Tiny Terrible Pizzas
Feb. 7th, 2025 12:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressThere's that long tumblr post about Star Trek food replicators and all the ways in which replicating food is incredibly hard and all the many MANY variables that go into "I can tell the difference between replicator and handmade even if assured they are the same". The important part boils down to "unless the replicator has an impractically staggering number of settings to adjust, you're never going to get exactly grandma's chili".
And it occurs to me that something the post misses is _variability_. That sometimes, the same food tastes different and that's part of the appeal! Specifically, I'm thinking about my beloved lunchables extra-cheesy-pizza kits, which I have one of probably once every 2-3 weeks because they are an extremely easy lunch at work and almost always a safe food1. I have every confidence that a replicator could produce for me "three little dough rounds, a bag of red sauce, piles of shredded white and orange cheese". I have very little confidence that the replicator could produce "three pizzas, assembled from the kit" in a way that actually tastes familiar to the way I make them myself.
Because I am not perfectly consistent at how I make them. I can eyeball thirds of the sauce and cheese pretty alright, but I'm definitely not perfect at it, and that means every single individual little pizza I eat is going to be on a spectrum of sauce:cheese ratios. And that variability is good! It's a thing I like! It makes for pleasant surprises! Sometimes I even do it on purpose, undersauce and undercheese the first two so I can have a really excessive third one.
Anyways, I think that human inconsistency is good and neat, actually.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I am lucky in that I only very rarely have to worry about safe foods, I'm usually good with a pretty wide variety, but I do get stuck sometimes and find myself feeling pretty food-averse2. I'm almost always willing to consume lunchables though.
2: This is tied to general anxiety in a big way, and it's a sign that I Am Anxious About Something, which is important to have because I am not always good at otherwise noticing when I have an anxiety, because I normally don't. It was _fascinating_ watching the entire day before my first time MCing at Pinewoods, where I was forcing myself through every bite I ate and pretty much just gave up for dinner and ate like ten carrot sticks because that was the only thing registering as remotely food-like. I did great and it was fine.
And it occurs to me that something the post misses is _variability_. That sometimes, the same food tastes different and that's part of the appeal! Specifically, I'm thinking about my beloved lunchables extra-cheesy-pizza kits, which I have one of probably once every 2-3 weeks because they are an extremely easy lunch at work and almost always a safe food1. I have every confidence that a replicator could produce for me "three little dough rounds, a bag of red sauce, piles of shredded white and orange cheese". I have very little confidence that the replicator could produce "three pizzas, assembled from the kit" in a way that actually tastes familiar to the way I make them myself.
Because I am not perfectly consistent at how I make them. I can eyeball thirds of the sauce and cheese pretty alright, but I'm definitely not perfect at it, and that means every single individual little pizza I eat is going to be on a spectrum of sauce:cheese ratios. And that variability is good! It's a thing I like! It makes for pleasant surprises! Sometimes I even do it on purpose, undersauce and undercheese the first two so I can have a really excessive third one.
Anyways, I think that human inconsistency is good and neat, actually.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I am lucky in that I only very rarely have to worry about safe foods, I'm usually good with a pretty wide variety, but I do get stuck sometimes and find myself feeling pretty food-averse2. I'm almost always willing to consume lunchables though.
2: This is tied to general anxiety in a big way, and it's a sign that I Am Anxious About Something, which is important to have because I am not always good at otherwise noticing when I have an anxiety, because I normally don't. It was _fascinating_ watching the entire day before my first time MCing at Pinewoods, where I was forcing myself through every bite I ate and pretty much just gave up for dinner and ate like ten carrot sticks because that was the only thing registering as remotely food-like. I did great and it was fine.