Three Notes on Food
1. If there was ever a biological organ that would convince me that creationism is true, it wouldn't be the eye or the bacterial flagellum -- it would be the avocado. I find it positively creepy how perfectly suited a ripe avocado is to have its fleshy part scooped cleanly away from the seed and rind, and spread directly on a sandwich.
2. Most of my diet consists of "foreign" food -- curry, burritoes, stir fry, etc. That's not surprising, since the standard American diet, even for the poor, is so meat-heavy. But I have to give the USA credit for developing what I would consider the world's most perfect food -- the peanut butter and jelly sandwich*. It's not fine dining (and I think it loses something if you try to fancy it up beyond using low-budget whole grain bread), but it's a workhorse. I've gone long periods, including the present, in which I ate PB&J for one meal every day.
3. In theory, veg*ans have a more restricted diet than omnivores. And certainly I've encountered the problem of having to search the whole menu for the one item that is, or could be made, meat-free (though at this point I've come to like the way my choices are limited -- I think if I went to a dedicated vegan restaurant the amount of choice I'd have would be overwhelming). But it occurs to me that the restrictions aren't always one-way. There are many omnivores who refuse to eat certain foods (particularly tofu) because they're vegetarian foods. This goes beyond simply preferring the meat versions of dishes, to treating "vegetarian foods" as somehow polluting, as if eating them would turn you vegetarian, with all the social stigma and emasculation that entails (similar to many men's paranoia that certain behaviors or desires will turn them gay). (Note that I said "many omnivores" -- if my description doesn't fit you, there's no need to leave a comment about how you just really don't like the taste of tofu.)
* Perhaps not so perfect for people with nut allergies or celiac disease, but then again you can find someone who's allergic to pretty much anything.
2. Most of my diet consists of "foreign" food -- curry, burritoes, stir fry, etc. That's not surprising, since the standard American diet, even for the poor, is so meat-heavy. But I have to give the USA credit for developing what I would consider the world's most perfect food -- the peanut butter and jelly sandwich*. It's not fine dining (and I think it loses something if you try to fancy it up beyond using low-budget whole grain bread), but it's a workhorse. I've gone long periods, including the present, in which I ate PB&J for one meal every day.
3. In theory, veg*ans have a more restricted diet than omnivores. And certainly I've encountered the problem of having to search the whole menu for the one item that is, or could be made, meat-free (though at this point I've come to like the way my choices are limited -- I think if I went to a dedicated vegan restaurant the amount of choice I'd have would be overwhelming). But it occurs to me that the restrictions aren't always one-way. There are many omnivores who refuse to eat certain foods (particularly tofu) because they're vegetarian foods. This goes beyond simply preferring the meat versions of dishes, to treating "vegetarian foods" as somehow polluting, as if eating them would turn you vegetarian, with all the social stigma and emasculation that entails (similar to many men's paranoia that certain behaviors or desires will turn them gay). (Note that I said "many omnivores" -- if my description doesn't fit you, there's no need to leave a comment about how you just really don't like the taste of tofu.)
* Perhaps not so perfect for people with nut allergies or celiac disease, but then again you can find someone who's allergic to pretty much anything.
2 Comments:
There's nothing more American than a peanut butter and Nutella on a corn tortilla.
I find the stigma behind certain "vegetarian" foods to be interesting, though part of it may be a perceived exoticness of the food in question.
Avocadoes WERE designed! By neolithic agriculturists. Same for most every type of agricultural product. They started out having some food value, but not necessarily a lot, but when people started to grow things from seed, they'd pick the plants with the best results to get seed from for next time. Over thousands of years this resulted in the Avocado.
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