Simple pleasures

I picked up some wonderfully yummy things at Nature’s Food Patch today, the most local-to-me organic & natural food store. I then made a fantastic (very) late lunch that included a huge plate of mixed greens, a few marinated green olives, freshly made hummus (made by the Patch, not by me), some olive tortilla chips and a small slice of ham quiche from the Patch. Yes, I was hungry, but every time I go there I always want to taste a little bit of everything I pick up. I didn’t taste everything, just a nice portion. ;-)

What striked me as I ate the delicious, organic, fresh food is just how much better this kind of food is. While I’m an admitted devotee of organic food and will, with very little prompting, recite all the problems with processed food and conventional farming practices, even I can’t say no sometimes to processed/conventional stuff. But when I eat it, I get hardly any pleasure out of it, and am left dissatisfied. When I eat food like I just finished, every bite is a treasure of flavors, textures, and sensations. And I’m not exaggerating. I think most people have eaten processed food for so long that they forget what real food tastes like, and how it affects all the senses when you eat it. With real food, there is no artificial flavoring or coloring or chemicals or concentrated sugar or supersalt to simulate taste and experience. You have the actual food, its flavors, its textures. It really can be a heady experience to eat well (and, I believe, explains why the French are so in love with food).

Later on I am hoping to experiment with a flax bread recipe and try a lemon tuna pasta one. I’ll try to remember to take pictures, and if the recipes come out well I’ll post them.