Carrot Top

I dunno. I was going to grow lambs once when I lived on land where there was. . .land. Seems to me if you have to do that rubber band thing to the boys when they are growing up one would want to eat them afterwards just to try to forget about the entire experience. Rubber bands THEN shearing? What would the poor fellows have left?

Anyone that does not respond to it - that will be their loss. Bring lots of good bread. If there are those that do not eat it, at least they will have seen it, smelled the fine aroma, and watched as others enjoyed it. That's a start, a memory that someday might push them right over the edge to take a bite.

There are many parts of the US where lamb is simply not available, and apparently never has been. Might be due (initially) to geography - lamb is best grown on certain sorts of land. Might be also cultural in the aspect of where it was that various ethnic groups settled when they initially came to the US and started agricultural development and/or animal husbandry. Unfortunately, I've met many people across the country who have never eaten lamb. It is not available in the grocery stores in these places - and the people have no urge to try it, as they seem to have a sort of fear of the taste of it. Yeah, scary. Woo-hoo! Anyway. The only recipe I have had any success with in terms of introducing lamb to The Ones Who Fear It is lamb chops marinated overnight in a yogurt/honey/mint/scallion/lemon juice marinade then grilled. The aroma of the marinade and the scent of the grilled meat takes away any initial fright - or at least gets the taste buds salivating enough so that they overcome fear. My favorite lamb recipes are the traditional rack, nicely covered with mustard and buttered crumbs then roasted - or a roast loin with winter vegetables and greens napped with a rich lamb demi-glace. Sigh. These are things to induce sweet dreams. Edited to add (as I see Milagai reading ) "To induce sweet dreams -* unless*- you are vegetarian." That is okay, too. . .the fruits of the earth can induce the same dreams - just differently angled.

On a more serious note (for one split second) these ideas have reference both to the concepts of "humours" that each person was said have as their basic constitution of personality and "self" in the Middle Ages (can't remember the exact dates nor the exact humours, though I *was* actually there at the time) and also to Avurvedic philosophy and thoughts on how each person with their varying personality types "should" eat to maintain ultimate balance. And I see my two children each day - two vastly different personality types - with two vastly differing urges for types of foods - and two vastly different physical/emotional responses to foods that they do eat. Interesting subject, inny.

Eh. Here's more on the subject - not anywhere near as amusing as the story you linked to , inny, but we may as well add to the pile of information and lists of reports, no? (What I would like to see is a study of how it is all media outlets seem to start talking about the same exact thing -that is not tied to any formal external event - in such a very close time frame. It seems to happen so often!) Clickey: Food and Mood Unless! It could be the reason these stories are coming out now, of course, is that everyone is thinking of preparing each other emotionally for the holiday season. And it *would* no doubt be good for conversation round the dinner table where the family was gathered: "Two servings of potatoes? Now I KNOW you've been living alone too long!! When are you going to get married?!" "Shhh. Look at Marie. That big bowl of ice-cream. Must be depressed over the extra weight she's put on." "That's the second turkey leg Phil has eaten down to the bone. I KNEW he was cheating on Alexa!!! There's the proof!!!!" Meow.

In practical terms (which to me means "what I see before my own eyes" ) yes, I would agree that certain foods are desired when people are in certain moods. It's also a contention of mine (again, based on my own peculiar brand of reality ) that certain personality "types" crave certain types of foods over others, and that given a choice of how to build their own daily diets, they do so along predictable lines in terms of food choices. But I agree with docsconz also. I don't think that an imposition of a certain diet based on certain types of foods will alter a person's basic personality type or the moods that emit from them. It *might* do so, if the "diet" were to be assumed by the person by personal choice - but then of course that personal choice of decision that was involved would be the impetus for the desired change - not the food itself, which would or could be a "carrier" then of the intent. Basically, though, foods are composed of chemicals that do influence our bodily systems, and medicines (or is the right word to use today "pharmaceuticals"? ) are derived from the same things that we use for food - so the connection is not that far-fetched, at all. Right now I am not hungry at all. Wonder what that means.

Eh. The steak did look good, Bill. Too good to be in the photo on this thread. Just trying to help you out here, guy. It was such a prize-winning photo other than that damn good-looking steak.

I've never heard of that. A lightheaded "I need carbs" feeling? Are you sure this isn't something that affects only the ancient gods of music that wander the earth endlessly? Has anyone else experienced this? ← Ask any cyclist about 'The Bonk', a need for water an food, a bannana perhaps or a Mars Bar. From being a wobbly idiot with tears in your eyes, in 15 minutes all is under control and you are ready for the next 20 miles. ← I was just teasing Pan, for he is a nice man. Yeah, "The Bonk". (Heh.) But really, I agree. Bicycling or any intense sport would certainly induce real need for nutrients by the body.

There is a sense in the professional kitchen of eating that happens just from the sheer physical involvement with the food all day. The flavors seep into people that spend their time there, and are filling all on their own. Of course some beer after work helps balance that bread-and-butter diet. After all, if many people survived in past centuries on the nourishment that beer provides alone, with a chunk of bread or two, why not us? Nice to have you at eG, Zach, and to have read your third post!

I would agree with you, Marcia. True hunger is something I think few people have felt if they have grown up in an average American household. It just has not been forced upon us, this hunger for enough food to make our bodies run. I can remember feeling truly hungry for food only several times in my life. Both those times where when I was barely fourteen years old, trying to survive as a runaway from home. What sparks my hunger is emotion. The emotion of wanting to share a meal with someone, as I do with my children. It is not my stomach grumbling that makes my tastebuds tingle, nor is it the aromas of the food - though the fine smells do create a stronger urge to eat. The emotion, sometimes, of feeling a bit "empty" in a world where a solid and measurable success in anything is hard to find and even harder to define, unless it is in blunt financial terms. And finally, as anyone knows who has had enough money, the money does not make the cherry on the top of the ice cream all that joyous in a lasting or deeply meaningful way. The emotional sense of dissonance in a world that is loud and in-your-face everywhere you turn - this sometimes makes me hungry - it makes me want to put something in my mouth for a feeling of reality, the reality that food simply "is" without question, in and of itself, without the extraneous intellectual meanderings around and about the subject. The food is there to make us feel full. The food is there to make us feel solid. I wish that the food, for many people, could be a happier thing than what it is. I also wish that the food did not have to carry this burden of satisfying urges that really require a different sort of satisfaction for a true answer to the question that is subliminally being asked. I am lucky that food has not eaten me within these parameters - plain lucky to have been given enough emotional balance to be able to enjoy it for itself apart from these things, and to not be made overweight or unhealthy because of it. But I do wonder at what is going on, as I look around me and see the hunger. A hunger that seems to be for many things, but a hunger that is answered by eating.

It might be said that no menu is complete without spagetttti. I am also very pleased to see you post again, too. A Happy Ramadan to all in all possible ways.

Not that I intend to argue that he has "emotional pain" one way or the other, for that would be rather ridiculous, but in the 49 years I've spent on this planet I have not noticed that "emotional pain" is something that guys, in particular, wish to share with other guys or with the world-at-large. That just brings on more bashing. But that does not mean that men who do not weep or whine do not have "the finer" feelings. Sigh. Whatever.

Everybody screws up sometime. The difference is that most people do it without a huge amount of eyes being focused on them intently, with each set of eyes waiting to talk about it afterwards, each set of eyes wanting confirmation of what it is that *they* think, as they do it. To screw up is to be human. And apparently to gather to watch the spectacle is human, too. This guy is getting slammed from all sides. A book recently released that raises more than the usual ire and questions from all sides: on its quality, on its credibility, on his credibility, even on his right to be called a chef. A new restaurant being opened that is high-profile enough to be discussed, with the attendant demands for his focused attention to make sure it works, the zillions of details that need to come together and come together right at each and every meal at each and every table that someone is sitting at. And now the Beard Dinner, another jump right in front of sets of eyes trained on it as if it were the theatre that it can be. As an observer who has no stake in any of these things whatsoever: not the success or lack of it of his book; not the people whose names as mentioned in the book might somehow be tarnished by his words nor even him "himself"; not the opening of the new restaurant and whether it "makes it" or not in the "scene"; not the Beard dinner where it was not I who had to eat strange distasteful foods; as an observer of all this the only thing I can say is that if I were him, I would be utterly exhausted. Exhausted in spirit as well as in body. And this sort of exhaustion can lead to screwing up. Perhaps he did bite off too much, and perhaps the bite was taken at the wrong angle. I don't know him, so I won't assume that this bite was taken intentionally as meaning to wound anyone. Others may see it differently. Certainly the world is full of people who bite and mean to wound. But as a human being, what I feel for this other human being is compassion. He seems exhausted and stretched beyond his limit, and the showing of that was the Beard dinner. I have been that tired in life. I hope that he comes through this stronger, and without carrying too much bitterness of the tastes that others have served him during this time.

I've tried really hard not to respond to this, but now it appears it is neccesary. Phalluses? (sp?) No, no, no. Trust me, they are not. Mostly I must say that that plate looks like something that my cat might do after eating a small bird, a bunch of dry catfood, and perhaps an acorn or two topped off with some grass from the yard. As a matter of fact, she has done this sort of thing before, right in the middle of the floor, to prove her extreme dieting skills to me. I guess that might be considered "Regrettable Foods, Secondhand Division". Sigh.

I like this idea of knocking things and mowing down children and old folks who may be in front of the food. It sounds fun in an odd sort of way. May I join you in this mad dash sometime? It is particularly enticing to know that our behavior can then be blamed on science. Heh.

I've never heard of that. A lightheaded "I need carbs" feeling? Are you sure this isn't something that affects only the ancient gods of music that wander the earth endlessly? Has anyone else experienced this?

This could be true, too. In a world where pressure is on for everyone to "perform" (and this has been shown recently to be true in journalism circles as well as on Wall Street) there could be people writing things that they have not fully lived with or in enough to comment on accurately. Guess that situation would be ripe for a good satire, too. Kernel of truth. Yes. Though the thought did come to mind today to question whether the "kernel of truth" that someone holds having been raised in a "low-context" Western culture as opposed to a "high -context" Eastern culture might be very different, particularly in terms of what might be considered to be funny. I don't really know, though.

Both are amusing in their own way. More fuller? ← Yeah. More fuller. That's my best try at proper English. In agreement, both are amusing in their own way. I tend to be attracted to the philosophic side of things, even though my language skills sometimes don't support the image. I just had a recent situation where something I thought was satiric and acceptable and about food was deemed to not be acceptable. Therefore my crankiness. Life goes on.

All of a sudden an urge arises. In your stomach, on your tongue, in your mind, maybe even in your heart. This urge to eat something (or alternately to dine. I am not being exclusive here. ) - where does it come from, for you, personally? Is it always at a certain time of day - a handy reminder of the biological clock that the body requires nourishment? Does it happen because it is "supposed to be" mealtime? Could it be roused, then to be indulged, by the whiff of a passing scent of coffee brewing, or bread baking, or savory onions hitting the grill? Are you made hungry by the idea that by putting certain healthy things into your system in certain measured amounts you thereby have a "system" for physical maintenance? Might the cause be visual images or even ideas of recipes that have wandered into your mind of the lovely things that could be dined upon or eaten? Does hunger happen more for you at times of accomplishment, or does it sometimes strike at times of loss or pain or confusion or boredom? Where does your own personal hunger come from? What is the spark?

We're talking about subjective personal reactions. For me, it's a matter of tone of address--what I gather of the writer's attitude. If I detect a snobbery equal to or even surpassing that of the object of scorn, it turns me off. I love good satire, even vituperation that is proportionate to its subject, coming from a mind whose quality I admire; if it's just a pot/kettle slanging match, I lose interest. ← I wonder at this idea of satire. It does not seem that it is anywhere near as easy to give a formula for writing satire as it is to give a formula for writing a good rhetorical piece or even a decent fictional piece. Attitude does tell, the underlying intent, hopefully. But then again, the angling of even a singular phrase into this shape or that - would give each reader a different sort of frisson (if it gave them a frisson at all). Subjective, yes. Probably the taste of satire to a person might be every bit as subjective as the taste of a meal. What I enjoy about satire is the boldness and brightness of its flavors. But boldness of flavor can be bitter to some, who prefer a gentler taste or texture. ........................................................ Sort of like a flamenco dancer. As opposed to a tawdry stripper. Tastes. ........................................................... Perhaps the whole thing comes down to whether the author considers him or herself to be as human as those within the satire. Let me try to grab this thing and bring it back into the realm of food and "food-writing". Can anyone tell me of writers they have read who *do* write of the food "scene" satirically, and what your thoughts and feelings are on how they present the scene?

Mention was made previously about David Sedaris' writings. Is he guilty of the same sin, therefore ending up "down in the trough alongside all the other publicity hogs", also? Or does he shape what he does differently? Is it possible to take on the subject of pride and prejudice (so to speak) that sits at the heart of snobbery that is then displayed in the ways we choose to live our daily lives. . .without ending up in this trough? Or does the nature of the world make the trough just where one ends up in the doing of the thing. I am not being facetious here. This is a serious question.

Elitism and the search for quality and/or beauty are two different things, though.

While I can deeply appreciate the point you make about "educating" the palate of the people to finer, healthier foods (and can also deeply appreciate why this should be very important) I don't think that a satire on the "Everyday American's Diet" of canned and frozen, dead and chemically altered. . .would sell at all to any newspaper in the country, Rancho Gordo. There is something about satire that can be amusing to the public only if it is not too deadly serious about real problems that we as a society face. People who are stuck in a maze of something that perhaps they sense might be wrong in some way but who can not figure out a way out of it, as the average consumer of the foods you speak of might be, the regular guy, the family down the street. . .they are too easy a target for satiric writing as it might be presumed that in some ways they are already a target in some vague sense. Doesn't seem fair play. But elitism is a choice. Fair play.

It's milt again.