Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Salad Days and Other Food Rambles

I have a lot of very strong opinions about food. If you know me, you know I'm a bit of a foodie. I am not really militant about this topic, I have a somewhat laissez-faire stance on what other people eat. My own habits range from downright awful to fairly good.

I'm just going to list here some of my own thoughts on the topic of food with absolutely no references to back up my ideas. Call them all hunches. If any of these hunches bear any resemblance to reality it is almost purely coincidental. It is all based upon instinct, taste, personal experience, magical thinking, and a few things I might have read that I agree with.
  • Avocados once kind of saved my life. I was having a bought of, well, I guess colitis or something. I don't know, I never went to the doctor for it so I was never "diagnosed." However, I was really sick with diarrhea for months and dropping weight like crazy. I chalked it up to stress. Anyway, I started working at a restaurant called The Cafe du Soleil (sadly, now defunct) and avocados were frequently on the menu. I tried them, loved them, ate them daily, and got better. I still eat at least one per week. End of story.
  • Sorry I started the list with a diarrhea story.
  • Excess sodium is a killer. It's hard on the kidneys, raises blood pressure, and spoils the taste buds. The current standard for the absolute upper limit of a healthy person's daily consumption is now 2400 grams per day. I predict that in time this is going to be lowered to 2000 gram or less. A healthy diet of all fresh foods will supply all the sodium that a healthy person needs. Yes, not enough sodium is bad, but most people are no where near the danger zone.
  • Ginger ale is the best soda in the world. It is really good with vodka and a maraschino cherry. It's also good alone.
  • Grapefruits are the most refreshing substance on the face of the Earth to me. You know this is some powerful shit if there are actually medications cannot be taken with concurrent intake of this fine fruit. There are a variety of drugs that don't mix well with grapefruit such as cholesterol-lowering statins, some anti-hypertensives, methadone, and others. Consider grapefruits a medicine of sorts and research whether or not you can eat it while taking your regular medications.
  • Chicken is an amazing, delicious animal. They are my most favorite animal to look at, mingle with, and eat. They make eggs, which have multiple uses, and they are delicious to eat themselves. I absolutely ASPIRE to have chickens running around my yard in my lifetime. Who knows, maybe actually living among chickens will cause me to not eat them anymore, but I will certainly eat their eggs. I just don't know if I have the heart to take their lives.
  • I like steak, but I doubt if I could ever bring myself to actually kill a...cow?...steer?...bull? What the hell am I eating? I don't know, but it leaves me with mixed feelings. Still, delicious.
  • Bacon is outrageously delicious. The best bacon I ever ate came from a farm that raised it's own pigs, slaughtered and butchered them, and then used a very old smokehouse on the property to cure it. Amazing. I also like ham. I ate this bacon 21 years ago and still remember it vividly.
  • Easier on my conscious is the consumption of fish and other forms of seafood. The only stuff I don't like is anchovies, herring, smoked oysters, etc. I love all fresh sea foods. I am pretty good at preparing it too. From sea scallops, to fresh lobsters, to clams and mussels, to tilapia and salmon-I love it all and cook it pretty well.
  • There really is no fruit or vegetable that you can name that I don't LOVE. Just try me. I like it. The only one I don't know about is that one fruit from somewhere far away, I think from an Asian location, that supposedly smells like a carcass. I'm not sure that's even food. But I'll try it.
  • Gerber Meatsticks are really good and I know this because once a month I buy a jar and eat the whole thing within 5 minutes of unpacking the groceries. Way less salty than Vienna sausages.
  • I am vehemently opposed to the presence of trans fats added to any food product. It's not even food. It's a poisonous substance. Any company that puts that in their foods, usually baked goods, is just taking the cheap and easy way out and doesn't care if it's killing you or not and is therefore not worthy of your money. They're killing you. Boycott these products.
  • Personal experience has taught me that a salad a day beats a McDonald's a day.
  • Coffee is an amazing beverage that, at this time in my life, I cannot do without. In the morning. At night it leads to racing thoughts, mania, depression, insomnia, and misery.
  • I recently tried a chocolate bar that was so incredible that I want everyone in the world to try it and love it. Ok get this: dark chocolate with a hint of lavender and blueberry. OH MY GOD. Dagoba. Try it.
  • This follows the idea of trans fats, but damnit people...if it's a fat and it's solid at room temperature it's probably not good for you. You're gonna eat it and it's going to be semi-solid in your blood and it's going to stick to your blood vessel walls and still be a solid and it's going to accumulate and build up and maybe some day break off and it's still doing to be a solid and it's going to lodge itself into one of your coronary arteries and you're NOT going to be a happy camper when that occurs.
  • Olive oil is good.
  • Butter is better than margarine with hydrogenated oils and it tastes a million times better so you'll probably use less anyway. Because the flavor is THERE.
  • The benefits of fresh herbs is cooking probably no where near close to being understood. Consider them like trace elements or something.
  • Honey is an amazing substance. A gift from the world of insects that balances out everything else annoying about insects. A work of art. A labor of love.
  • My gut feeling is that artificial sweeteners are very, very bad for everyone. I think people just get used to that horrid flavor. Most people, upon trying it for the first time, are completely turned off by that disgusting taste. I think the taste buds can be convinced over time to accept it and I don't know that this is a good thing. Better to train your taste buds to not crave sweet in the first place? There are other flavors besides sweet and I think some of the more subtle flavors out there need to be appreciated.
  • Sometimes sweet is over-rated.