TOTW: Soup for my family

“Live together. Share meals. Share money. Get everyone on food stamps, build farms, share techniques for theft and resource misallocation. Learn how to cook for two, then four, then twenty, then a thousand.” - How to Start a Fire

My experience of eating in the anarchist milieu has been, well, spotty at best. If you asked me to name a dish I associate with anarchists, it would be a) vegan, b) made of stolen (at best) or dumpstered/day-old (or more, at worst) ingredients, and c) flavored with large amounts of cumin and nutritional yeast. All this, and also cooked out of love (or obligation) by too many cooks in the kitchen for large groups of people. Let’s put it this way - like much of home cooking, what you’re tasting is less the ingredients and the technical aspects of cooking and more who’s doing the cooking.

And yet, there are certainly anarchists who cook like (or at least in imitation of) professionals, who aren’t making enough vegan mac-n-cheese for twenty people, never mind a thousand. Food individualists who strive to excel at their craft, who embrace creativity while also keeping in mind how much cumin they’re adding to what. Gourmets and food snobs might also fall on this side of the spectrum.

Is there an anarchist way to cook? What do anarchists cook? What’s the best meal you’ve had made by anarchists? If you were putting together an anarchist cookbook, what recipe would you contribute?

There are 39 Comments

As someone involved in fine food and drink for a career, i have always loved this Hakim Bey quote (itself i think a riff off a passage in "Against Nature" by Huysmans):

" Appendix: Menu For An Anarchist Black Banquet (veg & non-veg)

Caviar & blinis; Hundred year old eggs; Squid & rice cooked in ink; Eggplants cooked in their skins with black pickled garlic; Wild rice with black walnuts & black mushrooms; Truffles in black butter; Venison marinated in port, charcoal grilled, served on pumpernickel slices & garnished with roast chestnuts. Black Russians; Guinness-&-champagne; Chinese black tea. Dark chocolate mousse, Turkish coffee, black grapes, plums, cherries, etc."

I very much look forward to having anarchist friends over for an impromptu holiday based off this menu

Unfortunately, I can't eat nuts, but I'd be down for the balance of this menu. Particularly anything with 80% or higher dark chocolate.

Not even deez?

Best meal prepared by an anarchist, pig roast with salad and a side of sour dough bread

The moderator is certainly forcing their perspective today via selective deleting of replies no matter how direct or thorough the response.

To answer your question: No, "anarchism has no room for speciesists." is not "an inherently non-Anarchist statement."

Anarchism is a multifaceted set of ideas that at its very core finds commonality in an opposition to rulers. The rule of humans over other species (speciesism) and the natural world fits securely into what anarchists (adherents of anarchism; those who desire anarchy) oppose.

"Anarchism has no room for speciesists" is as much an anarchist statement as "anarchism has no room for fascists" or "anarchism has no room for police." Understand?

it's certainly a gatekeeping statement tho! not to mention an attack vector for trolls...

is saying "anarchism has no room for fascists" or "anarchism has no room for police" also gatekeeping?

is any statement that excludes also gatekeeping?

no. the rhetorical line is drawn in certain places for certain reasons that reflect the values of the speaker but before you spring your little gotcha trap (you're not subtle), perhaps you could address how directly equating all meat consumption with police and/or fascism is a pretty niche take that excludes most of actual anarchists throughout history? or do you just want to play silly word games?

Why the hostility? I am giving complete answers and with sincerity. I never said anything about “all” anything not was I engaging in any “word play”. Clearly something I said has struck a nerve or you’re mistaking me for someone else. You’ve even created a strawman in your haste. I suggest you read back the question and my answers sith less of a hostile author in mind.

Speaking for myself, a biocentric understanding of the world is foundational to anarchy. My anarchy means Total Liberation (human, animal, earth). Saying speciesism is antiethical to anarchism is a truthful statement to me. So beans and rice with hot peppers and a good salad!

I just am hostile, most of the time. Don't read too much in to it :D

why in the world was my response to this comment deleted? it was a direct response in dialog with lumpy's gatekeeping assertion... are we not allowed to have conversations in these comments anymore? wtf?

all i said, in direct response to lumpy's assertion that it was "a gatekeeping statement" (which was his response to a completely different anon's statement that "Anarchism has no room for speciesists," that i agree with) was:

is saying "anarchism has no room for fascists" or "anarchism has no room for police" also gatekeeping?

is any statement that excludes also gatekeeping?

this is how dialog works. statements, questions, thinking, repeat.

how about you let us continue this discussion?

they deleted my comment too where i agreed with the comment about speciesism from a biocentric anarchist position of total liberation i also gave a shout out to rice and beans! which/what was the offending statement? or are you giving us an actual lesson in what gatekeeping is?

Second best meal is warm Uncrustables and cold Four Loko.

Best meal is dumpster stew fed to one another while wearing straight jackets from the person seated to our right with a wooden spoon held between their teeth at a squat in the woods.

Everybody eat.

Don't mix too much nooch with cumin or it becomes vomity.

i actually had dumpstered stew with dumpsterlings last night

The most anarchist meal is when all who want food get to eat.

This totw dovetails with last week's about contradiction, to have a good meal rules must be followed, oh the horror!
But really. Enough to eat is never not a goal, but on the regular, why do anarchists think poorly cooked, overly / underly spiced food is adding to the party? Learn to follow a recipe, people! ;-)

Having said that, most anarchists I know do know how to cook and I feel blessed to have had more delicious meals with them than I can count. BBQ, cornbread, a mess of greens, Ethiopian mushroom tibs, wood-fired pizza.... damn, now I'm hungry!

I don't have a recipe to offer, but I will do the dishes!

"The most anarchist meal is when all who want food get to eat. "

No that's the delusional promise of communism. And go back to /r/anarchism and stay there, plz.

There's a difference between removing all the hinderances and enclosures institutionalized by the capitalist system so we can freely enjoy the goods of nature without industrially exploiting them, and having MORE agro-industrial exploitation in order to "feed everyone equally".

it's weird, anarchists i know either seem to be very "whatever" about food or find it near-sacred and that's rarely ever split up by like class or sub-subcultural affinity. i think it's like the "works in food service" dynamic more than anything.

yeah - cumin and nooch are really overdone. also so much vinegary pickled stuff... i think FNB has evolved to be more of a grocery oriented thing in some places rather than stressing like cooperative group cooking + service, especially during the way it's had to change during the pandemic. when i learned to cook, there was a lot of affinity between the local FNB kids and Hare Krishna in my area so that was a big influence in group cooking and potlucks.

it's a bummer, i hope that groups like FNB exist as large-group cooking skillshares again because that felt like a great way to teach newly-minted anarchists some skills of like "how to cook rice / pasta / stew / curry / soup" from whatever ingredients were just hanging around or cheap or free - which is a really valuable skill that a lot of people need to learn. Collective living transmits a lot of that knowledge and skill between people too - something that I remember doing to teach my roommates who were 10 years younger than me how to live off more than like granola bars and frozen pizza.

“it's weird, anarchists i know either seem to be very "whatever" about food or find it near-sacred and that's rarely ever split up by like class or sub-subcultural affinity.”

there’s not even a spurious association to be found, because particular food preferences have nothing to do with anarchy

*unless you’re Ria and then only a raw vegan diet is anarchist, because fire and carnism hold the seeds to domination

You wouldn't have such rich culinary cultures in many parts of the world without some people pandering with spices and ingredients and breaking conventions of cooking, including but not limited to having no chef.

Same thing for the evolution of music. Chaotic, eclectic blends are by essence anarchistic.

*carnist is a strange made up word to ascribe people as an anarchist. Nobody is just a thing, some state.

Wait till they find out there are plants that eat meat...

When we lived in the squat we had a lot of "potato, kale, onion" type meals. I'll always associate anarchy with those skillets.

i see much talk of anarchists cooking, but no talk of the hunger for anarchy.
the hunger and thirst for anarchy is not sated by beans cooked in a large enough communal pot.

"The tempter communard came to the anarchist and said, “If you are follower of Kropotkin, read the Bread Book and come do mutual aid with us.” But the anarchist answered, “No: ‘Anarchists shall not live on bread alone, but on telling you to fuck off every single time.’"

I've seen meals you people wouldn't believe.
Frito pies on fire off the shoulder of the NJ Turnpike.
I watched sea-beans glitter in the dark near the Chinatown Gate.
All those moments will be lost in toilets, like poops in drains.
Time to eat!

You can achieve a lot with curry and black pepper & a bit of salt in a soup with the veggies you find most often in the dumpsters, like roots, peppers, 'taters, cabbage, kale, etc. You can make shitloads of it to distribute around for cheap or for free. That's somewhat what the Sikh Temples have been into.

this topic, particularly the image with the mention about poisoning, makes me thing that owning and running a restaurant is such a mob thing to do. they used it to launder money, and as speakeasies etc. but imagine running a fancy restaurant where influential people might come to dine, maybe they get poisoned, maybe some information is gathered.

it also reminds me of this story https://thetransmetropolitanreview.wordpress.com/2021/04/21/who-the-hell... , the relevant bit being:

"...Lucy Robins Lang, an anarchist born in the Ukraine. After converting her to vegetarianism, Jack London advised Lucy to start a vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco, given the other one burned down in the Great Fire of 1906. Shrewd business advice for a socialist, but Lucy took it seriously. She studied cooking at Saint Helena Sanitarium, just one valley over from Jack London’s ranch in Glen Ellen, so it’s unlikely she didn’t stop by to visit, although there’s no documentation of this. When she graduated from her cooking school, Lucy returned to San Francisco and opened up the Saint Helena Vegetarian Restaurant on Market Street, the only one of its kind in the fire ravaged city. [...]

One day, an anarchist named Eric Morton strolled into the restaurant with Olaf Tveitmoe, an old-time labor militant who was leading an armed uprising against the United Railroads, a Wall Street-backed street-car monopoly. Lucy and Eric were old friends, and when he introduced her to Olaf, he said, this is the lady who doesn’t believe in direct action but sometimes practices it. He was referring to an incident in 1905 when Lucy helped Eric store two cases of weapons in her New York City cigar shop. These weapons were then shipped across the Atlantic to Saint Petersburg where they saw action in the Russian Revolution of 1905. Lucy was what you might call an anarcho-pacifist, but she saw nothing wrong in helping to smuggle guns, for whatever reason.

Years earlier, Eric Morton dug a tunnel into the prison where Alexander Berkman was being held, although this plan failed. He and Emma Goldman were lucky to escape their tunnel entrance without being captured, and they never tried to rescue Berkman again. Lucy first met Morton in New York City at the 210 East 13th Street apartment of Emma Goldman, a place where she felt uncomfortable. She soon got into a debate with Morton about the meaning of direct action, and when he asked her what it was, she replied with one word: murder. As she described, Morton’s laugh boomed out…detaching herself from the whole business, Emma ruffled through the pages of a book, and I felt that I was through with her for life.

Months later, Eric pulled up in a wagon outside her New York City cigar shop with a large, sealed crate. Indicating with a wink that we were not to ask questions, Eric came back for a second crate. Then, when the driver had left, he said: “I am continuing the debate on propaganda by direct action, and I have brought two crates of arguments.” He threw back his head and roared at our stricken faces. “Arms for Babushka’s revolutionaries,” he explained. “I’ll take them off your hands in the morning…I don’t agree with you, little Lucy, but I do trust you. Emma says you’re first-rate. We’ll finish that discussion when I get back from Russia.”

Eric Morton and Emma Goldman ran this gun-smuggling network from the ports of New York City and San Francisco, and after delivering that shipment to Saint Petersburg, Eric Morton reappeared on the opposite coast where he strolled into the Saint Helena Vegetarian Restaurant and introduced Lucy to Olaf Tveitmoe. Once again, Lucy only started this restaurant on the advice of Jack London, and all of these people trusted each other with the direst secrets. Her restaurant was one of the two public radical spaces in San Francisco, and she kept it open until a few more had been rebuilt. After that, she left for the anarchist commune in Home, Washington."

But comrade, do you not see the error in your ways? Allow me to quote from the text linked at the start of the Topic of the Week above:

"On the other hand, and often in reaction to the forces of recuperation, others retreat into the “abnormal” category, allowing themselves to become insulated from society, from its pathetic slogans, from its awful methods of pacification. They allow themselves to become militants. But just as workday traffic is a primary consideration in the planning of interstates - traffic jams are avoided by, say, an addition of new lanes, a carefully regulated speed limit, and tactically placed exists and bridges - political dissidents are accounted for. Government needs a militant subject. No police operation is complete until an organizing cell, a hang, a mafia, a terrorist, or some other criminal subjectivity has been identified and eliminated. By adopting a position inside the debates of government, as the antithesis to their thesis, the violence to their nonviolence, the militants are doomed before they begin. Their fate is already determined - isolation and death. Still, the most pressing threat the militant poses to an insurrection is the specialization of revolt: that millions of people will become assured of their spectator position in the private conflicts between the police and the “rebel forces.” "

Do not give in to the militant urges to withdraw into the criminal marginality of the mobster food service sphere! On the other hand, heed the call of the grumbling stomachs of the everyman, of every working class woman and child! Split the bread and the fish, where one can eat, three can eat, we can feed the world!

first of all you're quoting that out of context, that text proposes something like the mobster diner situation from the story in the paragraph after the one you quoted, and then again in the last paragraph. and second of all, i'm not proposing shit, i know how to distinguish pulp fiction from viable enterprises. did you see how the russian revolution mentioned in the story turned out in real life? i wouldn't shed a single potato towards that stew.

Okay, tho this was, again, 100+ years ago, in a very different world where anarchists also had an habit of killing cops and politicians.

Plus, studying and working in *fine cuisine* in today's ain't as romantic as this starry-eyed drivel of exposé is presenting it.

Black Snake roasted over the flames of a burning bulldozer, served smoking hot with a side order of wild rice. Also serve with a glass of pure water

Not many anarchists realise that you can actually eat html code..follow me on Twitter to learn more!

Hi Liver King here, I just got back from simulating a primal hunt and now it’s time to feast!

Love this topic! FOOD! When we’re not off organizing our fellow restaurant workers into a union by having them read “Abolish Restaurants” and “Fight[ing] for $15!” I’m probably busy making a quick run through the grocery store and then running out with a cart full of everything to feed and quench the upcoming folk punk show at the local punk house.

We’re not really into drinking tea, but if we were, we might read:
“The Anarchist Teapot Mobile Kitchen’s Guide to Feeding the Masses” by Anarchist Teapot Mobile Kitchen
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anarchist-teapot-mobile-kitchen-...

Liver King out!
ps. vegan chicky tendies and hot chocchy

I kinda think sharing food with people you care about is one anarchist ideal I really like.

The futurists talked about some fun experiments

On the political side: Vegans make things like fake shark fin soup or faux foie graw conceivable, but they mean well. Hunger strikes, avoiding cultural appropriation ect

Thinking about food as a commodity puts me in a Marxist mood, in a nice way

I think food brings us together and has a lot of meaning. As much as anything can.

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