit for themselves, I think.
Intuit! Intuit!
(Feel free to offer interpretations via comments.)
First off, I love a clean fridge; I don't care if it is filled with Pillsbury dough canisters and bad domestic beer. Your clean fridge means I am safe in your home.
ReplyDeleteAn organized fridge shows me that you will probably gift wrap presents for me with great care, and, the gift will be relevant to my liking...
Your focus on baking tells me you could sit and talk for hours with me, and really give a damn about what I say...
And many sparkly beverages means to me that for you its not always about the event, it's about grabbing the moment the minute it happens, and for that your friends are fortunate.
And having food/beverage on a shelf, like a picture or a letter tucked away in an envelope, for the sake of nostalgia and the love of another is just awesomeness and a symbol of fierce loyalty.
Funness!
to add to what insanitykim has said:
ReplyDeletethe difference between this refrigerator and your montreal refrigerator, and these shelves and your montreal shelves, is striking. i notice a change in lifestyle and change of focus. i notice less eating out or ordering wok du chef, and lots of cooking in (vegetables that will perish - a less usual sight in the montreal fridge - indicates that you are likely doing more in-home cooking). the more than ample amount of baking materials indicates that you have been focussing on baking delicious things for friends as an expression of appreciation, but also an outlet for yourself. the situation of less going out to eat (the important and enjoyable act of sharing meals with others in a public/social space) seems to have turned your focus towards reaching out to others with gifts of love and care and time: baked goods. this is an alternative way to connect with others around you through the media of eating and food.
your plentiful array of organic goods indicates a commitment to the optimal health of your own body, as well as a possible concern for the environment and equitable farming/purchasing practices.
the lack of breads and pastries indicates one of two things: either there is not a good solid bakery in flagstaff which makes delicious flaky butter croissants at high-elevations, or there is one such excellent bakery and no pastry can be found in the kitchen because they are eaten immediately.