I’m In The Mood For…
Every so often, I develop a craving for a specific food. It can come from nearly anywhere; or sometimes there’s no reason that I can discern. Sometimes, the craving only lasts for a short while, but sometimes it will persist for weeks until I eat that specific food.
When I was younger, I didn’t much care for Chinese food. I’d eat it on occasion, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get some, and I usually preferred to eat something else. When I went to Nairobi, Ron and Dan and I would eat lunch at a Chinese restaurant about once a week. I nearly always got Sweet & Sour Pork with Fried Rice (the pork in Kenya was amazingly better than the pork available here in the US). After I came back to the States, I would get a craving for Sweet & Sour Pork that just wouldn’t go away. I would ignore it for a few weeks, but then I’d go down to the Yem Mee Restaurant and get some, and that would end the craving for a few months. Eventually, as I moved to different cities and found different restaurants, I started branching out and discovered other menu items that I liked as much or even more. The funny part is the persistence of the craving, though. It just won’t fade. And even though I now prefer General Gau’s Chicken to Sweet & Sour Pork, the craving will remain constant until I satisfy it.
I grew up in an Italian family (well, half Italian; my Dad’s family came to the Colonies back in the 1600s). Every Wednesday, we’d have a Pasta dish for supper. My Mother and Grandmother were true artisans when it came to food, and I learned at a young age what good food was and what wasn’t. I never liked any pasta that came out of a can. It just tasted bad. If I wanted spaghetti for lunch, I could just go into the Fridge and get some leftovers.
However, I remember one day when I was 19 or 20 when I had an overwhelming desire for Chef Boyardee Raviolis. I bought a can and heated it on the stove and ate it and I really liked it! I don’t know why, but even though it had the same crappy flavor it always had, it was exactly what I wanted and it tasted wonderful. I tried some a few months later, and it tasted like the swill it had always tasted like, but for that one instance, it had an almost ambrosial quality.
Thank God, that was the only time that happened. Do they even make that crap any more?
Sometimes, I’ll go on a “Kick” about some food. For a few years, back in the ‘80s, I would stop at the Android Diner (It was actually the Andros Diner, but I always called it the Android) and get French Toast with Ham for breakfast. I did this every day for years.
For the past year or so, I was eating two Kayem Natural Casing Franks every morning for breakfast. I say was because my Cardiologist did not approve of my dietary choices and told me to stop. She also stressed that I need to lose weight and my choice in breakfast foods was not conducive to weight loss. Oh, well. I stopped having hot dogs for breakfast, and I’ve managed to lose 8 pounds in two weeks. Maybe she’s onto something.
(It’s not just the Hot Dogs, I’ve been watching what I eat and avoiding items that aren’t quite so good for me.)
For Christmas Dinner this year, I fixed my mom’s Italian Green Bean recipe. One of the ingredients is either bacon or salt pork. I bought a pound of bacon, but I only used a few slices. Since I hate to waste food, I used the remainder of the bacon to make BLTs for dinner a few nights after Christmas. They tasted good, and I thought that would be the end of it. I’d used up all the leftover bacon. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. For a few days now, I’ve been wanting another BLT. I guess that if the urge doesn’t go away, I’ll just have to buy some lettuce, a tomato and another pound of bacon. I’d better not tell my Cardiologist about it, though; I wouldn’t want her to have a heart attack.
