Do You Live In A Snack House?

“They grew up in a snack house,” Ms G mentions casually. A what now? We were talking about housemates and now I think I’m learning about some drug I’m sure I’ve never heard of! Ms G, as usual, laughs at my confusion. “A snack house, mum. You know, everyone has either a snack house or an ingredient house.” This is news to me. “What are we then?” Ms G slaps her hand to her forehead, not quite enough to hide the arc of her eye roll at my proving to her, once again, that I have no idea about what’s happening in the ‘real’ world…

“Let me explain,” she says patiently, and this is how I learn about the two types of family kitchens.

If you come from a snack house, you go GET some food.
If you come from an ingredient house, you go MAKE something to eat.

A snack house fills the pantry with ready made food. There might be packets of chips and crackers and biscuits, tubs of ice cream and yoghurt, probably a freezer full of things that just need a few minutes in the air-fryer (not the microwave, mum 🤦‍♀️). In a snack house you look in the cupboard when you’re hungry and pull out your snack of choice and, with minimal effort and no time wasted, eat it there and then.

In contrast, an ingredient house fills the pantry and the fridge with the makings of snacks. Self-raising flour and vegetables and spices and oats and probably frozen peas. When you’re hungry you look in the cupboard and, wait for it, you collect everything you need to prepare, collate and cook your snack of choice. It will take time. It will be ready to eat when you finish the creation.

This is not about being healthy or unhealthy, I’m assured, and I choose at this point to make no comment. It’s purely about convenience. Apparently it’s been a hot topic in the share houses where the difference in family upbringing shows itself when it comes to grocery shopping and following recipes. Ms G tells me there is a clear line between those who know how to use a spice in the curry and those who don’t. “It can get pretty ugly when it’s their turn to cook,” she shakes her head sadly.

In contrast, the snack-housers are fast with meal planning. There are fewer dishes to be washed, they rarely need a measuring cup and they’ve never heard of the dough setting on the electric mixer. Actually, they don’t have an electric mixer unless it’s for the aesthetic. The set-up of a snack house is definitely cheaper.

Our kitchen, with the baskets of the building blocks that can make any number of different foods, is clearly an ingredient house. From my high horse, I feel it’s the ‘teach a man to fish’ approach to food preparation. 

There are plenty of things that are equally at home in both households. The tub of ice-cream is one. Yes, some people make their own. I don’t think they fit into the ‘ingredient’ household category. I think they’re a group all of their own who possibly mill their own grain into flour well before baking it into the bread toasted over an open kitchen fire each morning. These people are likely to have an ice-cream maker that involves brute strength and persistence, salt, and a huge block of ice. 

 Ice-cream is, to me, one of those things that crosses the boundaries between the two types of kitchen. It’s what you do with it afterwards that can be telling. Do you add it as a tasty side treat beside the apple crumble you cooked from scratch? Or is it the main event eaten directly from the tub?

As increasingly independent humans, it turns out the kidults no longer feel tied to the ingredient house rules. Apparently they’re allowed to do whatever they want and what they want to do, it seems, is experience the snack household lifestyle. That said, since returning to home soil Ms G has gone all in on cooking from fresh ingredients. It turns out that two years with less access to fresh vegetables and affordable, delicious fruit was all it takes to bed down a serious appreciation for the ingredient based lifestyle. The photos she sends me of her exquisite salad creations are truly food porn.

There’s a chance the language to describe these two approaches to feeding a family has come to me a bit too late for I am now firmly in my make it easy stage of life. As a hiker I like to ‘grab and go’. As chief cook to a revolving table of guests, I urge you to choose. Cook it yourself or make a sandwich. Mind you, I still make an excellent omelette. We buy ice-cream now and it lives in the freezer ready to appear with dessert in meals where extra effort was involved AND as a standalone. I do like to have my cake and eat it too!

Where do you live – a snack house or an ingredient house?