Day 213: Food

Well, haven't walked since I've been back. Diet has been a bit chaotic too.

I've been thinking about what approach I should take with my diet. I've been eating a lot of Italian in the last year or so. I like Italian food because it uses real ingredients, and treats them simply. It has to be a good thing, in my mind, to eat an eggplant, or some lamb or some tomatoes. They tend to be made tasty using salt and olive oil.

One option is to move more in the Asian direction. I have been there before. There was a time I only really cooked Asian. I was thinner then, which is my goal at the moment. Unlike Italian though, I see a lot of Asian cooking as flavouring rice with bits and pieces. So in the end the meal really is the rice, whereas with Italian the meal is the ingredient.

Taking the "you are what you eat" approach to things, I think I'd rather be an eggplant than some polished rice.

Rather than being driven by cuisine though, I really should be driven by ingredients. I should really be thinking, what is it I would like to eat this week, and then use simple techniques drawing from whatever cultures I can to make those ingredients palatable.

Take salmon for instance. Not a big fan. But if I've learned anything in this journey, it is that you can change habits. I would like to eat it twice a week. It could be grilled with a herbs and oil in the Italian fashion. It could have a side sauce used by the French. It could be made into an Indian curry. Or it could be in a vietnamese soup.

I think my week would be more interesting if I nailed a couple of these dishes and cooked them pretty well every week. Repetition is fine by my book. I could sleep with the same hot chick of my dreams once a week. Same with food. I just need to find the hot chick, sorry, the recipe and ingredients, that do it for me.

So if I were picking things I'd like to eat once a week they would be salmon twice, eggplant, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. The other day could have a meat dish. Tomatoes could also be in there somewhere, simmered in olive oil.

Just need to get experimenting and sourcing.