gendered food

[firecat]

I don't know how much most people think about the intersection between gender and food choices, but it was driven home pretty strongly to me today when the OH and I went to the Fresh Choice salad bar restaurant for lunch at around 11am.

On the way over, we drove past a breakfast place called Stacks, which we ate at once many years ago and thought was only so-so. Usually there is a small line on the weekends, but today there was a line halfway down the block.

Usually Fresh Choice becomes fairly crowded almost immediately after opening at 11am. Today it was almost completely deserted.

I can only theorize that people don't think of salad bar restaurants as appropriate Father's Day destinations, because, you know, salad is for women.

Comments

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I bet that's part of it -- women are always supposed to be eating lightly. Though, contrariwise, going out for brunch on Father's Day isn't something I've ever heard of peple doing, while Mother's Day is a big eatfest.

Another part might be that salads aren't considered celebration food, though. For holidays, we like our proteins and carbohydrates and fats, none of this leaf stuff.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

salads aren't considered celebration food

yes, that was my first thought.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

There's that. We often have salads on holidays, but they are clearly there to satisfy some sort of ritual requirement; nobody actually eats any.

(Where by "we" I mean the people I spend my holidays with, not Americans in general.)