Instagram Health Influencer Breakfast ...For Dessert ...For Breakfast
A mini essay, where I challenge you to attend to your material existence, whilst going disgustingly meta on yo’ ass.
Since I’ve now read some essays on mimetic desires, I have been inspired (=possessed by a fit of meta-narrative frenzy) to graze the topic for myself.
First, to catalogue a few questions that have developed, and some of which I have started answering already:
What goes into plating a dish anyway? Does it matter? Does it matter at home?
Garnishing, the ubiquitous green stuff on top, parsley, chives, or whatever it is, certainly conveys intentionality. If that’s thrown on top, you can be sure, just by looking at your dish, that it is ready. It hasn’t left anyone’s hands on accident. It’s done when it’s done, and the choice to cap it off is at your fingertips. Perhaps it has to do with self-respect, akin to wanting to eat from a plate and not straight out of a mixing bowl. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with it. Just a personal observation that eating from the bowl is rarer when other people are present.
Take control, and transform (— or even better: prematurely fight against) your thin desire of wanting to make food look good for TV, into a thick desire of wanting it to look good for yourself. Now, I doubt this is something most people obsess over, or that causes them anxiety directly.
It serves another purpose for all of us, even if we’re not competing on causing the most cases of carpal tunnel syndrome on Instagram. Consider and take solace in this: what you’re doing by plating your dish nicely is pretty much unnecessary. Though this is not the same as saying it does not matter. And I’d be inclined to believe there is some value in taking control of the small things first. It interrupts the habitual pattern, if nothing else, which allows us to get a foot in the door. And precisely because it isn’t necessary, you can take it lightly enough to start, little-by-little, slowing down the rampaging snowball of mimetic desires, that’s speeding towards the ramshackle hut your sanity is housed in.
Though, doesn’t this just add more pointless things to do in our already fragmented lives? I would implore no. It affords a purposeful opportunity to avoid distraction. Instead of calling it a day right when your meal is cooked, and then pouring it onto a plate, while having your phone in one hand, extend your awareness just that little bit further. Fifteen extra seconds, to affirm all of the hard work that came before.
What follows is a cliché, so let us take extra care not to get lost into the fog. We all know what it means, and we’ve heard the variations. Internalising it is a different matter. It always is.
“Perfection is lots of little things done well.”
-The Notorious M.P.W.
This barely counts as a dish, so it can barely have a recipe. So just to finish off, the bare bones of a process for you to take home. Consider it as a personal micro-challenge:
Mix (sour) cream with honey & pinch of salt. // The better your cream, the less your honey.
Whip cream as desired. // Soft peaks, stiff peaks, virgin butter, you name it.
Spoon dollops of honey cream onto plate. // Learn to do quenelles for extra funk?
Top with the berry or fruit of your choosing. // These can be macerated with sugar beforehand.
Frozen stuff is great for this, especially macerated, especially if self-foraged. Add crispies if you wish. Add jam? Maybe a little bit of black pepper?
Bonus points awarded for colour coordinating your toppings and MAKING IT LOOK BEAUTIFUL. Not for the ‘gram, for yourself. You might even discover it tastes better for it. (Take the damn picture if you want, this won’t get cold.) Or perhaps you’ll discover new flavour combinations by coordinating your colours. Wouldn’t that be interesting?