food

[threejane]

My family was not into food at all when I was growing up. It was so predictable and so bland that even the pepper shaker never needed topping up

Comments

[helios137]

Wow, how mindblowing. It reminds me of the movie Pleasentville where everything in the world is in black and white until a person with emotions shakes up the town and everything starts getting very colourful very fast. I had a sort of simiilar event happen to me. I grew up eating, almost exclusively, Persian and Turkish food. Then when I was 16 and ready to enter 11th grade in Tehran, Iran, I was shipped back state-side to attend an all boys boarding school because it was to dangerous for me to stay in Iran any longer. For the first time in my life I was exposed to American cusine. I remember being amazed at the variety of all of the dishes and vegtables. I ate my first pork, ham, pork chops, corned beef, brisket, roast beef, steak, pot roast, roasted chicken, and (seemed like )a million other items which are so common to find in most US households. Almost immediately, I gained twenty pounds. Evidently, the Persian/Turkish food had a hell of a lot less calories than typical WASP food. I eventually burned it off running in the school's cross country team.

[threejane]

I think other cuisines tend to be less fattening because they are more filling and satisfying so you don't feel a need to snack.

[helios137]

Yes, and like other asian cultures, the focuse is not as much on beef. No slabs.

[threejane]

Yech. Even the word 'slab' turns my stomach. But I kind of wonder if the really fattening part of the typical North American diet is less the meat than all the bread carbohydrates.

[helios137]

And potato carbs as well. I don't know the statistics, but the rice based carb countries, including Iran, seem to produce healthier and slimmer people. I am actually glad that I didn't have my first steak until I was 16. For me, steak has always been a rare treat, not a dinner staple. I would say that I eat fish at least a half to a third of all of my meals.