The Unbearable Lightness of Being (In a Land of Unprocessed Food)
One of the biggest culinary discoveries outside of the States is an exceedingly simple one: how different food tastes when it is actually fresh.
When the typical middle-American dining experience is at a chain restaurant, companies like Sysco are supplying even the mom-and-pops, and we’re too tired after work to cook a real meal, many of us don’t have access to unprocessed, unfrozen food very often.
It’s not that meals have to be completely from scratch to be tasty and healthy. It’s more that the unpretentious, humble luxury of real cheese, homemade bread and fresh produce used to be the province of everyday working people.
It’s sad, and not a little unfair, that these have increasingly become expensive luxury items in the States. Why should people pay more for access to clean, wholesome foods?
Anyway.
Before they left for Japan, I asked Vonnegut and Co. to document their culinary adventures for this blog.
I used to visit their apartment and marvel at the fridge. It was like looking at the realization of an eight-year-old’s best and most willful dream, chock full of the kind of stuff you told yourself you would eat ALL THE TIME when you grew up and could do what you wanted. Fruit-flavored sodas, hot dogs, leftover pizza. Box-mix cupcakes with canned frosting. The works.
Now, I relay that information that with a great deal of affection and a certain degree of wonder. The audacity of youth and all that.
But I was interested to see what they eat halfway around the world.
(Okay. So I was worried that the lack of high-fructose corn syrup and red #5 would send their delicate little systems into shock.)
But still.
Further complicating matters - this is their kitchen:
Is it sad that I’m jealous they have a DOUBLE hot plate?
Because I am.
At first, they sent evidence that pretty much confirmed my initial suspicions:
But somewhere along the line, through boredom or more likely desperation, they started to sample actual food items:
Yes! Actual, freshly-made by-a-human-being food:
And then they sent this. It nearly gave me palpitations:
From the Colonel’s lair to an open-air teburu in a week.
Not too shabby.
See? Delicious, fresh food. It gets you every time.
p.s. Photos in this post are by Vonnegut jr. & SSG Millie
p.p.s Michael Pollan is a good read, if you’re interested in the issues surrounding modern food production and distribution. So is Eric Schlosser.
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:14 am
We don’t trust the colonel, just so you know. It’s a lot of MCdonalds. Which coincidentally is fresher than and much tastier than our Mcdonalds… at least in terms of being freshly prepared preprocessed garbage! Seriously though, we have been mix and matching. The real treat, for me is getting all sorts of different drinks, most of them at least containing fruit juice! There is something called Qoo that has several fruit flavors that are all tasty! One is like white grapes mixed with sprite. THat and NAtchan. I think they are both semi soda’s though. Not really sure.
It is 3 bucks for two ears of corn. Fresh food can be real expensive. Especially certain fruits. There are a lot of prepared meals with fresh ingredients, though.
We found a fat boys the other day. It looked like the portions were really tiny. In our defense we have been eating in quite a bit and picking up erratic meals. I’m not really sure how japan ranks on the whole category.
The real shock is walking down the frozen food section and not finding a single meal to microwave. I’m jealous and confused simultaneously. We don’t really know how to cook a lot over here, a cross between language barriers and supplies. Anyhow, if you’ve got questions, i might have answers.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:36 am
Look at what all of the Lancaster County foods will do to you. And they’re fresh, natural, etc. etc.
Ooohhhh, look out - the corn is almost ready. Even Niles didn’t care for the corn last night. Maybe there wasn’t enough butter on it, tho.
Happy eating from Pa Dutch Country.
Mom