Select and remove

It's urgent that we develop the desire to be taught how to go to the fishmonger's, the meat stall, the fruit and vegetable stand, to "choose and browse." We don't know how, and we don't know how because of the supermarkets, which offer us lettuce, peeled and cut carrots, farmed salmon, minced meat and potatoes in the form of hamburgers on shrink-wrapped polystyrene trays. We buy quickly, too quickly. We throw things away without guilt, too often. We live wrapped in shrink wrap. Without plastic on top, no food excites us.

Going to the fishmonger's, the meat stall, the greengrocer's (a word that's disappearing) is, first and foremost, saying hello and asking for a round. That's no small thing. Then, observing and perhaps asking questions. Choosing and requesting the cut, the packaging. While someone says, "Double-chopped," another asks how it's done. The stallholders usually show cheerfulness, and I often think it's to keep themselves warm. The work they do sometimes makes me envious.

Asking about a fish you don't recognize, not settling for the one you had in mind because it's expensive, and instead, trusting the shopkeeper and letting them know the unknown fact that "it's very tasty, but people don't like it because it has bones." The other day I heard a woman asking for "ribbons." It suddenly took me back to my childhood. When every penny had value.

Some people say they don't want to queue, that they don't have time, that they don't like to talk, that it's better to go to the supermarket and grab everything off the shelves (how easy). Holiday nutrition and everyday nutrition are part of the same universe and should be equally important. Talking to the person selling us food is as civilized as talking to booksellers and sommeliers. These days I see exasperated faces over the price of shrimp, huffs and puffs if someone takes the time to ask, because they're in a hurry, a real hurry, to rush off and freeze it. And it's urgent that we get the urge to be taught how to go to the fish, meat, and fruit and vegetable stalls, to "choose and stir."