The Global Dinner Table
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Kristen brought this link, What the World Eats, to my attention over at Romance Divas. So you need to go look at it first so what follows here makes sense.
Good. You’re back. Let’s dish.
One of my first impressions were that Westerners tend to make some wicked unhealthy food choices, particularly Americans and people from Northern Europe. All those snack foods. All that soda. Frozen corn dogs and pizza. Ugh. I feel bad – not just guilty, but physically ill – if I eat pizza twice a month, much less twice a week.
Mexico made some fairly awful food choices, as well, but then they had a large array of fresh fruits and vegetables, too.
The foods displayed in developing nations was typically heavy on rice, grains, and root vegetables. I felt great pity for the family in Chad, who had so little of anything. Was that bottle of water supposed to last a whole week? For six of them? I can hardly bear to think of it.
I’d eat with the family in Cairo in a heartbeat. Did you see all those lovely little white eggplants?
However, as I examine my own family’s eating habits, I wonder what would go on that table. And what better choices I could make. I tell myself we eat well – healthy foods, fresh fruit and veg – yet I know we could do better for ourselves.
The breakfast cereal that we go through in a week would feed that family in Chad for months. Unfortunately, they’d get barely any more nutritional value from it than what they currently display in front of them. It’s a weakness of mine. I hate making breakfast, but what we substitute is void of everything but chemicals. Added vitamins and minerals. Yeah right. I haven’t read the side of a cereal box in years. I wonder now if that’s just so I can pretend I don’t know any better.
And that’s just breakfast. Lunch is usually a sandwich of some kind. PB&J. Or PB&Banana. Or just jam. Yeah. I don’t really do lunch, either.
We do dinner pretty well around here. I’m roasting two small chickens tonight with cumin, garlic, potatoes, onions and carrots. There’s leftover pasta with tomato, basil and sausage for a side dish, and I need to hit the produce section for something else to go with it.
Later this week, we’ll have risotto with hoppin’ john. Yep. Black eyed peas. Not just for New Years anymore. *gg* Probably sauté some spinach to go with it. I like kale, but it’s more of a winter green.
So dinner is taken care of. But there’s so much room for improvement. I wonder what we’ll have for lunch today.
Labels: Random Questions