Buying to Think

I go to the grocery store once or twice a week. This is in part because it's how I learned to shop when the family lived in Europe where people often stopped by one or more different stores for food on the way home, and daily in small towns for bakery, dairy, fresh vegetables, fruits and meats and other products.

And in part because it's a good excuse to walk around grocery stores with cafe, deli's, bakeries, etc. to just enjoy the sight and smell of foods, sample food carefully avoiding obvious problem foods, and watch people.

I marvel at how much we take them for granted in the US. All those foods grown, processed, packaged and shipped from around the world to be there ready for you to buy and take home. This wasn't the case a century ago and isn't the case in many places in the world.

Anyway, sometimes I buy food to think about it, knowing most of the time it just sits on the counter or in the refrigerator until I decide I won't eat it or it goes bad or stale and throw it away. I know I want to eat it and will even look up recipes to cook it.

And sometimes if it's food experiment time, I will cook it and sample it. I rarely eat a food completely anymore, especially food experiments, to avoid the worst adverse reactions, and yes I get those occasionally - ask about Chutney chicken breast.

I know the reactions are of two types, and always the extreme which doesn't take much time to guess, extreme diarrhea or constipation. The former is usually said and one the same day or night and the latter will often take 3+ days to work itself out.

Anyway, it's something I do, just buy some fresh food to look at it and think about it. I don't buy a lot or at great expense so I'm not out a lot of money, otherwise, like Lobster, I will cook and eat it. And sometimes I surprise myself with a new food I can eat.