최근 송로버섯 과 철갑상어알 이야기가 나오는데, 미국에서는 대공황때 대통령이 얼마나 황당한 식사를 했는지에 대한 책이 나왔군요. 이 책의 중심내용은 대공황 시절의 식생활에 관한 이야기를 하면서 미국의 여러 전문가들이 얼마나 허황된 이야기를 했는지를 다루는 것입니다. 그런데 여기서 백악관의 식사내용이 나오면서 이것들으면서 최근 한국 소식이 생각나는군요. 한번 위 링크에 가 봐서 본문을 봐 주시기 바랍니다. 그리고 여러분의 생각과 비판도 적어 주시기 바랍니다.
OK. Let's move to the White House. During the Depression, when FDR is in the White House, he tried to set an example of how to eat healthy but cheap food. So they - with the help of Eleanor Roosevelt, they changed the White House menu to set an example. So can you describe for us the budget White House menu?
COE: During FDR's presidency, his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, decided that this was a time when the White House kitchen and the food served in the White House had to be a kind of an example to the American people of how people should eat during the Great Depression, during this economic crisis. So one of the things she did is she enlisted the help of some very prominent home economists to come up with a budget menu of foods which were both inexpensive and supposedly tasty.
And one of the first people to taste these foods, perhaps the first victim, you could say, was the president himself during one of his office luncheons. They rolled a cart into his office because he usually ate at his desk. And on the cart were deviled eggs with tomato sauce, mashed potatoes and prune pudding.
These dishes - the cost of the ingredients was less than 10 cents. And of course, the foods were all very, very bland and filling, just exactly like home economists, nutritionists of the era - that's the kind of foods that they were promoting for the poor.
And the president pronounced them good, which may have been an overstatement. This was definitely not to his taste. I mean, he was the kind of guy who liked planked salmon, filet mignon, pate de foie gras, roast beef with bloody juices. You know, he was a man of his class. And he liked good food, and he liked rich food. But he swallowed it because his wife wanted him to.
부인한테 잡혀 사는 불쌍한 미국 대통령의 비애.
