The author treats different foods on their plate like separate social classes that do not mix, similar to how characters in Proust's novel regard each other. Each bite is carefully taken to savor the individual flavors without combining foods. However, the stomach ultimately breaks down and mixes all foods in a similar manner, acting as a great equalizer regardless of the classes on the plate.

1. what i eat

2. separate but equal I treat my food like an elite class system much like the Proust’s characters in In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower regard each other. Like them, my foods will not mix with other foods on the same plate- certain foods will never meet. Likewise my bites are calculated and timed to savor the taste of that food and only that food which I choose to marry it with

3. equality “He might well have been wise, given that he saw so much importance in something so trivial, not to see the future as too dark in that respect, and not to exclude the possibility the meeting he longed for might take place even if at a time, when he was no longer there to enjoy it.” Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower the stomach as the great equalizer