Back in the day, when someone presented you with a meal - at home, in a restaurant or at a friend's -it was customary to pick up your fork and start eating.
You might have raised a toast before you dove into your pasta, or paused to thank the hostess or to unfold your napkin, but that was about it. Plate arrived. Eating began.
Not always so today. These days, increasing numbers of folks are opting to do something else before they take that first bite.
They're taking pictures of their food.
I know: it's all just a wee bit strange. But it's everywhere I go.
Take last week. I was on a patio downtown, enjoying crab cakes and sangria.
A server arrived at the table next door, and presented a young woman with some sort of fancy salad that appeared to include asparagus, shrimp, watercress and strawberries. I thought it looked delicious.
She thought it looked picture perfect.
The young woman, apparently in no urgent need of sustenance, whipped out her iPhone, and began to photograph her salad from every angle.
By the time she was done, her dining companion had pretty much finished his burger, but she didn't care. She was more concerned with texting the images to someone than eating her lunch.
It would have been quite weird, had I not spotted other diners in the establishment doing the same thing. Over there: a young man shooting his apple crumble. In a corner, a woman photographing her pasta.
The place might as well have been called The Camera Cafe.
The images, of course, will end up on other people's iPhones, or in laptop photo galleries, or more than likely on Facebook, where they will be accompanied
with comments like: 'Best-EVER Asian salad roll! Can you say YUMMY' Now, I don't know when exactly it became de rigueur to take pictures of your chicken wings or your fish tacos before you think to pick them, but I'm betting increasing numbers of servers these days are being asked: "Now what would you recommend? You know, for a photo shoot?" Having said all this, I must admit, however, that on two occasions - and yes, only two - I've also done the food 'n film thing.
The first time, I was in a tropical locale and presented with a salad so fresh and colourful, I simply had to preserve an image. In the second instance, I was in Italy, and had come face-toface with a piece of lasagne so exquisite, it would have been a crime not to take a picture.
But as I say, those times have been few. Fact is, I'm truly a rare old bird. Food, I believe, is for eating.
