Eros and Thanatos: A Freudian Valentine’s Duo
According to Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalytic theory, humans are motivated by two drives in constant tension: Eros and Thanatos. Eros, or the “life instinct,” represents the force that promotes creativity and survival, and is named after the ancient Greek god of intimate love and sexuality (also known as Cupid to the ancient Romans). Thanatos, on the other hand is the “death instinct,” named after the ancient Greek god of death and representing a return to a state of calm, inorganic being or self-destruction. Take or leave Freud and his cocaine-fueled misogyny, the man sure had creative ideas.
What does this have to do with food? I’m getting there…bear with me.
I was thinking recently about how Valentine’s Day makes my singleness even more annoying not because I want chocolates or flowers or stuffed animals (okay I’ll take chocolates and flowers, please no stuffed animals) - but because I am reminded that I don’t have a special someone to break (gluten-free) bread with on this day. It’s easy to find surrogate family among friends and acquaintances to share a meal with for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and birthdays. But it’s just not the same for Valentine’s Day. When you get together with fellow single friends on VDay, you tend to extol the virtues of singledom, raising your glasses to proclaim, ”Fuck that consumerist, Hallmark-created Valentine’s Day bullshit!” You may recount war stories of partners past. You celebrate your friendship. You tell each other how wonderful you all are as affirmations that, really, it’s better to be alone than with someone totally wrong for you. But, really, you wouldn’t mind having a nice dinner with Mr-or-Ms-Not-So-Perfect-But-Perfectly-Pleasant-And-With-Whom-You’re-Mutually-Attracted and having a reason to wear your fancy underwear. Cause it’s just a stupid day and not the rest of your life!
ANYWAY. I contemplated what you could eat on Valentine’s Day that could go both the way of eros and thanatos. Food for the lovers and the lovers scorned. That’s what made me think of a duo of raw meats, ahi poke and steak tartare. They’re both fun in their novelty, tasty, and red. They both have the pretense of special occasions. But they could both also get you really sick if ill prepared/handled/sourced. AND! - If you’re of a more violent imagination, you can pretend that they represent the lacerated, masticated hearts of your exes! Love and death on one plate! See, I was going somewhere with the theme (which is also the name of my future indie-rock duo a la She & Him).
Here are the recipes* I roughly followed (1, 2), using some furikake instead of the hard-to-find red seaweed in the poke and the photo representing a screwed up version of the tartare recipe cause 1) I forgot to buy the parsley, and 2) I forgot that I only used half the beef called for in the recipe cause damn that was a lot of raw meat, resulting in too much of the dressing. Finally, some name dropping: Sashimi grade ahi tuna from Coastal Seafood; Thousand Hills beef.
*p.s. I’m not even going to pretend like this is a recipe post because if I don’t die from e. coli poisoning tomorrow, I don’t want to be potentially sued by someone who reads this post and decides to follow his/her death instinct as well. File this under “Conceptual,” rather than “Recipes.”
p.p.s. I am practicing trying not to be a perfectionist, which is why I posted this anyway even though it turned out “eh” and this picture/plating is not so great.
p.p.p.s. Neurotic people should not prepare raw meat. I can’t tell if I’m feeling queasy from the anxiety of possibly dying or the meat itself.
