milquetoast811's Journal: eat meat

'henderson had always liked innards, but it was only as he began to cook that he came to recognize the absurdity of our usual meat eating, which clings to a few square feet of animal muscle near the skeleton, as timorous natives might cling to a few square feet of coast on an island while avoiding the volcanic mountains inland. "there were all these wonderful, splendid bits of the animal being wasted, thrown out, while we were eating nothing but the filet," he said, pronouncing 'filet' in the english manner, with a hard last consonant. "it seemed positively insulting to the animal that one had raised to treat it with such contempt. so many wonders there. spleen! spleen is a very fine, perfectly framed organ. in fact, your spleen swells when you're in love! how can you resist an organ that does that?"

-adam gopnik interviews fergus henderson, chef/owner of st. john, author of 'nose to tail eating'

as an aspiring foodie, i am instantly on guard whenever i meet a vegetarian or his evil cousin, the vegan. people who don't eat a whole category of the four basic food groups seem to been missing a key ingredient in their personality: fire and verve that comes from having energy from eating protein. sure there's the occasional soy connoisseur, currently touted to be the world's most perfect food, but for someone to rely on other flavors to impart its flavor to their main staple is quite telling of their general modus operandi: that they are perfectly willing to walk the middle of the road, to not sniff around and gobble up the outer edges of life, to seek out the strange and often wonderful suprises to be found in eating something unknown.

perhaps it is indicative of the direction this country is headed when kids are raised on pre-packaged food found in government approved boxes vacuum-packed and drained of its natural juices to the point of tasting like the cardboard it came packaged in. this is literally eating outside the box when you go in search of the best street vendor in manhattan, actually make plans to eat at some tiny hole-in-the-wall that is the destination for the evening. when done in moderation, eating is definitely one of the most gratifying experiences to be had in life, and to constrain yourself to something that has been cut up and manipulated into something so alien from its natural form is truly sad indeed.

But that's why...

[DisownedSky]

Stores like Whole Foods [wholefoodsmarket.com] are doing so well. Both vegetarians and omnivores (me, for example) shop there, and you can get all kinds of fresh, organic stuff that tastes like actual food. The mainstream stores are doing their bet to follow suit, but without the expertise on the floor, they struggle.

Also, our pediatricians are now steering us away from giving our kids pre-packaged food, although we haven't entirely kicked that habit. "Steam the veggies yourself", they say, "then mash 'em up." "Give them sam

Re:But that's why...

[milquetoast811]

ah, but that's the angle of whole foods, to package the idea of 'nature' into their products, enslaving us more into the corporate idea of what is proper to eat. only when it is USDA organically approved are we supposed to eat it. i'm really speaking to the surprisingly large number of people i have met in the metropolis who are squeamish to trying new things, going out and doing rather than following, coming up with ideas rather than waiting for the next ride. is it because we are amongst a sea of stranger