I think I’m one of the few people I know that doesn’t care what their food is made of so long as it tastes good.  “Ground toenails give it that super sweet awesome flavor?  Ew.  But also, awesomely delicious.  GIV ME MOAR!!”

I think DM is in the majority.  I think that when most people see a word on the ingredients list that they don’t recognize, can’t pronounce, and can’t understand… then they just shrug their shoulders and take a bite.    Yummy, feed the addiction to salty/fat and sweet/fat. 

I wish more people would know the joy of eating fresh and ripe. 

I agree, JIPT.  And I’ve found something fascinating.  Occasionally I’m have too many things to do, so I don’t have a chance to cook something for myself. I got two very good coupons for low calorie frozen dinners (I don’t even recall the name, but it’s in a white box), and there was a great sale, so I picked up a variety of eight of them.  I couldn’t believe how tasteless the first one was.  So when I opened the second one I added minced garlic and green tabasco. It was still tasteless.  The third one got twice as much garlic and tabasco along with some salsa I had made a few days previously.  Still dumb tasting.  The fourth, got the earlier ingredients plus some good curry powder I had picked up from a local Indian market. Still pretty bad.  Next one got all these plus fresh chopped cilantro and oregano.  This went on for all eight boxes. 

I have no idea how they are able to manufacture something that not only has no taste, but also can kill the taste of anything added.  And I realized it took me longer to try to doctor this junk than it would to cook my own food. 

Occam
Wordpad

I hear that Occam!  I’ve tasted that.  If we were to make a scale to rate the strength of a flavor, we’d need to include negative numbers!    How do they do that technically?  I do not know.  How do they do it morally?  I do not know, how can they serve people a meal like that, haven’t they ever eaten a decent meal before, don’t they know?  Maybe they don’t.  And time and time again I’ve seen the news broadcast how valuable it is… to clip coupons.  No it isn’t if you care about quality (nutrition, flavor, color, variety, culinary skill).  Okay, I like the double-ply toilet paper coupon, but the food coupons are all bad.

I’ve been to the bottom of the barrel and back, after high school I ate Carl Budding’s cold cut sandwiches and MaMa Rosa’s frozen pizzas, I recently was in a rush and ate some of Perdue’s Chicken Breast Tenders that a family member offered me.  God bless ‘em.  These monstrosities cannot possibly contain food.

The restaurants are no better, from fast food to $20 restaurants, they do no better, they pull the same tricks.  A few restaurants are getting the point and playing it strait, serving healthful and delicious meals, but they are the exception.

Here’s a salad, not just some burger toppings, but a real meal.  Start with a base of: 1 medium green lettuce leaf, 2 small red potatoes, 1/5 of a green pepper, 2 green onions.  For more color and flavor add red tomato slices, 2 shelled walnuts, 10 raisins, half of a fresh medium red apple, oil (canola, peanut, or light olive oil).  For the people with more educated pallets, you could add tender green pepperoncini, queen green brined olives (instead of oil), fresh rosemary.  A piece of bread, soft rye will do, or a good hearty crusty white would be better.  You’ll need protein: chicken breast, a can of black-eyed peas, tofu… which one is your favorite?  Cheap and tasty Pompeian Red Wine Vinegar.

Prep: Start with a 1-1/2 qt mixing bowl, nuke the potatoes for a few minutes until soft, use the peels.  Prepare the protein: skin/clean/cook the chicken, or strain/rinse the beans, or unzip the tofu.  Chop and toss the veggies and fruit into the bowl, put the protein on top of that, break the bread into big chunks adding it on top, add the vinegar and 1 table spoon of oil last, get the bread wet.  After a half-hour sit and eat.  This is an easy salad: easy ingredients to shop for, familiar flavors for many, easy to prepare, a well balanced satiating meal, and the per-meal cost is low. 

I am no skilled chef, this is a rustic caveman meal, nothing elegant.  But the point is to talk about a way to encourage lots of people to start eating well with familiar ingredients in a simple way.    Scientifically speaking it is a low glycemic index meal.

Now compare that to your favorite frozen dinner: more food, low cost with value for every penny spent, more nutrition, gobs more color, gobs more flavor, gobs more food volume, you send no money to people who serve bad meals, you can feel happy and healthy instead of disgusted.    The salad is a hands down winner!  Try it TV dinner people, and have a great meal!

There’s one thing that I don’t get though. Why is Sushi so fantastic? It requires no spices yet I don’t think there’s anything that will beat the enjoyment of eating a good quality raw salmon. I’m sure Occam would agree with me on this one.

You’re putting me on, E-M.  I long ago recognized that while Japanese cuisine may be healthful and quite sapid for some, it’s just not to my taste. 

Occam

The drift toward more fat, salt, sugar and larger portions seems to have affected more than just fast and processed food.  I’m sort of trying to learning to cook and have tried the current cooking magazines.  Having never cooked, I’m shocked at the amounts of fat, etc. in the recipes.  Esther has a 1949 copy “Joy of Cooking” and I find the old recipes quite often use far less of those ingredients and will usually claim more servings from the same quantities.

Occam. - 20 March 2011 09:14 AM

You’re putting me on, E-M.  I long ago recognized that while Japanese cuisine may be healthful and quite sapid for some, it’s just not to my taste. 

Occam

Sorry Occam, I couldn’t resist.

It was worth it, so I could use an uncommon word.

Occam

Dead Monky - 16 March 2011 03:13 PM

I don’t know if I could really rate the hotness, Jump.  I don’t eat enough spicy foods to compare. 

Oh DM, you poor guy.  Now that is just sad.  

But hey, thanx for writing. 

Jeciron - 20 March 2011 10:58 AM

The drift toward more fat, salt, sugar and larger portions seems to have affected more than just fast and processed food.  I’m sort of trying to learning to cook and have tried the current cooking magazines.  Having never cooked, I’m shocked at the amounts of fat, etc. in the recipes.  Esther has a 1949 copy “Joy of Cooking” and I find the old recipes quite often use far less of those ingredients and will usually claim more servings from the same quantities.

It can also go the opposite. At the cafe at my work, I ordered an omelette and the chef asked if I wanted salt and pepper. I gave him a weird look and said yes. I then asked why he would even ask. He said lots of folks didn’t want any. Really? Just a little seasoning? Standing there waiting for my omelette, I discovered I was in the minority. (At least with such a small sample size of omelette orders. )

Conventional wisdom isn’t always correct. Apparently there’s less fat in lard than in butter. (Although if you care about additives to your food, you’ll make your own lard, as store bought has preservatives.)

Take care,

Derek

I seriously doubt that there’s more fat in butter than lard.  The latter is straight fat - from beef it’s tristearyl glyceride.  Standard lard is purified fat from pig abdomens.  In butter it’s a good part that, but there’s also some casein and a little water. 

Occam

===
Added:  Ghee, used in Indian cooking is made by heating butter until the water is boiled off and the casein floats to the top and is skimmed off.

O

Occam. - 20 March 2011 05:09 PM

It was worth it, so I could use an uncommon word.

Occam

Yes, and it has been a while since I’ve had to look up a word!  Thanks E-M!

Does anyone else like Johnathan apples, they’re my favorite.

Occam. - 23 March 2011 09:45 PM

I seriously doubt that there’s more fat in butter than lard.  The latter is straight fat - from beef it’s tristearyl glyceride.  Standard lard is purified fat from pig abdomens.  In butter it’s a good part that, but there’s also some casein and a little water.

Good point.

Hmm… I remember something about lard being ‘better’ than butter in some way. Maybe it’s a specific cholesterol. I think I got that tidbit from an episode of Good Eats. (Probably the one about baking biscuits…)

Take care,

Derek