Tag Archives: Eating

Paris: Let me talk about eating…

24 Apr

You can’t visit Paris without at least one post about the food.

Our first night in Paris, Kelly and I struck gold when we had dinner at Café Constant. If you’re a foodie, that name probably rings a bell because it’s one of four restaurants in Paris (three of which are in a neat little row on the same street) by Chef Christian Constant. Also worth noting: it was a bargain – dinner was only 16 Euros per person in a city of often over-priced meals.

It was a hopping Friday night and the café had a nice little hustle going on, so the only place available to seat us was at a small table tucked under the stairs. Some diners might not find it desirable, but I enjoyed it, feeling like a little turtle tucked up in its shell as I ate.

Though most people in the café were French, two older, American-sounding women sat at the table next to us. We didn’t try to eavesdrop on their conversation, but when their dessert came, we gathered that one woman had ordered the roasted prunes in some sort of red wine reduction.

“Nasty,” I whispered to Kelly. “I would never think of a prune for dessert, would you?”

She was just shaking her head when we both heard something that caused us to lock eyes, raise our eyebrows and lose ourselves in laughter: The woman had raised her spoon and told her companion, “I might just shit myself at the table after eating this!”

You can take a girl out of ‘Murica, but you can’t take ‘Murica out of the girl.

That gave us one just more reason to split the profiteroles rather than try our luck on the prunes…

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Eat to live or live to eat?

18 Oct

Image Source: © 2014 pithypants

We all learned a lot about each other’s eating preferences on our trip to Italy. If I had to summarize, here are our dietary tenets…

Mom:

  1. It’s not breakfast unless it involves orange juice and milk.
  2. Every table should include a salt shaker.
  3. There is such a thing as “too much” marinara sauce.
  4. Meat makes it a meal.

Me:

  1. Live to eat.
  2. Salami is like a blood-sugar insurance policy – one slice at every meal keeps things ticking.
  3. There’s no such thing as too much pasta.
  4. If a restaurant has bruschetta, we’re ordering it.

Alicia:

  1. Eat to live.
  2. Black tea, hold the sugar – hot/cold throughout the day.
  3. Have yogurt, will travel.
  4. Coronettos whenever possible.

Further demonstrating how differently we approach food, shortly after returning, my sister shared this link for Soylent. I encourage you to check out the page and see if anything about the concept appeals to you. (Soylent is a food replacement product that provides nutrients via a powder that mixes into a drink.)

The stated benefits are:

  • Time: Prepare multiple meals in minutes – no need to shop for individual ingredients or plan ahead
  • Money: Spend less than $10 per day on food, and less than $4 per meal – get more than a day’s worth of meals for less than the cost of takeout
  • Nutrition: Eat balanced and wholesome – get all of the essential nutrients required to fuel the human body

Sorry. This guy’s value proposition falls apart for me with the first bullet – I enjoy taking time to shop for ingredients and cook dinner. And more important than money or nutrition to me is TASTE. It might be wrong, but I eat for enjoyment, not nutrition. My sister on the other hand…

Granted, all you need to do is look at us to see how our eating philosophies have shaped our bodies. She’s an easy size 4, and I could definitely stand to lose a pound or, um, fifteen. Details.

Finally – because I’m mildly obsessed with Soylent and the fact that this guy thinks enough people are wired like my sister that there’s a market for this product – can we discuss the name? Is it a terrible or brilliant marketing move to name his product after the 1973 sci-fi movie Soylent Green, which is summarized by Wikipedia as “…the investigation into the murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans, and all-year humidity due to the greenhouse effect. Much of the population survives on processed food rations, including “soylent green.”

I mean, the plot does seem to be playing out in real life, so I can see where Soylent’s founder drew a connection. The problem, however, is that at the end of the film, you discover that “soylent green” is actually PEOPLE. So here’s guy in 2014, selling an unrecognizable nutritional powder and he’s deliberately named it something that calls to mind cannibalism. Interesting brand strategy.

Which camp are you in? Love to eat or eat for fuel?

Further adventures in workday tailgating. Or food trucks.

2 Jun

In keeping with my Summer Challenge (by which I mean trying a new food truck each week, hardship that it is), today I found myself hovering between three trucks, completely indecisive. There was Stix (which does veggie, meat, or fruit kabobs on the grill), Tasty Kabob (ironically, less kabob-by than Stix, but featuring gyros and halal meat), and Sauça Pangea (more eclectic world cuisine).

I took a false step toward each truck, got in the longest line (Kabob) and then felt guilty for not patronizing the underdog, so shifted to Sauça at the last minute. Man, I’m glad I did.

Sure, I’ll try the others later this summer (they looked great as well), but the menu at Sauça really just struck my cravings. Even after making the shift, I was torn on what to get. The menu options (each for $8) included: Mumbai Butter Chicken, Polpette Marineara and Mexicali Fish Tacos.

I got (also for $8) the Beef Shawarma. I was not disappointed. Loads of sliced, flavored beef served on a fluffy pita with fresh tomatoes, spices and — the dealmaker: a great chimichurri sauce? Heaven.

As I counted out my singles, the guy working the register (sitting in what appeared to be the passenger seat of the van) was singing along to “Billie Jean,” which didn’t exactly blast onto the sidewalk, but appeared to give the truck a rocking internal beat.

Late for a meeting (but sad to miss the moonwalk), I grabbed my food to go and toted it back to my office, where the entire DC team was holed up in a meeting.

I took a seat at the table, and as soon as I unveiled my sandwich, then meeting derailed.

“Holy shit,” someone said. “Where did you get that?”

I explained that it came from a food truck, and then was rewarded by getting to explain what a food truck was, making me happy that I was not, in fact, the last person on the bandwagon. (“There will be dolls uglier than you, Jillian,” I thought with a smile.)

By the time I peeled back the foil and revealed the full glory (and aroma) of the shawarma, every person at the table was drooling asking me to draw a map to the truck. And I couldn’t blame them: it was fabulous.

The only downside to the meal: chimichurri in my teeth. But that’s not actually Sauça’s fault. That blame goes to my orthodontist, Dr. Balbach (rhymes with Ball-Sack) for ambitiously providing me with a straight smile AND a facial herb rack.

In summary: I definitely recommend visiting this truck (in fact, I can’t wait to try some of the other menu items), but I advise bringing dental floss if you don’t want to look like a carved up jack-o-lantern when you’re done eating. In other words: BYODF.

I say “Pie,” you say “Pizza,” and we’ll see who finishes hungry.

27 May

Apparently, street food is all the rage. As with most trends, I’m late hopping on the bandwagon. It reminds me of the year I asked for a Cabbage Patch Doll for Christmas months after the cool kids had requested theirs, leaving me holding a homemade “Cabbage Patch” with a head made from stuffed nylons. True story. In retrospect, I now realize my doll was more awesome.

Back to food trucks. I’ve known of the Lobster truck, with its butter-soaked lobster rolls ($15), for at least a year. Of course, I haven’t actually tried one yet, because I’m so cheap I can’t justify a double-digit lunch, but I’ve at least seen it before. Maybe if I ever have cause to celebrate, I’ll go bananas and find a friend to split a roll with me. Because I’m just that wild!

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I’m supposed to be making Christmas cookies…

11 Dec

But instead, I’m pacing around my house, trying to figure out what I should eat for lunch, and if it’s too late to eat lunch.

Why am I devoting so many brain cells to such a simple thing? Because I’m getting a massage in 90 minutes and don’t want to feel like a beached whale on the massage table. I’ve definitely done that before: eaten too close to rub time and then, when they say, “Roll over on your stomach,” I’m like, “Really? Are you sure you want me to do this??? OK, fine, it IS your table.”

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