White or wheat?
Nov. 25th, 2009 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerFunny thing. Since I've been in England, I've been eating whole-wheat bread - not out of any ideological or health reason, but because that's the kind of bread that the local bakery made in a loaf size that I could finish before it started to mold.
But recently when I went to buy more bread, the whole-wheat loafs were all sold out. So I got a white loaf.
...It's boring. It pretty cheap bread, which doesn't help, but...it doesn't have half the flavor of the whole-wheat. It doesn't have the little wheaty bits that make the texture interesting. It's puffy and fluffy and smooth and tasteless and boring.
I've read, in books about food, that healthy food tastes better than normal* food once you get used to it. I never believed it, because a) if that was true surely everyone would be eating healthy food, and b) the world is just not that kind. But maybe there's something to it.
In other food news, I had sweet potato and butternut squash soup for lunch. It was surprisingly delicious. Also, I'm curious: in America most soups have chunks of things (chicken, carrots, whatever) in them, but most of the soups I've had in Britain have been smooth, like the ingredients were pureed. Is this an actual cultural difference or have I simply not eaten enough soup to form a hypothesis?
Mmm. Soup. Yes, I definitely think I need more data...
*Normal food here means American food - because the food books I'm referring to were written by Americans - and American food here means deep-fried Twinkies, Wonderbread, and never any vegetables except maybe the limp lettuce and pinkish tomato on the Double Whopper. Like any generalization it's an oversimplification, but it is the national food culture that American food writers invoke when they want to explain the wonders of tomatoes that are actually red.
But recently when I went to buy more bread, the whole-wheat loafs were all sold out. So I got a white loaf.
...It's boring. It pretty cheap bread, which doesn't help, but...it doesn't have half the flavor of the whole-wheat. It doesn't have the little wheaty bits that make the texture interesting. It's puffy and fluffy and smooth and tasteless and boring.
I've read, in books about food, that healthy food tastes better than normal* food once you get used to it. I never believed it, because a) if that was true surely everyone would be eating healthy food, and b) the world is just not that kind. But maybe there's something to it.
In other food news, I had sweet potato and butternut squash soup for lunch. It was surprisingly delicious. Also, I'm curious: in America most soups have chunks of things (chicken, carrots, whatever) in them, but most of the soups I've had in Britain have been smooth, like the ingredients were pureed. Is this an actual cultural difference or have I simply not eaten enough soup to form a hypothesis?
Mmm. Soup. Yes, I definitely think I need more data...
*Normal food here means American food - because the food books I'm referring to were written by Americans - and American food here means deep-fried Twinkies, Wonderbread, and never any vegetables except maybe the limp lettuce and pinkish tomato on the Double Whopper. Like any generalization it's an oversimplification, but it is the national food culture that American food writers invoke when they want to explain the wonders of tomatoes that are actually red.
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no subject
Date: 2009-11-25 08:45 pm (UTC)...do you really eat like that in America? I mean yeah, generalisation, and it's obviously what most people think about America (that Americans eat lots and lots of Fast Food and little else), but I... I suppose I can't really imagine it.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-25 10:40 pm (UTC)Especially after reading your blog whenever you write about food, I think the hardest thing about going home (...or, back to Lawrence is more what I mean) is going to be the food.
Whole wheat bread is astonishingly good, as is this sesame and grain bread I've been able to find here. It's amazing how a few extra ingredients manages to change everything.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-26 12:15 am (UTC)I think that sort of eating pattern is less common than books make it seem, but it's common enough that it has some traction in the American imagination. Or maybe we only think it's common because we've read about it so many times, even though not many people live down to it?
I think the bigger American health problem is probably the lack of exercise. I haven't noticed a big difference between American and British eating patterns, but British cities are much more pedestrian friendly than Americans and British people take advantage of that.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-26 12:20 am (UTC)Perhaps the food will be better this year? I mean, we have the shiny new dining hall and everything. It MIGHT lead to change.
Do I write about food that much? *looks back* ....yes. Yes I do.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-26 03:49 am (UTC)When I had soup with chunks in it in England, they served it under the banner of 'pottage'. I didn't have anything that they actually called 'soup' while I was there.
I really need to get another 'food' icon in addition to this one, because it's too dang porny.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-26 08:30 am (UTC)I should look around for this pottage and investigate.