Isn’t it wonderful when someone cooks you a meal? Tonight, Brian made me a terrific and complete dinner: steak, spiced Yukon Gold potatoes, and steamed peapods with a glass of his homemade honey-coriander wheat beer! Ahhh!
But having a meal with someone, which is made by another, is essentially saying, "I trust you that you're feeding me good food, and I will not become sick after this!" I started to think about the phrase, “meat and potatoes.” An expression that isn’t really used much lately but holds a lot of weight. The phrase was first written in 1949 in SJ Perelman novel, Listen to the Mocking Bird (“It’s the meat-and-potatoes appeal—the old pull at the heartstrings—that’ll put us over at the box office”).
Perelman was best known for his short, humorous pieces in The New Yorker, and apparently, this work is very different than the somber song with the same title. Nonetheless, this idiomatic phrase has become part of our vernacular to mean the essential or fundamental. So, the essential part of any relationship is trust, and my meal of meat and potatoes is a symbol of trust.
Our language is full of food phrase. Like sometimes you have to take things with a grain of salt and avoid walking on eggshells. Then, you won’t worry about crying over spilled milk! For a full list check out these links: http://www.learn4good.com/languages/evrd_idioms/id-f.php3 and http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Words-and-Their-Stories-Food-Expressions-Part-Three-116811763.html
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