Super Size Me

10.30pm 6 October 2006 Friday

OK, I know I'm a little late in watching the movie but tonight I finally sat down in front of the computer to watch the DVD of Super Size Me from my friendly neighbourhood library, with my piping hot dinner before me. The movie started, and the dinner was soon forgotten (although it was a perfectly healthy dinner of kai lan with beef and mushrooms...).

An incredible documentary, although I did google on it to see if there were any alternative views offered. Apparently a Swedish professor replicated the experiment to results that were much less horrific than that of the movie's producer. That was most curious, although I wonder if they took all the blood tests right after a meal or after fasting, since the baseline data was based on fasting levels.

In any case, the comparison of food decomposition was certainly interesting - my rubbish smelt so bad after I stupidly threw out a piece of frozen meat on Saturday night when garbage collection was on Wednesday, that I cannot imagine why or how it's possible that the french fries didn't decompose after 10 weeks. Could be the high salt content since salt is an antimicrobial agent. Whatever the reason is, I'm glad I've never had MickeyD's since I came here, except for an odd McGriddle once in a blue moon.

It's funny how people arrive at food choices - Initially when I first came to the US, I made a conscientious effort to avoid McDonald's except an occasional breakfast. But over time, I didn't even have to go out of my way to accomplish that. But I definitely agree with the correlation of food and memories. When I was a kid, we used to go to McDonald's for breakfast only when my dad was in a good mood. So I naturally associated McD's Hotcakes with Sausage with Good Times. When I came here,you can imagine my ecstasy at trying out IHOP's pancakes, the Good Egg's pancakes, and eventually H's pancakes. You marvel at the things you used to eat before you discovered the Real Thing. H's pancakes only consist of flour, milk, eggs, and butter for the pan. That's it!!! I don't even want to think of what McD's pancakes contain..

But anyhow. Back to my point. I was going somewhere with all these thoughts... Take for example today, when I spent $52 on groceries. I bought a small piece of beef (about 3oz, which is the correct amount for 1 serving of meat) and I felt like a miser because it was half the size of 1 package of meat that's supposed to be some guy's steak. And I didn't even manage to finish half the beef, despite it being tender, juicy and flavourful! The only other meat I got was like, 100g of ground pork, which is get this, only 20% of the smallest packet available, but slightly more than the recommended serving size! Assuming that I cooked with the groceries I got today (you can even subtract like, $5-10 for the non-food items), I can eat for at least 5 days on all those ingredients; I'll probably meet all the nutritional needs I have... The only problem is, people ignore the long term costs associated with fast food and only focus on the short run.

Sure, I spent time making dinner. Of course I had to move to get the food on the table. But consider this - you've to drive to the restaurant (10 mins), look at the menu (5 mins), order and wait (10 mins) = 25 mins before you eat! I can probably cook something that I really want within that time span too. After H left and I had to start cooking again, I realised what a terrible lifestyle we were living - lunch AND dinner AND occasionally breakfast outside. Now the kitchen is messier than it was, and I often violate my own no-dishes-overnight rule, but I think overall I'm eating better, and I'm actually exploring different types of food.

Ah well. Not very coherent thoughts but all-in-all, I'm giving myself a pat on the back for making granola and granola bars for school next week. I've come to realise that I'm one of those people who eat and eat throughout the day, and if I don't eat something at 11-ish, I get grouchy, grumpy and pretty unhappy in general. So will try my new granola stuff to see if it helps... Made 3 kinds!

1. AB's Maple flavoured granola - made with rolled oats, almonds, pecans, brown sugar, butter, 100% pure vanilla extract, 100% pure maple syrup!

2. AB's granola bars (1) - made with rolled oats, wheat germ, almonds, hazelnuts, brown sugar, butter, mesquite citrus honey I bought at the Farmer's Market today from the beekeeper himself, and golden raisins.

3. AB's granola bars (2) - all of the above, sans golden raisin, but with some old-fashioned peanut butter made with nothing but peanuts + salt, and choc chip!

All taste pretty good, although I think I added a little too much salt so everything is tasting a bit weird. Still good, of course. Will be making something involving lemon somehow or other, most probably a lemon curd of some sorts, and sandwiched between two butter cookies.. mm yummy!

Very tired - will have a nice soak in the tub with my newly bought dried flowers and Epsom salts. Anticipating a good night's sleep!