This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on February 24, 2023. To receive Matt Kettmann’s food newsletter in your inbox each Friday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.
In the late 1990s, I majored in anthropology at UCSB, where my freshman mind was instantly fascinated by contemporary attempts to understand what were then called "primitive" peoples as well as the ever-fascinating insights of archaeology, from China to the Channel Islands. For most of my college years, I thought I’d spend my career exploring remote corners of the world as a cultural anthropologist with evolutionary psychology leanings, observing less-developed societies to shed light on the nature of the human condition everywhere.
But a professional writing minor led me to an internship at the Santa Barbara Independent in the spring of 1999, and journalism became my path. Why go to grad school elsewhere and incur eight years of debt to eventually make a mediocre salary, I figured, when I could just start working for minimum wage in Santa Barbara right away? I quickly realized that journalism could achieve similar ends as anthropology, opening even wider doors to explore the human condition, both in my own neighborhood and far-flung corners of the world.