I was feeling small, in the diner, in Bath, New York. I am a 6.3 feel adult, 210 pounds, so not that small. But all people around me where in a different category. I started to have a queasy feeling that food might be one of the culprits, or maybe the hard work. Looking at their hands, work was out of the question. Is the same food in all North America that we consume, isn't it?
I asked for the menu, for breakfast, and then I understood why. The "Specials" had at least 10-12 ingredients, meat was present in different ways - bacon, sausage, lard, salami, veal, chicken. The plates where large and prices cheap. Food was plenty but nutrients in it were missing.
It was a systemic problem in a three days trip at Watkins Glen area, upstate New York - cheap food, no much variety, mostly from frozen bags/containers and not much flavor. I remember eating a salad, in full summer, and it didn't have any sweetness in vegetables.
I felt like ordering cooked carton in each diner or pub. The same fried fries, hamburger or chicken and a few leafs of salad. Haven't seen a crunchy salad or something appetissant in any of the foods in the menu. I felt sad and remembered how different was my childhood in rural East Europe, in the summer. Interestingly enough I experienced it again when I visited two years ago and I left my grandma's village with a bag of fruity tomatoes, cucumbers and red peppers, exactly like in my childhood. Everyone has a vegetable garden and meat is quite an event - the chicken are eaten maybe at important celebrations, in rest the greens are the norm, and some green I still miss here (like nettles). There are other vices running through rural Romania, but that is the story of a different post.
Feeling small and on a carton diet in rural USA, that was my feeling. I was wondering where are the local foods, where are the special veggies that people are growing in their gardens? The industrial food sector flooded rural USA with tasteless packages and bland meals. Quick, cheap, bland and not nutritious!
I asked for the menu, for breakfast, and then I understood why. The "Specials" had at least 10-12 ingredients, meat was present in different ways - bacon, sausage, lard, salami, veal, chicken. The plates where large and prices cheap. Food was plenty but nutrients in it were missing.
It was a systemic problem in a three days trip at Watkins Glen area, upstate New York - cheap food, no much variety, mostly from frozen bags/containers and not much flavor. I remember eating a salad, in full summer, and it didn't have any sweetness in vegetables.
I felt like ordering cooked carton in each diner or pub. The same fried fries, hamburger or chicken and a few leafs of salad. Haven't seen a crunchy salad or something appetissant in any of the foods in the menu. I felt sad and remembered how different was my childhood in rural East Europe, in the summer. Interestingly enough I experienced it again when I visited two years ago and I left my grandma's village with a bag of fruity tomatoes, cucumbers and red peppers, exactly like in my childhood. Everyone has a vegetable garden and meat is quite an event - the chicken are eaten maybe at important celebrations, in rest the greens are the norm, and some green I still miss here (like nettles). There are other vices running through rural Romania, but that is the story of a different post.
Feeling small and on a carton diet in rural USA, that was my feeling. I was wondering where are the local foods, where are the special veggies that people are growing in their gardens? The industrial food sector flooded rural USA with tasteless packages and bland meals. Quick, cheap, bland and not nutritious!
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