Is there such a thing as adult food?

This past week my stepdaughter turned 16, and she had a Sweet Sixteen party. Martin surprised her at the party and was able to secure a father-daughter dance, one of those traditional memories that will stay with her for life. As I pondered the poignancy of that it occurred to me that for all the details of a “coming of age” party, there doesn’t seem to be any traditions about the food involved. Is there such a thing as adult food?

I guess you could take sides on this issue: there is the serious, responsible side of food that most people would class as “mature” (some might say “boring” but that just depends on your perspective, doesn’t it?) then there is the lighthearted, whimsical side of food. If there was some kind of tradition about representing the passage into adulthood with food, then it seems that the serious side would prevail.

There is an adventurous side to food too, and I think this gets explored as we start to come of age. I remember a summer in my teens where my cousin and I made Dagwood sandwiches of all sizes and description, with ingredients that we would have previously snubbed. Red onion slices became an exotic addition to ham sandwiches, and eating cheese that didn’t come in its own plastic sleeve all of a sudden was cool. We definitely wanted to be cool, so we tried all the fancy adult things in the fridge and the cupboards.

I think if any kind of food or drink is associated with the “coolness” of adulthood, it is alcohol. Quite often the ritual involves nothing more than the theory of “more is better”, but I wonder if perhaps the aftermath is bittersweet as we usually discover that overindulging just because you can is rather anti-climatic. The maturity there comes in learning how powerful a hangover can be you discover that as an adult you can punish yourself for your bad behavior!

Maybe we do have rituals that are not presented at a coming of age party but are unwritten rules. As I seem to recall, once I got older my parents just took it for granted that I WOULD eat my broccoli. Looking back, I suppose it was akin to giving up my blankie when my little brother was born I just knew deep down that I was expected to step up to the plate (up to the table?) and be a big girl.

Could we start a new trend? Instead of worrying about Dry Grad maybe we should tell the kids the really cool adult thing is to drink broccoli shakes…but then we would have to set the example to really push the point home. I guess that doesn’t work, as the best part about being an adult is when you get to say, “I think I would like to relive a childhood moment” and you order an extra scoop of ice cream or put sour cream AND bacon bits on your baked potato…

Kristin

P.S. We are going back even further than our childhood this weekend – it is our annual pilgrimage to Wauconda for the Sock Hop! Check back next week when we regale you with the details!!

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.