Food Thursday 07.12.12

As I write this, I am chasing the sun somewhere over Pennsylvania or New York.  I figured I would grab this time to pen my Thursday entry a day early.  What else is there to do besides playing Angry Birds or ponder the purchase of a “Bigfoot, the Garden Yeti” statue from the Sky Mall catalogue? (Available in Medium, Large and Life-Size for only $2,250 plus $199 for curbside delivery.)  But enough about my airborne boredom.  We are here to talk about food, right?  Today is usually a recipe or a product review/endorsement, but I’d like to discuss something I have given a lot of thought to in recent months: how our food has changed over the years.

One of the tenets I try to adhere to is that we should maximize the flavor we get from each calorie we consume.  If we are going to eat less of the unhealthy food we have gotten used to over the years, then optimization of each bite is crucial to keeping our pallets tantalized and our brains thinking we are sated.  I have oft mentioned a book I've been reading by a food writer named Peter Kaminsky (it takes me forever to read books in the conventional manner.  I am an audio book guy.).  In his book Culinary Intelligence, Kaminski discusses FPC: Flavor Per Calorie.  It makes perfect sense to me.  While I am not a food snob, I do fancy the finer things in life, especially good food.  Given my intake reduction and healthier choices, I do my best keep things interesting and choose ingredients that will give me the most bang for my buck, or bite as it were.

I have taken note over the years that the foods we eat do not have the same intensity as I recall in my youth.  Strawberries have less sweetness, tomatoes are not as vibrant and beef isn’t as…well...beefy.  I do the shopping in my household and I try to get the best ingredients I can afford.  Sometimes that means organic, sometimes not.  I’ll discuss the whole organic versus generic subject in a future blog, but I am longing for those flavors that made me fall in love with food decades ago.  I recall my Dad grilling delicious flank steaks and so enjoying sweet bananas and oranges.  While I am sure mass production and hybridizing in the name of prolonging shelf life and shipping survival are greatly to blame, even the local and organic foods I buy fall short in the flavor department.  You can get an occasional gem that you savor, but for the most part our food is ‘dumbed down’ for best price/lifespan.  I have bought grass-fed, top dollar beef and even that left me wanting.  My talents for food preparation have filled in some of the gap by enhancing the flavor cards I am dealt, but I would love to enjoy some simplicity in my eating.  A touch of salt on a perfectly ripe, juicy tomato or blueberries that take me back to those plump orbs bursting with flavor I devoured in pancakes or pies as a kid.  I am seldom rewarded these days with such a find.  It is entirely possible my pallet itself has been dumbed down with sub-par chow over the years.  I tend to think not.  I believe rather that it is a more global issue.  Perhaps you have noticed the same things when hovering over your own plates?  Tell me in the comments section your observations of how food tastes in the new millennium.  I’d be very interested to see if we agree or I am just crazier than the wife already thinks I am.

I will continue to search for the finest, tastiest grub I can find.  Even if I am ever slimming, my love for food will continue to grow.  I have been eating myself thin and hope I can educate others how to do the same.  When I find that rare ingredient that sets my taste buds afire, I’ll let you know.  I am afraid it will be an ongoing quest with few prizes found along the way.

I leave you now over Lake Erie, on my way to Boise, Idaho.  Maybe I’ll discover the perfect sweet potato there.  Who knows?

Cya Friday,

M

What I ate today and how I exercised:

I’ll report Friday on my meals from the previous two days.  As for exercise, I plan on strolling along the downtown streets of Boise.  It’s a nice little city and it will be much warmer than the last visit when was -9 degrees.