roommates, food and feelings
Today one of my roommates informed me that she and another roommate had decided to not purchase the items I had put on the communal grocery list when they went shopping yesterday for our shared apartment dinners this week, because they saw what I put on the menu to cook on Wednesday night and decided that they flat out just didn't want to eat it. Lentils and bulgur with a veggie medley. Apparently they didn't even know what lentils, much less bulgur, were.... She told me was sick of me inconsiderately cooking weird stuff and that everyone else was, too. "Why can't you just cook something normal?"
I didn't realized I was so sensitive about cooking and food or how much it's a part of who I am, but I just about broke down crying. I felt like she was saying, "Laura, why can't you just be normal? Why can't you just be like us? We don't like who you are!"
You are what you eat takes on new meaning.
I didn't cry. I just sat alone in the kitchen for a few minutes biting my lip. Then I got up and called all my roommates into the kitchen. We needed to talk about it. Once they were all assembled, I asked, "Can somebody plainly articulate what the problem is here?"
A emotional and multi-faceted discussion exploded all over the kitchen.
Lentils and bulgur are much like beans and rice. Not a big earth shattering deal. Probably pretty bland, actually.
Then why didn't you just write "beans and rice" on the menu? Then I would have been fine with it.
Because that's not what it is!!
Why do you always cook vegetarian meals? You aren't a vegetarian.
Because everybody else always cooks meat, and we don't need to eat meat every day. It isn't sustainable! It probably isn't even healthy!
These are my convictions, you don't have to agree with me, and I don't expect you to...
Well, I grew up eating meat at just about every meal because it was my family's way of supporting our fellow farmers....
I feel like I'm getting nutritionally shortchanged when we don't have any vegetables for dinner.
No, potatoes do not count as vegetable.
But I don't like most vegetables and when you buy them and cook them, with our communal money, you are being inconsiderate.
(...sucks to be your body...)
I have never told you not to cook meat and potatoes because I didn't want them, and I have eaten them anyway.
Yes, but you aren't picky.
Not wanting to eat something because of it's nutritional components is not the same as not wanting to eat something because you don't like the taste.
Is it, really?
Who says meaty, cheesy, starchy is "normal"?
Why do I have be politically correct? should I say "common?" "standard?"
This isn't an abstract political matter. I don't consider that standard. You are saying my preferences are abnormal.
Trying new things is exciting. Plus, what I'm making is really good for you.
I'd rather eat the same four or five dishes all the time--the tried and true...
I'll try it, but don't be upset when I take one bite and make a bowl of cereal....
So, I left for the store to get the things that they were supposed to have bought yesterday, the differences still dripping down the kitchen walls.
I'm not sure if anything was accomplished there.
As I rode through puddles, mud splotches creeping up my back, I marveled at how relevant all of this is with the Food day for Justice Awareness Week that I am helping put together for next Tuesday.
Am I just a crazy hippie or am I ahead of my time here in the Midwest? Am I being unreasonable and inconsiderate or are my concerns about sustainability and nutrition just very misunderstood?
I didn't realized I was so sensitive about cooking and food or how much it's a part of who I am, but I just about broke down crying. I felt like she was saying, "Laura, why can't you just be normal? Why can't you just be like us? We don't like who you are!"
You are what you eat takes on new meaning.
I didn't cry. I just sat alone in the kitchen for a few minutes biting my lip. Then I got up and called all my roommates into the kitchen. We needed to talk about it. Once they were all assembled, I asked, "Can somebody plainly articulate what the problem is here?"
A emotional and multi-faceted discussion exploded all over the kitchen.
Lentils and bulgur are much like beans and rice. Not a big earth shattering deal. Probably pretty bland, actually.
Then why didn't you just write "beans and rice" on the menu? Then I would have been fine with it.
Because that's not what it is!!
Why do you always cook vegetarian meals? You aren't a vegetarian.
Because everybody else always cooks meat, and we don't need to eat meat every day. It isn't sustainable! It probably isn't even healthy!
These are my convictions, you don't have to agree with me, and I don't expect you to...
Well, I grew up eating meat at just about every meal because it was my family's way of supporting our fellow farmers....
I feel like I'm getting nutritionally shortchanged when we don't have any vegetables for dinner.
No, potatoes do not count as vegetable.
But I don't like most vegetables and when you buy them and cook them, with our communal money, you are being inconsiderate.
(...sucks to be your body...)
I have never told you not to cook meat and potatoes because I didn't want them, and I have eaten them anyway.
Yes, but you aren't picky.
Not wanting to eat something because of it's nutritional components is not the same as not wanting to eat something because you don't like the taste.
Is it, really?
Who says meaty, cheesy, starchy is "normal"?
Why do I have be politically correct? should I say "common?" "standard?"
This isn't an abstract political matter. I don't consider that standard. You are saying my preferences are abnormal.
Trying new things is exciting. Plus, what I'm making is really good for you.
I'd rather eat the same four or five dishes all the time--the tried and true...
I'll try it, but don't be upset when I take one bite and make a bowl of cereal....
So, I left for the store to get the things that they were supposed to have bought yesterday, the differences still dripping down the kitchen walls.
I'm not sure if anything was accomplished there.
As I rode through puddles, mud splotches creeping up my back, I marveled at how relevant all of this is with the Food day for Justice Awareness Week that I am helping put together for next Tuesday.
Am I just a crazy hippie or am I ahead of my time here in the Midwest? Am I being unreasonable and inconsiderate or are my concerns about sustainability and nutrition just very misunderstood?