There’s a lot of conversation buzzing around Disconnection in the Digital Age. Screens as walls between ourselves and those around us. Our cultural inability to form intimate, reciprocal human relationships. You know what I’m talking about. The antidote that most offer is—more connection! Dinner parties! Breaking bread with friends and strangers!
East Fork loves an over-the-top meal and an overflowing table. But today we want to extend an invitation to pull up a seat at a table set for one.
A cupcake in the bathtub. Delivery pizza on the couch. A warm meal at the bar of a neighborhood standby with a crossword for company. A Sunday spent alone at the grocery store, taking your time in every aisle, with a whole afternoon to prepare and enjoy—with no pressure to please anyone but yourself—a three-course meal inspired by a childhood vacation.
Our culture's growing obsession with health and wellness is so often body and class shaming dressed up in a gown of moral righteousness. It can all be so hard to navigate. Eating alone is a great time to work on unlearning the harmful stories that our classist, image-obsessed, society has been whispering in our ears and jamming down our throats all our lives. It's a great time to practice saying things like:
"I'm eating this cake alone because it tastes so damn delicious and I just wanna savor it" instead of "I'm eating this cake alone because I'm bad and can't help myself."
or
"I'm eating this big, raw salad alone because it's delicious and nourishing for my body" instead of "I'm eating this salad on my Instagram feed so that people will know that I'm good and disciplined and virtuous."
An image of someone eating alone can shout: Shame! Depression! Isolation! But flip the narrative and eating alone can provide us with the opportunity for a connection with our own, personal, corporal humanity in a way that eating in the company of others can't.
I'm on my phone all day every single day for work and, of course, I can feel how it disconnects me from those around me. But more than anything, it's disconnected me from myself. It's stripped away my comfortable, easy relationship with solitude I've spent a lifetime developing. Eating alone used to be my church—truly, the time I felt most connected to the whole damn universe. I still enjoy it, but lately when I'm eating alone—whether in a restaurant while travelling for work or at home, before the kids wake up—I find myself aimlessly scrolling through Instagram, hardly aware of the food in front me and my own experience of it. Anyone else feel that? And since I've developed this habit and stopped paying attention to my senses while I eat, I've noticed that this negative self-talk I thought I'd gotten rid of for good back in my early 20s has started to weasel its way back into my sub-conscious. I'm ready to reconnect.
In the comment section below, tell us about a time when you enjoyed a meal or a snack in your own company. A time when you were really, truly present with your own taste buds, desire, pleasure, humanity.
“When I was writing my thesis in college, I would go get sushi by myself at the end of a long week. I'd blast my sinuses with Wasabi to clear some stress. All the sushi chefs and staff knew me and when they found out I studied Japanese, they started giving me a couple free pieces of fish every time I went in.” - Julia True
"My favorite thing to eat when I'm all alone is oxtail. I can make it, but it's way better when my grandma or mom does. I like to share food, but not when I'm eating oxtail. That's all mine." - JaQuan LaPierre
“Seriously, while it is more fun sharing a meal with the one you love, New Haven style Pizza can be great with a group or all by yourself!” - Scott Haight
“I once trekked across London to eat banana pancakes at a specific breakfast spot. I was the only person in the restaurant eating alone, but I didn’t mind: what better way to enjoy your own company than with a delicious meal?” - Virginia Knight
“In the late afternoon half way through my trip [to Paris] I ordered a Croque Monsuier (white sauce cheese and ham--a glorified fried bologna sandwich) wrapped to go after a long night and perhaps a few too many Kronenbourgs. Plucking it out of my tote (still warm!) on the steps outside of le Petit Palais was a fabulous reminder to take comfort in solitude.” - Sara Melosh
“There’s nothing better than eating a big bowl of cereal in absolute peace and quiet or when watching YouTube. It's perfect quick snack fix, second only to PB&J.” — Jerome Williams
30 comments
While my husband had meetingsin Nashville, I decided to take myself to the Loveless Cafe. Seated at a table for one, the waitress asked, “You need some biscuits, Hon?” I did! She delivered and said, “I’ll just leave you to that. “ Biscuits and peach jam-alone, not lonely…!
When I was 25, I became a divorcee. I had to make A LOT of adjustments to being alone, and meals alone was a big one. I worked in a restaurant, so I ate there most of the time (even when I wasn’t on shift, truth be told, because I didn’t want to cook for myself but also because most of my non-work “meals” consisted of nilla wafers dipped in soy milk). But I can vividly remember one night where I walked from my tiny, recently-moved-into 1 bedroom apartment to a restaurant I liked down the street and sat by the open front windows. I was new to drinking alcohol, so I asked the waiter to surprise me with a cocktail bc I was such a noob, and ordered my usual grilled cheese and frites with garlic aioli (SOOOO GOOD there) and the waiter brought me an apple martini. Which honestly I hated haha! But I remember that deep feeling of satisfaction of sitting there, reading a book, truly enjoying my own company and my food, feeling confident in myself and excited about my future.
I drove 37 miles to Baltimore to eat handmade, completely fresh, gluten free pizza cooked in a pizza oven. I sat at the bar in a neighborhood pizza place completely absorbed in that sensory perfection of the pizza. It was a brief moment of heaven on earth that I refer to in my thoughts when I need a reminder of the fulfillment of simple pleasure.
I spent last summer in Mexico City with my husband and daughter but was working during our time there. One day I was alone, working at a coffee shop, when I made the spontaneous decision to treat myself to a “business lunch” at Contramar. I had tuna tostadas, a mezcal margarita, and coconut flan. Every bite was so good I literally had tears in my eyes by the end (or maybe it was the coconut flan!). Being alone I was able to lose myself in every bite and fully soak up the ambiance. It stands as one of the very best dining experiences I’ve ever had.
I can wear myself out. Or down, more accurately. When I started my first “big girl” job after college, I put a lot of pressure on myself as if one misstep could derail my whole career (thank god my 20s are over). My cure for a rough day or long week was going to a local deli I had found, sitting at the counter and ordering a huge sandwich. My go-to became roast beef with Brie, a bag of kettle chips and a Dr. Browns diet cream soda. I could house that in about 15 minutes and check off meditating for the day in one fell swoop.