Bugs

Why do we not eat bugs? We eat plants, we eat just about every animal that we can legally, but we do not eat bugs. Most people all around the world eat bugs as a part of their daily lives, both because they are prepared in the right way and the taste is pleasurable and because it is a necessity to survive. In Japan flies are prepared using soy sauce and sugar, in Mexico people mix worms with alcohol and in places like these all around the world people enjoy bugs everyday, so why in America is it so taboo to eat them? It is certainly not because they are not healthy, in fact they are grasshopper is a better alternative than hamburger. Hamburger is about 18 percent fat and 18 percent protein while grasshopper is around 60 percent protein and only 6 percent fat. Not only is it healthier, but it is more efficient to farm. 100 pounds of food can produce about 45 pounds of insect flesh but the same amount can only produce 15 pounds of animal flesh. This leads me to believe that people not wanting to eat insects is purely a cultural thing. If you were to see an insect on the menu at restaurant you are not going to be thinking about how much better it would be for you or how much more efficient it is to raise them, the only thing that is going to be in your mind is that it is a bug and that eating bugs is gross. 

American Food

I just ate a hamburger and that got me thinking about what foods are the most American, and I had to think of something to write about so I figured that I would just write about that….so here goes.

First on the list (in no particular order) we have that classic hamburger, or if you are truly American the cheeseburger. Like much of the food we call American, it doesn’t actually originate from the United States. As the name suggests, they originally came to us from Hamburg Germany via German immigrants where they truly became American. By this I mean that no one just orders a plain hamburger, you always end up getting a burger loaded with bacon, or deep fat fried onion rings, or something else that takes any hint of it German heritage out of it and turns it into what ever it is that you want it to be.

Next is a personal favorite of mine, the Twinkie. This little guy has become so popular over its life time that even as I write this Microsoft Word corrected my spelling of it and told me that I should capitalize it. However, one thing that makes me question just how American it is, is the people who make them. I am talking about the Hostess strike that left the world in a Twinkie shortage and even prompted people to sell their existing Hostess products on the internet for crazy amounts of money. Striking is un-American because striking is for socialist, and by default if you are a socialist you are fundamentally un-American. Sorry socialists.

I think that I would be pretty hard to argue that French Fries are un-American despite the fact that the name of another country is in the name of them. Much like the Hamburger, we Americans stole this delicacy from another culture and called it our own. We simply could not resist not having a food that requires a deep fat fryer to prepare and not calling it American.

Another prime example of American cuisine is a hotdog. As I have shown you, America steals food from the little guys and calls it our own and the hotdog is no exception. As with its brother, the hamburger, it was “borrowed” from Germany, but two other things help, in my opinion, to make it more patriotic. The first being it prevalence in baseball, pretty American if you ask me, and the second being the ideology of lets make as much money as we can. As you may know, hotdogs more so than other meats are made up of all of the left over animal parts that companies cannot use in their other products, so rather then throwing it away they but the meat into eatable plastic sock type things and sell it to the American people knowing that as long as it tastes good and is cheap the consumers of American would care what is in it.

Bringing up the rear of the list we have the “taco”. Same as everything besides the Twinkie, the taco was stolen and then Americanized. If you ask any real Mexican (person from Mexico) they will be discussed to know that the items sold to us by companies like Taco Bell and Taco John’s (whether or not Taco John’s is still a thing I do not know) are marketed as tacos. The tacos that are sold in American are basically hamburgers in a shell, meat, cheese, lettuce, and if you are feeling adventurous you might even add a Mexican inspired topping to your taco such as salsa. Another thing that may anger a true Mexican is that according to Taco bell’s new breakfast menu any thing that is wrapped in anything is a taco, like their waffle taco.   

I hope that in this I have been able to demonstrate that hardly any food is truly American. Nearly ever food that you eat is the American version of some food from some there country, even of you think you are eating the authentic version…you’re not. Take spaghetti for example, hardly anyone that I know eats it with out meat sauce, but that’s how they do it in Italy, despite that fact people will still say that they are eating Italian. I’m not trying to prove a point or anything like that by writing this, I am just talking about foods that I think, and the majority of American’s think to be American. (743 words)

Look Good

With the summer months quickly approaching I was reminded of a problem that many people have while they are trying to enjoy a day on the river or lake or at the pool. That is the problem of eating too much during a meal and looking fat. What most people will do is just eat one big meal at around noon, eat until they are full, then spend the next couple of hours trying hid their food babies from the ever judgeful eyes of the rest of the people. I have a simple solution to this problem that has been plaguing people ever since Eve ate the fruit. This solution is to simply eat less, but eat more often. Not only will this help you look better for bikini season, but it is actually healthier than eating the way that we do nowadays. Back in the good old days when people were hunter/gathers the wouldn’t just sit down three times a day and eat, they would eat when ever the opportunity presented its self. This meant eating little and often, and this is how our bodies were evolved to function. So by using this simple little trick you can not only look better shirtless, buy you can feed your body the way that millions of years of evolution have designed it to eat. (224 words)

Survival

Recently I was trekking through the wilderness with a close acquaintance of mine and the topic of what we would bring to survive in the out doors to survive with. The reason that I felt like this should be on a food blog was because almost everything that I said I would bring had to do with obtaining or preparing food. I would like to point out at this point that I am not any survivalist so if I say something stupid, it is because as I was thinking about this it seemed like a god idea.

1.)    A scoped .22 rifle with ammunition. For me this one is a no brainer because I will provide food and entertainment. Having this weapon will allow you to make a meal out of any small game that you see, but not completely blow their brains off. By this I mean that it is not too much gun for squire as lets say a 12 gauge. The 12 gauge was suggested by my acquaintance, but I pointed out to him that you will see more small game that large game and even if you take down a buck you would have no way to keep the meat so you would only get one or two meals out of it.

2.)    Matches. This is another one that came pretty easily to me. The guy I was with was trying to sound tough and suggested flint and steal, but I am not that manly and I am not trying to impress anyone so matches suit my needs. These will come in handy for preparing meals and also making water safe to drink. That leads into number three…

3.)    A pot. I feel like this would get over looked by most people, but having a fire and water does not do you much good if you do not have anything to boil it in.

4.)    A knife. This one also seems pretty obvious, it would come in handy for cleaning game and fish.

5.)    Rod and reel. If you are not having a great day of hunting them you could always throw a line into the water and hope that you get lucky. For bait you can just use a bug that you find of if you catch a little fish you can chop him up (using you handy knife) and put some pieces of him of the other end of your line.

So there you have it. With your rifle, rod and reel, knife, matches and pot you should have all you need to feed your self in the woods. You may even eat pretty well if you know how to cook over a fire. (442 words)

Skiing

So it seems like whatever the weather is like at the time of my blogging inspires me to write about the opposite type of weather. Today it was beautiful so naturally I want to write about what I like to eat while I ski.

So unless you are a high roller, or just do not go skiing very much it is very stupid (in my opinion) to buy things at the slopes, regardless of where you find yourself skiing. I say this because no matter where you are it is always a safe bet that they will jack the prices up. So now you have to sneak some food in…the question is, what do you take?

While skiing may not be the most physically strenuous thing in the world, it still takes some work so I like to try to avoid really greasy things like McDonald’s and Wendy’s. Instead I would rather bring a foot long from subway or bring a couple of double decker peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. If you are not aware of what this is, it is a creation that I thought of (and millions of other people I am sure) in which you use three pieces of bread and to layers instead of the more conventional two pieces of bread and one layer.

Another thing that is a good one to bring would be leftovers. It does not get much better than enjoying some cold spaghetti with some hot chocolate. The only time that this is not such a great idea is when it is crazy cold and you just want to get warm food in side of you when you come in.

Let us say some time you decide to buy food there, now what do you eat? Well. It is pretty safe to say that you will not be getting any food with out grease, so I say go big or go home. Go ahead and get your double bacon cheese burger with mozzarella sticks and bacon cheese fries. (339 words)

HyVee

Today I thought that I would shake things up a little bit and do another restaurant review. So as I am sitting here trying to think of a restaurant to review the first on that comes to my mind is HyVee. I know what you might be thinking, but to many people including myself it is. The best part about going to HyVee to eat is that unlike going to a regular place to eat, you are not limited to one part of the world to eat at. By this I mean that if you feel like pizza, you can get some pizza, if you feel like Chinese food (also known on the streets as “hichi” [HyVee Chinese]), you can get some of the best Chinese food in all Iowa. If you want some home style food (like chicken or Oreo salad) then you can just go get some. The way that you can do is by investing in a fairly priced ticket that entitles you to as much of whatever you want. This I commonly known as a buffet. One of my favorite parts about the HyVee experience is the fact that you don’t have to pick up your own stuff, that is someone else’s job. Something else that makes it nice is that it is conveniently located in side of a HyVee, so if you want to get something else to eat along with your meal you can just go get it. But that typically is not an issue because of the generous portion sizes, and also the fact that it is a buffet and if you know what a buffet is then you know that that doesn't really matter. There is however one thing that I don’t really like about it, that is that I do not get a discount. People who work there do, the problem is that I do not work at Hyvee, just not the one that has the places to eat. So that means that when I go with friends I get to watch them all get discount while I have to pay full price. Another thing that make it hard to resist is that great prices. On top of the already low prices their Italian section had “dollar slice Thursday”. As you may expect on Thursdays a slice of pizza costs only one dollar, and this really attracts people. The way that you get there on Thursdays within your lunch period is to leave right away, get some pizza and eat it on the way back to school. The distance between the high school and the location of the establishment is another thing that I don’t like, but I suppose there is not as much the store director can do about that issue. (427 words)

Pre-What Ever You Are Doing

The problem that I always seem to run into is that I have to be at a practice or lifting session pretty early, but I need to find something to eat. As most people who play any sort of sport (real sport, that is, not golf, bowling, etc.) can tell you that going hard on an empty stomach is absolutely awful. Not eating before you exert your self is the quickest way to make yourself throw up, and throwing up is the quickest way to make you not want to work out. So not the important question, what can I eat that is good right before practice that is also very quick so that I do not have to get up any earlier that I have to?

One option that I am very fond of is a Zone bar. These are made for this purpose and they come in lots of awesome flavors. The flavors are so good, in fact, that there was a point that I didn’t want to eat them because I assumed that there was no way that they were that good and also good for you. I eventually asked my doctor about them and she said that they were good for me, so now they are one of my favorite snacks and pre-practice food item. The only problem is that with like most things, you get what you pay for, by this I mean that from what my parents have told me, they are pretty expensive.

                Another very good option is Muscle Milk. This is supposed to be a post workout protein shake, but I have found that it is great for pre-work out as well. The protein makes it very filling and I get the pre made ones that come already in liquid form (rather than coming in the powder form that requires you to mix it with water in a water bottle). They come in a re-sealable container which makes it great it great to drink while you are driving to practice or running out the door because you are running late.

                The last one that comes to my mind is the humble peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The only down side to this one is it take a little bit of time to prepare, but it is always nice to have that familiar flavor. Another great thing is that the sandwich had sugar, protein, and carbs, all of which your body need to help you perform at you highest level.  (417 words)