Something to chew on: Food expressions in our everyday conversations

Have you ever noticed how often we use food-related expressions? I hadn’t until I started working with the Ecology Action Centre’s Food Team. Now that I’m looking at things through a food lens, I am astonished by how frequently food, eating and growing appear in our conversations. I thought it might be fun to give you a taste…

So, let’s spice things up a bit. I’ve been chewing on this idea for a while and have a real appetite for writing this blog. I think it will make it as easy as pie for you to digest my point if I plant the seed!

I’ve been harvesting phrases for some time now, trying to find the low hanging fruit.  I really want to feed into your thinking about food in our dialogue. Perhaps this is getting a bit cheesy so I’m going to butter you up by pointing out that you are a real smart cookie. I think it should be a piece of cake for you to follow, unless you are as slow as molasses! Seriously though, you and I are like peas in a pod and I think you’ll find this blog good food for thought. Unless it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, in which case I’ll feel like I’m walking on eggshells!

Now I really need to bring home the bacon, so I’m cherry-picking the best ideas. I spent last night trying to cook something up while vegging at home like a couch potato! Every example I thought of seemed like small potatoes! Some of my ideas stunk so badly that I thought someone had cut the cheese! I started to think that maybe this wasn’t my cup of tea, especially because that’s a drink expression and comparing that to a food expression is like comparing apples and oranges! I thought to myself, I’ve bitten off more than I can chew! And I really want this piece to be the best thing since sliced bread, something that would sell like hotcakes (if this wasn’t a free blog article – you really can’t have your cake and eat it too!). Anyways, somehow I managed to figure out what’s cooking. Here’s hoping, as I have all my eggs in one basket!

Did I mention that you are the apple of my eye? That’s much better than being a bad apple – someone who is really rotten to the core. I can always tell right away when there’s something fishy about a person and, in that case, I take everything they say with a grain of salt. In a nutshell, I know when someone is full of beans. They often have half-baked ideas like cooking the books. If you listen to someone like that, you’ll end up in a fine kettle of fish! If you let them egg you on, you’d better not spill the beans or you’ll be in a pickle! Oh well, I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles and there’s no sense in crying over spilled milk! You need to be as cool as a cucumber to recover or else you will eat your words!

Well, I don’t know about you, but after reading this, I’m hungry. It’s icing on the cake to see how frequently we mention food in our conversations. Food is a bread and butter issue, you might say. We all need to eat. And now, I have bigger fish to fry and I must get back to working on food policy issues. I’m confident that our efforts will bear fruit and that the organizations and people we work with will feel that we are worth our salt!!

Keep an ear out for more food expressions – there’s a smorgasbord!

Blog Written By: Nancy Anningson, Ecology Action Centre, Senior Coordinator, Community Food, Network and Policy Development

Adventures in Local Food is your source for food news in Nova Scotia, from pickles to policy. It is a project organized by the Ecology Action Centre.
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