what goes into my mouth

We know what goes in there and it is often our decision though on many occasions it is hard to withstand the peer and family pressures that decide and insist what you should and should not eat.  Add our own greed on top of that.

In these past months with relatively new duties of managing (finally!) my own kitchen, I am back at the market and cooking regularly.  The days of whipping up a decadent cake, attempting to achieve the perfect ice-cream and experimenting new dishes have been closeted and fortunately documented in this 4 year old blog.  F and I had been eating less outside and more at home.  With the food prices creeping up by the day and the quality of food served at restaurants deteriorating, eating out is often less pleasurable than before.  Most of the times we eat out and we eat in disappointment.

Also it can’t be denied the influence of Michael Pollan’s book on our changing eating habits that started me curious about simple questions I have been ignoring such as:

“where did the ingredients come from?”,

“which methods of preparation were used?” and;

“has the food been prepared with the sole aim of profit at the expense of the nutritional aspects?”.

    I didn’t rush out to become a convert, a health extremist or a vegan after reading the book.  This book set me out to explore, to be curious and to find my own answers.  And slowly a clearer pattern emerged.  In these times of sophisticated cuisine and convenience eating, I decided to return to simplicity.  Therefore, we are buying and eating local, more vegetables and at home.  And we pay more for quality – a slice of excellent tenderloin instead of just another slice of tenderloin.  Of course it is struggle with a job to do, a home to maintain and everything else in between.  I recognize that some days we have to hang our fussy boots up and eat what we have.  But with clarity and some sort of guiding principles, it’s not that difficult to eat within and around them.

    Like someone told me before, “Life is simple.  Just do what you need and don’t complicate things.” So to eat is to simply just to survive.  Think about it.