Real Food - Interview with Michael Pollan

[Naomi]

I'm a little disturbed about what people are eating these days, friends and relatives alike. I'm a big advocate of real food and learning how to cook it, here is a great interview with Michael Pollan from MSN this morning I found quite inspiring:

Real Food (http://lifestyle.msn.com/foodandentertaining/entertainingandspecialoccasions/article.aspx?cp-documentid=6463090&page=1)

His 2006 book The Omnivore’s Dilemma explored the idea that our industrial food society—the one interested in fast, cheap, easy-to-consume product—falls short on addressing more human concerns like health and morality. But at the core of that book, as well as the 2008 follow-up In Defense of Food, is a deep love and affection for the sensation of taste and the sheer pleasure of eating.

I think a lot of people feel eating right isn't affordable, when I know that's not true - I lived on a tight budget for years and always figured out how to pull a cheap healthy dinner together, even though it might cost slightly more than fast food.

(when I eat fast food I almost always go for Taco Bell since they introduced the fresca menu and also anyplace that serves veggie burgers) :mrolleyes:

[Carbon Class Six]

Good article...I like his responses.

I have been trying to get people to understand how they can not only cook healthy food but do a lot of other things if they just prioritize their time. Just as he mentioned, cut your internet time from 2 hours to an hour and presto you have some good eats...and if you cook big enough meals you could just eat healthy leftovers for the next few days.

Cooking food definitely is not that expensive either...I agree. I think where most people get thrown off is when they first start cooking they have to buy common ground spices & dried herbs, common vegetables (that will last for several meals) like celery, carrots, onions & garlic. So their first few meals end up costing quite a bit. When I am cooking often I only spend 15-20 a week (on myself).

If I don't "cook" food I usually just go for a PB&J but I lean towards unsalted peanut butter, jam w/o HFCS & the wheatiest bread that I can get my hands on.

I like Chipotle if I feel like paying someone else to make my food. Fairly tasty, healthy and will certainly keep you full for a fortnight.

[Naomi]

Yeah ad those same spices cost way way less if you buy them from a chinese grocery instead of a mainstream grocery. Startup for Chinese food is definately not much but can get very expensive for Indian food which is practically all spice based design, whereas East Asian is more centered around the vegetables and fruity sauces.

Here's an example of the difference in cost between a high end health food store - Wild Oats (comparable to Trader Joe's in the Pacific Northwest) and a regular everyday Asian market.

In the photo there I got all of the groceries for 25.00, at say Wild Oats I would be able to get all of that for no less than 45.00 (probably at least 60.00 if I went organic) now, most of the vegetables at the asian markets ARE organic, simply because they are locally grown.

One of the strangest things about it is, even though the produce is significantly cheaper, it tastes awesome - you can get natural sized bananas from Mexico that simply don't compare to the standard sized mutant ones in the grocery store, they are much more flavorful, and the vegetables themselves are ones that are nutrient packed and good for you, bok choy, chinese broccoli and others that have yellow and white flower heads I like. The avocados there are also from Mexico and they are fresh unlike the ones at the high end grocer's. Everything is very seasonal, so during rotations if you're going to get mangos or pomegranites it's going to be because they are in season, and the only apples you can find are japanese pear apples. (but they're cheap)

Anyways I try to do most of the grocery shopping because if anyone else does it for me I end up with a house full of crap I can't eat and then I have to live on ramen noodles and raw onions.

[Amur]

I'm very fond of nepalesic food. Don't know yet how to cook it myself but was thinking of getting a book. I'm also very fond of the Indian ayurvedic foods. They have a great taste and are very healthy for every part of the body. The spices that are used are also great for balancing the body (A turmeric milk drink for example).

I'm quite sure that the different tastes on the tongue can be directly linked to different emotions, which in turn can help to go through some emotions. I've yet only come to the easy conclusion that a kind of love is a sugary taste, which is really why children crave that kind of taste much more. I've come to the conclusion that 'evilness' is bitterness, or giving evil a bitter taste would fit much better to it. That's about it, haven't explored this realm yet enough.

One time I did a test with marihuana and buying alot of manchees, bought fresh fruits and then alot of different 'delicatesses' like chocolate and muffins and what not. When I smoked and started tasting, I came to the conclusion that all the sweeties (chocolate and so on) were filled with too much white refined sugar and tasted industrial, while all the fruits were heavenly in their tastes and certainly very filling.

Mostly I cook food with good rice bought from an oriental shop in 5-10kg batches. Then also lentils of different kinds and then Ghee and all kinds of spices. It's really good and tastes much much better than any meat foods I've encountered ( except the nepalesian/indish meat dishes).

Btw. I find it funny that the astral algorithm of "Cheap - Easy and Fast" is so widely widespread in this world. Sure it's very comfortable to have it this way, but it doesn't really work in all places. While Yang can be strong Yin is certainly much stronger with it's down-to-earth approach of slowness and integrity. If one wants something healthful that is cheap- easy and fast, why not pick fruits from the trees instead?

[Naomi]

What is mancheese?

:(

I am cooking some multicolored veggie noodles and frying all kinds of chopped up ingrediants like sun dried tomatos and olives, a bunch of fresh cilantro, eggplant then cold avocado and cucumber on top

I hope it tastes good I have a 10% failure rate

usually my recipes are better than the ones I get off the internet though so I have high hopes.

but these olives are really good they come from some fancy farm and they're like REALLY buttery not like the black ones you get from the generic cans, so yeah i do appreciate some gourmet foods, I was sort of forced to buy these because it's all they had at this neo-yuppy health food store.

I especially like free range eggs and meat, those Peta videos make me vomit...but still, Taco Bell is delicious...

it is what it is

[Amur]

What is mancheese?


Mancheese is the marihuana hippies term for all kinds of snacks to eat while high :laugh: As it boosts appetite to a very large factor...

[MythMath]

Ohh, munchies... :p

[Naomi]

Smegma...

that's what I was thinking....

glad we cleared that up