Science fiction writers promise robot machines in well- appointed homes of the future, displacing such primitive furnishings as kitchen equipment. 

Dial the meal you want, and it will materialize. Unfortunately, most of the food will be synthetic because earth can no longer supply natural nutriments.

Fantastic? Maybe. Certainly life as we know it now has changed markedly from life as it was not long ago. 

This is as true of food products as it is of the electronic marvels we learned so quickly to take for granted. 

Frozen foods have been available only since the middle of the present century, around the time American rooftops began to sprout antennas. 

The food industry has recently introduced freeze-dried foods and "boilable bag" packaging that permits the house- wife to cook without having to wash a pot. In testing laboratories as this is written-and possibly in existence by the time you read it-are at least two related packaging products. 

One is an edible wrap which will provide the food it contains with an appropriate sauce. Another is a container which will self-destruct according to programed intelligence.

Well, all right. As skimming through this book will demonstrate, I am no decrier of convenience, timesaving devices, or short-cut methods. 

On the other hand, as long as real earth-grown food is still available I am going to eat it, with or without its package. 

And because to me food and freezing are almost synonymous, most of what I eat I am