Food is a Common Experience
When we think of the differences among us around the world, there are many that are apparent. But I have enjoyed discovering our commonalities…the things that make us know each other better. Food, how we prepare it and share it, is one of those. Take your time looking at each photo. Most are in locations that perhaps immediate screams out the differences….look to see what is the commonality….and enjoy.
from Farmplate website
Food for Thought
Food is our common ground, a universal experience.
– James Beard
Pul-e-Kumri, Afghanistan
Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the
single most significant trademarks of a culture.
What is food to one man may be fierce poison to others.
– Lucretius, Roman Poet and Philosopher
Calcutta, India
Tibet
The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water,
is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight…”
M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating
Bakery run by widows, Kabul, Afghanistan
All sorrows are less with bread.
– Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
Mauritania
If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.
– Robert Browning
Croatia
Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the
court that surrounds the king.
– Louis Bromfield
Afghanistan
Istanbul, Turkey
Food to a large extent is what holds a society together and
eating is closely linked to deep spiritual experiences.
– Peter Farb and George Armelagos
Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating
Rajasthan, India
Egg Vendor, Kabul, Afghanistan
Chef Wolfgang Puck, Los Angeles, California, USA
Date Seller, Yemen
Honduras
The table is a place of communion for life’s large and small events.
Art Smith, Master Chef
Peru
Vietnam
Refugee Family, Sri Lanka
– Kirby Larson, Hattie Big Sky
Cambodia
Priyadarshini Park, Mumbai, India
If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world.
– J.R.R. Tolkien
Monsoon Waters, Indonesia
Beirut, Lebanon
Burma
Mumbai, India
The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.
– E.M. Forster
wvfarm2u 
This is beautiful! What’s more important than our food? Thank you for taking the time to put this album together.
Oh I didn’t do it, although I wish I had had the concept. I merely stumbled upon it while looking for something else on the web and knew it was a treasure to share. This of me more like a midwife on this one. LOL
Nice! It’s why everyone always gathers in the kitchen no matter the size. It’s the heart of the home where the food is prepared.
Beautiful and a great reminder of how good we have it in the USA. I can’t imagine seeing rubble and garbage every day I had a meal (well, if I ate in my bedroom…). And yet, many people can find happiness despite their troubles. It makes our “troubles” so trivial, in my opinion.
It also makes me more aware that war is not the answer. Food not Bombs! We can’t win over a foreign nation by coercing but would all get a better understanding if we were there, felt what daily life is like, and tasted their bread! It’s all tied together whether we want to look at it or not. Thanks for the great post.
Couldn’t find this at the post you linked to (for credit?)… but the original post and photos were done by Steve McCurry at http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/
Steve does some mind-boggling gorgeous photography from all around the world. Each post features a particular theme – as in the “Food for Thought” post he did awhile back
(http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/food-for-thought/)
Thanks for adding that to my fumbled attempt to credit him. And thank you for bringing it to my attention.
I thought I had forwarded the link to you, but obviously spaced out between the intention and the deed. Figured it was right down your alley.