Living slow, living well – There’s value in slow (Pt I)

(This is part I in our series on living slow)

Slowing down. Living slow. Its been in the social consciousness for a while now. Slow food, slow cities, slow parenting. There have been festivals, magazines, blogs, and entire social movements dedicated to slowing down. But what is the hype? Why do we care? By and large it’s a look at the ever quickening of all areas of our lives, and asking if speed is necessarily the best thing when you’re talking about your kids, your food, your environment.

Let's start with slow food. Hi I’m Shera, and I’m a foodie. An accidental one, but definitely a foodie. Ask anyone who’s known me for any length of time, they’ll mention food. Waaay before food was fashionable, I began cooking things because I missed home - tuna cassarole and spam musubi in London! Then I cooked because I missed what I used to eat abroad - making pesto and curry and panforte in the US. Later on I was back in London and to learn about the origins of the food I ate, I roasted peppers and ground spices to make harissa, and kneaded potato into dough for gnocchi. Of course now we can get all of that from Whole Foods. And that's a little sad to me because along the way, in order to make these dishes I had to get acquainted with the food’s attached history and culture. Searching new corners of London, i had to occasionally go to stores without English, bumbling like a tourist and relying on the graciousness of other cultures. Those excursions and histories opened up whole cultures to me - Moroccan, Turkish, Japanese, Italian, Middle Eastern. Such a rich experience.