Food & Change - A Manifesto

I’ve decided to retool this blog a bit and expand its role from merely a pulpit to more of a running journal devoid of the pomp and finish (yeah right) that it’s possessed up until this point. You may ask yourself, ‘stripped of its previous luster, what’s left?’ Well I plan to leverage this blog for allot more ‘stream of consciousness’ type writing, in addition to a forum to house my culinary ventures, minor trip reports, and a repository for self imposed goals and aspirations (thereby making it more difficult to shirk them at a later point in time). Basically, I am going to drop any previous pretense and just use it as a virtual scratch pad. Therefore, from here on out I am sure you can expect an increasing lack of cogency and coherence, giving rise to ever increasing entropy and clouded vision of purpose.
As mentioned above I’d like to use the blog as a way of tracking my culinary ventures. To that end I intend to dispatch with one of the authorial golden rules and write in ignorance of my audience and use this blog (at least in my capacity as an amateur cook) as a means for my personal edification and advancement. However, unlike any other blog posts on food you may have read previously, mine will be devoid of artfully arranged food photography, helpful recipes, and blissful accounts of the preparatory experience. Rather what you’ll find is a candid look at my forays into the world of cooking taking place in my tiny (and ugly) apartment kitchen, replete with blunders, oversights, and occasional poorly lit photographs appearing to have been taken from a moving car.

What calls for this change? Due to my increased attention to my nut & peanut (the astute among you will recognize they’re not the same thing) allergy I’ve found my options to be largely restricted when it comes to eating out. When combined with adherence to my tenets of healthy eating, I find my diet difficult to cater to unless I wish to prepare all of my meals myself. Out of these requirements has been born my renewed passion for cooking which has spurred me on to become a more competent, well versed, and knowledgeable cook, with a genuine appreciation not only for the food, but the act of preparing it.

Seeing that I intend to introduce cooking as a major player in my blog, I think it’d help to paint, in broad strokes, some of the ideals that govern my food and stylistic choices. I’ll refrain from getting into the basis for these decisions in this post and, in all likelihood, future posts as well.

- Food is Life: Food literally IS life. It fuels our bodies and minds and is the basis for our continued existence. Strangely, food in modern America has come to be treated as a grudgingly necessary component of the overly scrutinized input/output system formerly known as our bodies. As a result, food had become devoid of enjoyment and is a main source of our constant anxiety. Food, in America, garners only a miniscule fraction of the average American’s paycheck – a fact further illuminated by the contrastingly large amount spent by those in many other first world countries (and even more so in third world countries). Coupled with this financial deficit is the lack of enjoyment and time that food sees in this country. (It’s for this reason that other cultures don’t have the weight management issues that ours does -- read “Why French Women Don’t Get Fat”…I didn’t, but I understand that’s the premise).

I am trying to buck that trend and once again provide food the central role in my life that it both deserves and should rightfully occupy. I try to make time and expense secondary considerations when it comes to food. To this same end I make its preparation just as enjoyable and engaging as its consumption. Therefore, I don’t do fast food, 100 calorie packs, vitamin water, or eating in the car. I do sit down meals, everything from scratch, and whole afternoons spent on the dinner to follow.

- Whole Food: I strive with 98% success to eat only whole foods or, in other words, foods easily recognizable in their marketed forms. This means no additives, processed grains or sweeteners, canned produce, or factory prepared items.  I also don't do low fat.  Never.

- Limited Grains: I don’t really do breads (if I do, they’re sprouted), baked goods, or the like. I do use whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, oat groats, and the like on a limited basis. I definitely don’t do processed grains.

- Limited Land Based Protein: For environmental reasons I try to limit myself to only two pounds of land based protein a month. The rest of my protein I try to get from environmentally sound fished or farmed seafood, as well as limited consumption of dairy and eggs.

- Smart Buying (Organic): It’s my informed belief that locavorism and buying strictly organic is not necessarily the most environmentally friendly choice we can make as consumers. It definitely can be, but not always. However, my concern for responsible farming practices often leads me to buy organic foods before making the more environmentally friendly non-organic purchase. Therefore I try to temper buying decisions with a little bit of global altruism married with a little bit of self-preservation.

- Ratios: Ratios may seem like a funny word to use here but I really couldn’t think of a better singular term to describe this aspect of my culinary ‘code’. Besides being a déclassé cook, I am also a committed amateur athlete. The foundation of sound athletic performance and development is a diet well balanced in all the necessary macronutrients - fat, protein, and carbohydrate. By treating this ratio of macronutrients as a formula, many athletes easily achieve their nutritional requirements. However, many of these athletes treat food only as fuel and resultantly become objects of deprivation and self-castigation. I, on the other hand, don’t see a payoff in being an accomplished athlete with egregious deficits in other arenas of my life (see: Food is Life). Therefore, I try to observe ratios but understand that food enjoyed is ultimately the superior ‘fuel’.

- Minimalism: I appreciate minimalism not only as a sustainable means of living, but as an aesthetic one as well. I think doing more with less is a beautiful thing and therefore find I manifest that ideology in just about every aspect of my life. To that end I also employ minimalism in my cooking and am constantly exploring ways to minimize waste, ingredients, and kitchen tools. I think uni-taskers are antithetical to artful cooking and that finding creative ways to do more with less is both a stimulating and gratifying act.