The Cow And I

The Works

Sometimes, not often, but sometimes beef just isn't enough to satisfy me. Usually a food craving is strong, identifiable telling me, for example: "Gimme chocolate", or "Poi, More Poi Please". But sometimes the gnawing sensation is just underneath the folds of my brain, intersecting the conscious mind at only fleeting intervals. At times like this, I don't know exactly what I want. People who graze at the refrigerator know what I'm talking about.

So, when I get this vague itch, like tonight, I gotta scratch it, with rather broad strokes. Rather than trying to pinpoint the fuzzy object of my desire with precision, I take the shotgun approach. I eat everything, all at once. Not large bits of everything, but little scraps, pieces, and piles of this and that. Take tonight's garbage salad for example:

On a bed of half Romaine, half mixed lettuce I have sprinkled: capers, cherry tomatoes, sundried plum tomatoes, raisins, dried cranberries, croutons, blue cheese crumbs, crushed black pepper, za'atar (a Mediterranean spice), peanuts, slivered braised almonds, balsamic vinaigrette, and of course 7 ounces of sliced ribeye steak (371.15 total).

After all of this salad was a memory, I realized to my chagrin that all along I had just wanted beef. One happy conclusion to this meal, though: all that stuff delivered plenty of roughage. As they say, garbage in, garbage out.

Posted by eric at February 25, 2004 07:09 PM