Chewing

The other night, Dad came home with the idea that we needed to chew our food more....50 times per bite to be precise. You might think this is a reasonable amount of times to chew a bite of food, and over the ensuing weeks, I have found there is one thing that does stand up well to this level of mastication, that being well-cooked steak. However, a lot of food we eat during the summer, food like cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, pasta, rice....doesn't bear up well for quite that long.
Despite the fact that most food is pretty much gone well before 50 chews, even 10 or 20 is enough to significantly alter the dinnertime dynamic from a lively conversation to one of quiet and contemplative chewing. It was during one of these long pauses....that I was able to capture these pictures of our parents.
The reason for all this chewing is to take more time enjoying the bites we have taken, not gulping it down without tasting it. It can also be a weight loss strategy, in the context of other efforts,though it might also be useful for stopping or at least stifling awkward dinner conversations.
We have decided that chewing, like all things, must be done in moderation, and have so cut back, as appropriate, from a rigid prescription of 50 per bite. The truth is that we usually just forget and go about wolfing our food, when someone will mention, "chewing," or say, "Let's chew our food tonight." With a common understanding of the philosophy, we will proceed to have a moment of reverence for at least a few well-chewed bites.