Enjoy whale of good meal at senior center — minus whale

Hendrik Hertzberg’s “One Million” offers a statistic to think about: Over a lifetime, the average American eats 100,874 pounds of food.

Herman Melville had a word — or 10,000 or so — about what people eat, noting that three centuries before he was writing “Moby Dick,” the “tongue of the right whale was esteemed a great delicacy in France and commanded large prices there.”

“In Henry VIII’s time, a certain cook of the court obtained a handsome reward for inventing an admirable sauce to be eaten with barbecued porpoises, which you remember, are a species of whale,” Melville wrote. “The fact is, that among his hunters at least, the whale would by all hands be considered a noble dish were there not so much of him, but when you come to sit down before a meat pie nearly 100 feet long, it takes away your appetite.”

Melville doesn’t stop there but offers more specifics: “What further depreciates the whale as a civilized dish, is his exceeding richness. He is the great prize ox of the sea, too fat to be delicately good. Look at his hump, which would be as fine eating as the buffalo’s (which is esteemed a rare dish), were it not such a solid pyramid of fat.”

“Guinness World Records 2024” offers another food to take away your appetite. To produce MrBeast’s veggie burger, a team of 43 people mixed together a huge amount of soy protein concentrate, water, salt, and sunflower and coconut oils. Then they used a forklift to transfer two burgers into a propane oven to cook for 10 hours. After these cooked burgers were put on two giant brioche buns that outweighed a grand piano, they were garnished with 200 pounds each of onions, lettuce and cheese.

Once assembled, the MrBeast burger stood almost 7 feet tall.

Looking at the four-color, two-page spread featuring this burger makes one think, “Go fry an egg.”

In the past few months, eggs have made a lot of newspaper headlines. You can take a look at The New Yorker food critic’s answer to a reader’s question about alternatives to the beleaguered chicken egg in “Helen, help me: Should I be cooking with ostrich eggs?”

“Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide” describes crocodile eggs, gull eggs, snail eggs, octopus eggs, quail eggs and turtle eggs. And “When California Went to War Over Eggs” tells the story of what happened when the Gold Rush brought lots of prospectors to San Francisco, and egg battles ensued.

Discussing the price of eggs on Fox & Friends, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins offers Oval Office flunky wisdom: If you’re bothered by egg prices, raise your own chickens. Quite a solution.

Instead of worrying about blubber, in whale humps or on Capitol Hill, sit back and listen to the humpback’s song.

I would note that a meal that changed my life is linked to the outrageous office attack on international students and the universities they attend. Most of my 27 books are about teaching and learning, but three feature the bombast, babes and bigotry of Donald Trump and his progeny, rollicking verse verified by engrossing news accounts: “Trump, Trump, Trump: The Swan Song,” “Trump, Trump, Trump: The March of Folly” and “The Little Red Book of Trump Quotations.”

My meal was at International House, UC Berkeley. International House was financed by John D. Rockefeller Jr., a big money man who believed in community. His International House plan was that half the residents would be foreign students, the other half Americans so that international understanding would develop.

When I lived at International House, we ate all our meals there except on Sunday. On Sundays, there was only Sunday Supper. At the first supper I started talking with the foreign student sitting next to me.

The rest of the story: We’ve been married for over 50 years, and a framed poster celebrating the 50th anniversary of International House in 1980 sits in our sunroom. Hats off to the big money man who wanted to bring people together, not tear them apart.

Here’s a link giving free access to the article showing what big money buys. It lists the fat cats the president invited to his private dinner for customers of his cryptocurrency business.

Not only do the volunteer cooks at Monday Munch at the Charlotte Senior Center offer food with an international flavor — French one week, Italian the next — they don’t need forklifts to prepare the food. Nor do these cooks need to exaggerate to get your attention. Instead, at Monday Munch you’ll find lots of good food served with friendly smiles and good conversation.

There is no charge for Monday Munch, but a $5 donation is appreciated.

Monday Munch
June 2, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Crustless quiche with cheese and bacon, tossed salad, crescent rolls and dessert TBA.

June 9, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Chicken and spring vegetable tortellini salad, green salad, bread, beverage and dessert TBA.