Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Food Connection

Wow, it's an early post. Haven't even entered into tomorrow yet. Quiet night I suppose.

The day started as any other, finishing and polishing off assignments before eating some food and heading to class. Today's was especially interesting as it was the completion of my Observations and Assignment One for Anthropology, which ties directly in with my foray into vegetarianism. Moreover, not only on vegetarianism but the ideas surrounding how connected or disconnected we are from our food. In this paper, and in my life I'm promoting the idea that we need to reconnect with our food, and if we can reconnect with it, we will appreciate the process by which food gets to us. And it is with the realization of the process that we will begin to change to more ethical practices.

And so I put a challenge on the table for my readers, and I'd like feedback on how it worked. I'm nearing completion of my first week as a vegetarian, and I would like everyone out there to do one dish this week - cooked completely at home with entirely fresh ingredients. Nothing canned or packaged. The only things that can be packaged are pastas, but they have to be whole grain pastas. And of course, when it comes to grains and rice, they come in packages, but you get the idea. All fresh fruits and vegetables, if you decide on using meat, fresh cuts (preferably from ethically run establishments if you're privy to that kind of information). I would suggest making a date or a dinner event out of it. Organize a potluck for this weekend or even for next weekend with these rules in place. Do your best to not make meat the centre-point. Experiment with spices. Go nuts basically - As said in a famous quote "Do one brave thing every day... then run like hell."

There's really not all that much more to say in tonight's post, except for my dinner. A penne pasta dish, with whole grain noodles (its suggested that one only eat pasta once a week anyway) and the "Sauce" as it were (it wound up being more like a bruschetta spread on noodles) consisted of onion and garlic as a base, as it pretty much necessary in any meal, and into it went a mixture of fresh tomatoes, orange pepper (quite the taste to it) and some tofu for protein. Spices and herbs included chili flakes, cayenne and black pepper, and fresh basil, thyme, oregano, and chives. Mixed it altogether and ate it down completely. It was very good - almost a variation of last night's dinner except with noodles instead of Quinoa. This week's been insane and I'm hoping next week will be quieter so I can perhaps lend a bit more creativity to my meals. I also have to hit the grocery store and get some more supplies.

After that, I watched some of The Hour with Strombo, and came up here to do my post and finish my article for the paper.

Well that's about it from this end. Tomorrow's a big day. 1 Week since I started.

Cheers

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey- I saw a thing on Showcase or Bravo the other day about a restaraunt where the chef cooks all the meals from things he makes on the farm surrounding the dining room. It was REALLY cool. He makes one meal a day, and it takes all day to make.

It's incredibly gourmet food, but it's all completely sustainably made. I wish I could remember the name of the place.

Anyway, it's in Ontario.

P.S. Nice shoutout in the GMMF blog entry.

Anonymous said...

hi Adam... i love your blog by the way! i thought you would find it neat that here in Madagascar most people don't have fridges so everything they eat is either bought or picked the same day and VERY locally produced.. tonight i had lentils, eggplant and salted mango YUM!(i know, sounds bad right?) ... Good luck with the challenge and keep writing!
(oh, and what are your thoughts on dairy?)

Anonymous said...

I will defintely try out your challenge you put out there...perhaps tomorrow night...we'll see...I'll let you know how it goes!!!