Results tagged “food” from Debi's Journal

Ever since we were kids, we've had it ingrained in us that the Food Pyramid was our guide to eating in the most nutritious way possible. Even though the pyramid has undergone a few changes over the years, one constant is the largest section, grains. Grains are good! Grains are healthy! You need them for energy!

In our neighborhood we went through the 1990s thinking ice cream trucks had gone the way of the passenger pigeon (that means extinct, Melody). Back in the 80s there would maybe be one or two a week, and then the following decade, nothing.

Then the city built a community center/YMCA, then a baseball park with playground and multi-use field, and finally an environmental library. Nowadays you can't throw a rock without hitting at least one ice cream truck. Who would imagine ten years ago that I'd bemusedly watch three different trucks swerving around each other trying to get the most business during a busy sporting event? I've seen at least five or six different trucks at various times of the day or week. Apparently the city doesn't strictly regulate them, so it's like the Wild Wild West of ice cream trucks. It's pretty cool.

One day last year, I noticed one truck going around with the music volume turned down unusually low. When I mentioned it to Melody, she said one of our neighbors, Tom, had accosted the driver (a Hispanic woman) and screamed at and threatened her (probably with something stupid like deportation) because the music disturbed him or something. Tom can be a real jerk so this didn't surprise me.

On two occasions, when I stepped out to see the latest idiot blasting rap music at full bass and volume, it turned out to be a freaking brightly-colored (purple maybe?) ice cream truck/van thing. Thank goodness this doesn't seem to be the guy's regular route since I've only seen him the two times, wishing his stereo would blow up. Plus the second time, he pretty much sped down the street, which I didn't think would help him sell anything.

Mel's favorite ice cream truck driver is some kind of eastern European dude who gives her a discount. She usually gets the Neapolitan sandwiches, while my nephew likes Sponge Bob with the freaky black gumball eyes.

We have our least favorites as well, typically those who charge more for ice cream than the others.

I don't see the point of eating minestrone soup if you're going to avoid the vegetables. I hate carrots and peas but I still eat them if they're part of a larger dish. The "starving kids in third-world countries" argument doesn't work with her. The way she acts, you'd think she'd die if she ate something that wasn't hot cheetos.

Mexican candy is popular among Latino kids in southern California, and it's widely available here. Teens (kids) being teens (kids) will eat all sorts of unusual junk, and so these candies have spread among the local non-Latinos as well.

So, around a year or so ago Mel started eating this candy called Lucas that is made up of chili powder and tamarind (and until recently, LEAD). It's an acquired taste if you're not used to your sweets being spicy hot. Lately, however, this has been her (and her friends') poison of choice: Limon 7!
Ingredients: Salt, citric acid, sugar, natural dehydrated lemon, calcium stearate, calcium silicate, arabic gum.

I tried some, and it left my mouth with a wonderful burning sensation from all the salt and citric acid. Oh my gourd, this stuff hurt to eat.

Another candy Melody tried was this, but she didn't like it so much. Acirrico, with Vitamin C!
Ingredients: Salt, guajillo chili, citric acid, nature (natural?) lemon, silicon dioxide, and tricalcium phosphate.

Funny how kids will complain about eating vegetables, but they'll eat this crap by the gallon.

I have to mention, however, that the absolute nastiest candy I've ever eaten wasn't Mexican, but British. I was traveling in England back in 1994 and bought a bar of Cadbury's Turkish Delight from a vending machine in the London Underground. I figured that since it was a chocolate bar, how bad could it possibly be? I took a bite, peered oddly at the pink gel filling, and gagged at the flavor of rosewater. Again, I guess it's an acquired taste (this coming from a person who likes Vegemite).

On the drive to Disneyland (you may have guessed where we were going in my last entry) the girls counted a total of six drivers talking with their cell phones held up to their ear (breakin' da law!), and two drivers chatting via their bluetooth earpiece (legal). The sad thing was that one of the naughty drivers was part of our caravan of three cars, and the girls in my car found that completely hysterical.

Disneyland was mostly fun, and it was the first weekend where all the Halloween decorations went up. We stayed overnight at the Anaheim Best Western which is practically across the street from the park entrance, and the hotel allowed us to keep our cars parked there (with a rear-view mirror hanging pass) for the entire day. For breakfast Mel constantly bitched and moaned over having to eat breakfast at Denny's across from the park entrance. Once in the park, Melody was her usual pain-in-the-arse self and refused to go on any of the roller coaster rides. She also refused to eat at the pizza place next to Space Mountain and so we trekked it over to the Gumbo place next to Pirates and back again so she could get her bread bowl soup. Food issues were going to plague us for the rest of the day and she was really looking like a total spoiled brat to the other parents who were in our group. Finally that evening Mel had a complete mental breakdown over our choice of dinner location, and I won't go into details over her behavior other than that other parents have said there would have been a severe punishment if it was their child. Suffice it to say that I will be taking her for a complete physical at Kaiser Permanente within the next month.

When it comes to advertising and product packaging, most children will grow up into jaded, skeptical adults. Take this swimming pool, for example. The kid in you would like to believe in the honesty of others, including those trying to sell you something, but then if you're smart you tell that kid to go sit in the corner for a time-out.

Last Sunday I took my mom to Marukai again, this time the one in West Covina. In the "dried soups" section I grabbed this off the shelf. It looked like it could be worth a try.

I took out one of the soup packets.
"Stir in 2/3 cup of boiling water" made me think, "That's not a lot of water."

But I ventured on, with some trepidation.
It looked to me like there were at least a dozen wontons in the package photo. Wow. My stomach grumbled in disappointment.

I added a full cup of hot water. 2/3 wasn't going to cut it today.

The soup tasted okay. It was fun, really, okay, not really, trying to stretch out those two lonely wontons during the consumption of the soup.

Just to set the record straight, I've never had a problem eating meat, with some exceptions like shellfish and raw-fish sushi which I don't care for at all. However, all my adult life I've found purchasing and preparing chicken, beef, pork, or anything resembling dead animal flesh an unpleasant task. I've almost never purchased the stuff myself, in fact; it's always been family members/spouse who bought it for consumption. Gradually over the years, though, I've reduced the amounts and types of meat I eat. I think it started with ribs, steaks, and pork chops, which I pretty much stopped eating about a decade ago for no particular reason other than they no longer appealed to me in any way. I compensated somewhat by eating more turkey and chicken, but a few years back I gradually stopped eating turkey as well, because I just didn't feel so great after eating it and it just started tasting kind of funny to me. I also mostly stopped eating hamburgers (other than those from In-N-Out) a few years ago.

I guess that left me with chicken, bacon, sausage, and ground beef tacos.

Also, around the time I turned 30, I started developing food allergies. It began with bananas, and moved on to cucumbers, melons, and avocado - all foods that I loved to eat! None of the reactions are life-threatening, thank goodness. Basically eating the above causes my lips, tongue, and throat to tingle and feel uncomfortable.

I could go into becoming lactose intolerant around the same age, but that happens to many people so whoopdie-doo. I replaced milk with soy milk.

Some people already viewed me as a picky eater because of my various dietary restrictions as a result of all these food quirks of mine. The person in my life with the greatest contrast in diet would probably be my sister, the ribs/meat/steak/meat/hotdog/meat/burger/meat and potatoes woman who weighs around 115 lbs. I think she likes meat or something. I remember taking her to an Indian restaurant 12 or so years ago, and she hated it. Not enough meat, plus I think she finds the scent of cumin, a popular curry spice, repulsive. She also dislikes most Thai dishes. And she hates celery. She's a picky eater, but in a much different way than me.

Three years ago, Miss M joined a Girl Scout Troop which happened to have a vegan leader. This is where my spiral towards vegetarianism picked up some speed. I already owned a vegan cookbook, Complete Vegetarian Kitchen, which I either bought or someone gave to me long enough ago that I don't remember when it ended up in my possession. In the past year I also purchased Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, from which I made some pumpkin and chocolate chip cupcakes, and Veganomicon (which I love just for the name alone). Now, I haven't turned vegan, and I probably won't, but I enjoy having meat-free dishes more often than not; thus this Flexitarianism (a.k.a. half-assed vegetarian) business.

A few months ago I switched from soy milk to almond milk. I have thyroid issues, and processed soy is supposed to be a bad thing for me. I also eat a lot less cheese and rarely eat eggs these days.

Earlier this week, I offered to go over to my sister's some time to make some potato and kale enchiladas with roasted chile sauce from the Veganomicon, but she turned up her nose and said if I ever make enchiladas then it better have MEAT in it. Le sigh.