Feeding the Beast

When on a diet, food becomes even more important. I love good food most days, but when on a diet . . . So when the amount decreases, the quality becomes even more important.

Yesterday, I went out for blueberry pie. What? Doesn't sound like diet food to you? It is if you have it instead of dinner. Calories are calories. I love blueberry pie, always have. Picture a pie with a good bottom crust that can stand up to a good soaking in blueberry juices. The top crust is slightly brown and a bit flaky. The blueberries, oh my the blueberries, small and wild berries baked with a bit of sugar and cooked just enough to turn some into juice while leaving others still plump and round.

That's the pie I was hoping for. It's the sort of the pie the restaurant used to serve. What I got a pie with no top crust, a pile of uncooked flavorless cultivated berries on top of a dry hard crust. The dollop of whipped cream on top couldn't save it. Hungry as I was, I left most of it on the plate. I could not believe my disappointment. Perhaps if my expectations hadn't been so high.

It did not help that the day before I was served an inedible buffalo chicken salad from a different restaurant. Now I expect a bit of spice from buffalo chicken. What I don't expect is chicken so spiced as to be dangerous. Sure, you are thinking, I'm just a New Englander who thinks a spice rack is a salt shaker. Maybe that's how I grew up, but I've traveled. I've eaten in places in New Mexico where my wife and I were the only Anglos, places where they can't even make mashed potatoes without filling it with hot chillies. I sent the buffalo chicken back to the kitchen. It took two days for the my mouth to feel completely right again.

It's hard enough to adjust to a new way of eating. Maybe it's best to avoid all restaurants for a while, at least until I get this diet and lifestyle thing under control.

-Sixbears