Something about food

Its interesting to note some of the background about food:
1.The Romans enjoyed food so much that they ate it many times during the night or day>What they do was after eating in one place ,they would tickle their throats and vomit everything out and then go on eating again.That is the classic example of living to eat.
2.The Chinese have food on all occasions.From the time a baby is born its eating to celebrate.Weddings ,birthdays ,full moons, anniversaries etc are incomplete without eating.Even at someone's funeral there is eating.
3.Families eat together all the time and there are some families where strict eating rules Re laid down.When I was young mum would insist that nothing is left on our plates ,not even a drop of rice telling us that if you leave things on your plate you will marry a pock faced partner.No one could come to the dinner table before showering and properly dressed and there should be no leftovers on the table.
The reunion dinner was a compulsory thing and all the traditional Hokkien food would be served.Duck soup with pork leg and salted vegetable,jiu hoo char with fresh vegetable leaves,chicken,mushroom and sometimes curry would be there for the dinner>To us it was an eagerly looked forward event as we seldom had these goodies but the spirit of the reunion dinner was not just the eating but having all the members of the family together and it was a time of merry making and family happiness.
4.The Asians are less formal when it comes to eating.Anyone coming by during meal time would be invited to join in.The Uzbeks are well known for their dining hospitality proudly saying that "An Uzbek would rather go hungry than let a guest go home hungry" and they really make sure it happens.An Uzbek dinner would take at least two hours to complete.Not so with the Americans or Brits..you only get to eat with them if you are invited.I had an American lecturer who invited me for lunch at his house one day and while we we eating his father came back and went up straight to his room and when I asked if he was going to join us my friend said "No ,I did not invite him"
What is common amongst all people is that we all celebrate or socialise with the aid of food hence eating is a universal unifying factor.It is said that we are too lavish with our food which is quite true and also that we tend to be too fussy about food.Sometimes when we fall into this category we should pause a second and think of all those unfortunate people who live in a state of hunger and deprivation