By choice, I’m living in a building where relatively few people speak English as their primary language, but most people can speak in English if they choose (except the poorly documented migratory residents from below the Southern US border).
I went today for the second time to a large supermarket in the Golf Mill shopping center (malls are dinosaurs, but I digress). In the era of Wayne’s world, this area of the Chicago suburbs was lilly white “alligator on the shirt” snooty yuppie land. 30 years later, it is Ellis Island – Asian restaurants everywhere, and a heavy presence of Eastern European immigrants. This grocery store very much caters to those folks – a huge deli with all kinds of unrefrigerated cured meats, then lots of polish, Greek, Italian, Bulgarian items… The good meat and the deli are why people come here.
I’m waiting turn for my number to be called and a curious conversation begins. A woman next to me, to my eye looks like an upper class Indian woman, but possibly Pakistani – wants to buy Kosher beef. She has a conversation with the deli clerk about which beef products they carry are Kosher.
It crosses my mind she may really be wanting hal’al beef – in a pinch, Kosher dietary law about handling of meet is very similar to Islamic dietary law, since they both are based on Abrahamic law. Both religions would prefer a butcher of each other’s group over those Christian butchers who totally ignore dietary laws laid down by God, or God help us – those evil Pagans.
She settles on a pound of Vienna Brand beef bologna and asks 3 or 4 more times – you’re sure this is really Kosher right? This is extremely important to this woman. She needs an extra bag to double wrap her bologna, lest some fumes of the blood of Jesus sneak in.
I’m mostly just amused, since I’m a member of none of the religions, but I do see some merit in some rules beyond those of the USDA.
Now it is my turn – the Boars Head brand of ham is $5.99 a pound, she shows it to me, and then takes it over to the same slicing machine she just used to slice the Kosher Beef Bologna.
Someone is going to hell over this, I’m just not sure who.
See, you’ve just pointed out the conundrum in society we all face, that is to say, those of us who abide by strict laws and commandments must group together in order to segregate ourselves from the…from the…from the…from the…from the…from the…from the…OTHERS!!!!
For myself, I splurged yesterday on fine Southern cookin’. I had 2 very nice bones (BBQ pork ribs), mashed potatoes with gravy, fried okra (sublime vegetable when fried), and cornbread. Today??? 2 fried chicken legs, mac ‘n cheese and of course fried okra. Oh Lord, I’ve got to stop myself from this sort of indulgence lest I end-up a fatty.
Let’s see, when I was 18, I weighed 120-130 pounds, then many, many, many, many, many years later I’ve ballooned to 135, maybe 140 pounds on an occasional prolific splurge. So far as going to hell, or heaven, over what we eat, or don’t eat, it seems to me to lead to what could be called, OverFlation, but that’s just me and YMMV.
This is an interesting light-hearted anecdote, but it illustrates the folly of multiculturalism.
I like Chinese and Mexican and Italian and Greek foods but prefer my neighborhood where I live and spend most of my time to be the plain old vanilla kind, where the majority share cultural identities. I don’t need to make sure to have Kosher or otherwise specially prepared foods when I have the neighbors over for a BBQ. And the vegans can f*ck themselves, BTW.
flapjack – Re the vegans, Let them eat Eggos, Ed! lol
The single most annoying self-identified fringe group in the universe. Eggos would work. I have noted most vegans are fat-assed sugar addicts.
Still I don’t even want them around.
lol. Human beings do need protein… and if you can’t get it in a concentrated source like meat, you have to eat more to get it.
Won’t you miss the looks you get from vegans when you cut your knife into a hot juicy steak just off the grill? lol
Now and then I do eat completely vegetarian for a few days, and that’s OK in my thinking. Vegans can be quite militant at times, as are a few vegetarians. Dried beans, textured soy flour, wheat gluten and quinoa are good protein sources. The best chili recipe I’ve tasted has a combination of pinto beans, soy flour (Vegeburger) and ground beef for protein.
There is a difference in the personalities between people that a vegetarian/vegan because they feel that animal fats and animal products in general are not the healthiest foods to consume, and those people that are vegetarian/vegan for moral reasons believing that animals has as much right to life as human beings.
There have been studies that show that drinking orange juice with a sausage/egg breakfast or eating oats with sausage/egg helps to prevent the unhealthy animal fats from being absorbed by the system. The orange juice or oats bind with the animal fats and result in fewer of them being absorbed by the body.
Don’t be defensive, Nid. You and I go way back, amigo. I feel like I know you, like a mentally defective cousin with a hair lip. Same for CC, but instead of a hair lip it’s the clubbed foot. But I digress.
I was a vegetarian for a couple years in my early 20’s. It was a ridiculous way to try and live if you wanted to remain healthy because you had to combine different kinds of protein to get the same complete protein you have in animal flesh. Plus it was really expensive to try and eat right, and the food mostly sucks. I can only eat so much falafel before I choke on it.
And yes, the militant Peta-Vegans need to be drawn and quartered then have their parts smoked for some nice cannibal tribe in south America. Amen.
Not to mention the flatulence!
I got some gas this morning when I found myself agreeing with Mayor Mike…. as they say, even a broken clock is right twice per day 😉
http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2013/06/18/18-mayors-limit-use-of-food-stamps-to-buy-soda
You give Mayor Mike wayyyyyy too much credit, CC. I’d say he is more like the Mayan calendar, right once every 6,480 years.
That’s why god made BEANO, Art.
I think that eating grains with beans seems to help too.. when in doubt, eat tofu! 🙂
Don’t forget to wash it down with a hot cup of joe and smoking a cigarette.
And ignition sources
Please pass me my e-cigarette.
This April, I expect to see the e-cigarette smoke transfer protocol in an RFC
I remember a discussion about why certain foods, we all know which ones, cause flatulence. The researcher said it was due to certain proteins not being broken down and/or absorbed. Anyone else have a clue as to why certain foods have that ‘affect’ on the digestive tract?