Eating In, (and) Not Out of the Box

Hello? Food police?
Mama is feeding me fat and food from packages again!
Or is she?

When I was in college, we used to lament the absence of chain restaurants in the surrounding areas. Our college dining service was run by the University and although we did use national food suppliers, there was still a lot of home cooking going on, albeit not at the hard core level, but still remarkably from scratch. (I will always remember Shirley, the Southern cook who made her homemade macaroni and cheese every Friday in the Pit, and later the fresh pasta station where the cooks made pasta from scratch and students picked their sauce and vegetable or meat toppings.)

But, at the time, there was no place to eat, or so we felt. Nevermind that there were many small, locally owned eateries steeped in the city’s food traditions—mostly centered on pub eats enjoyed with dark beers over the long, cold Upstate New York Winter. What we college students wanted was the grown up equivalent of the happy meal. Bright neon lights on a long strip, with familiar names and value menus, from upscale chain to drive through, all serving food supplied by large national commissaries in packaging designed to give the same meal to people ordering it anywhere from Alaska to Florida. These days, that student longed for strip of restaurants extends a few miles near the closest mall to campus, and shuttle busses run frequently to take hungry students to the destination they crave. Similar branding is used on campus to keep students dining happily. By my senior year, there were already at least two dining locations on campus serving food that came shipped in plastic bags that were opened and reheated before serving. The food was from national chain restaurant commissaries and included stuff like grilled taco meat and sauces, or sub sandwiches with ingredients that weren’t prepped on site. Prior to that, sub ingredients were prepped fresh at the deli and tacos only happened if the kitchens browned the meat and made the ingredients on site. The food in a package was gross and we students knew it. But, what we failed to comprehend was that whether it’s McDonalds or TGIF, nearly all chain restaurants (sometimes known as upscale fast food) get their food in plastic packaging and heat it up in the commercial equivalent of a home microwave.

When I drove down the plastic food strip, I was repulsed. Why hadn’t we known better? I wondered. And then, why do we (as a culture or as college students) go for this stuff? What is it about these places that makes them so appealing? I don’t have answers, though I’m sure there are marketing companies out there who have studies that could tell me exactly what the draw is, and they are very successful at selling their services.

What I do know is that it is a strange feeling to have removed myself from buying and consuming mass produced restaurant food. I found myself staring with disgust at the restaurants, all lit up like Christmas, with people lining up like it was the crack of dawn on black Friday and they were just drooling to go in and buy a ten percent off, cheap (but high priced) imitation of a Louis Vuitton suitcase. Until recently, I was one of them, even though I had known for years where they got the stuff they called food. This isn’t what eating is supposed to be about.

The next day, I met up with an old college friend and her family, and we started talking about how the area had changed (more restaurants, etc.) and that eventually turned into a conversation about food. I told them that we are not eating at restaurants and are avoiding packaged food. As we got deeper into the conversation, I began to realize that it’s actually not so simple to explain our dietary change. Not eating at restaurants is easy. But, what do I mean by not eating out of packages? Do I mean we eat organic? Plenty of food in packages is labeled organic or natural. Do I mean that we aren’t eating processed food, unless it’s organic, or low fat, or vegetarian? What about spices? Olives? Pickles? Dried beans? When I say we buy local, do I mean we only go to local grocery chains? So, I set out to more clearly define where I’m coming from on this whole out of the box thing.

It may come as a surprise that the hard core traditional cook does not have a hard and fast rule, but more of an ever evolving idea.

1. I avoid commercially processed foods like pastas, crackers, cookies, breads, ketchup, mustard, mayo, anything with a chemical preservative or other chemical or Latin name additive, and just about anything that has more than two ingredients.

2. I do buy some things that come in packages, but are either not processed or are minimally processed, like organic herbs (labeled as non-irradiated), dried beans, currants and raisins (which do sometimes have an oil on them), and shelled raw nuts. When it applies, I prefer whey fermentation over canned pickling or preserving. I avoid all soy additives.
3. Some things I use are compromise items, meaning that I compromise a little on my ideal in the interest of cooking and enjoying food. Some of those things are: pre-milled rye flour because I haven’t yet found my source for whole rye; canned tomatoes (when I’m out of my own frozen or fresh) but I look for the kind with nothing else in them; herbs and spices (I look for organic, non-irradiated varieties, but I have some herbs I’m still using up); and, several items from my local farm co-op because they are family made, exactly how I would make them at home, and I either haven’t yet tried to make them or I it’s just more practical to buy them (these items include yogurt, cheese, and prepared meats).

4. If I have a local source for it, I buy it local, rather than in a commercial package.

5. I buy organic whole, fresh and frozen veggies and fruit, when I can, but when I can’t find an organic version, I do sometimes consume the non-organic equivalent. I find the Environmental Work Group’s list helpful in determining when to insist on organic: http://www.foodnews.org/. Also, our CSA is from a farm that was once certified organic, and continues the same farming practices, but no longer pays to keep up the organic certification.

6. My meat, eggs, and raw dairy are exclusively local, organic, free range, and hormone free.

7. I try not to take shortcuts in preparing my foods and strive to prepare them in a traditional way, without the use of microwave, pressure cooker, or other fast cook methods.

8. I’m open to innovative ways of cooking as long as it “feels right” in the context of my traditional cooking and ingredients.

9. I do not purposefully cook or eat low fat, but I do eat plenty of whole grains, veggies, and fruit while avoiding processed and refined sugars, fats, salts (including sea salt, but not less refined salts like Celtic sea salt, and red clay salts) and carbohydrates. Although I use fats in cooking (including butter and lard), my overall fat intake (on average) is actually lower than when I was attempting a low fat diet!

10. I’m not vegetarian, but I do appreciate a good vegetarian recipe.

So, now that I’ve laid that out there, I’ll say what I said to my friend and her husband when we were having this discussion. It’s not that I think everyone has to eat the way I do, or even that there is one right way to shop or eat. This is just what I do. Everyone draws a line around what they will buy, cook, eat and feed to their families. For me, it’s not a bright line, but more of something I have been feeling my way through for a number of years. What I eat boils down to a group of traditional foods that does not include manufactured foods that are largely inventions of the 1950s. I have come to a pretty extreme position and it’s one that has lead me to enjoy cooking and eating real food that makes me feel good! I'm comfortable with that.