In Defense of Food, ceviche and Dora's wisdom

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan is blowing my mind. It's like an historically grounded summary of what you always knew - Diet Coke just can't be that good for you, my grandma's oatmeal cookies are in fact nutritious and delicious, and vitamins must be overrated because they're not actually food. In fact, its what my adoptive Peruvian mother was saying when she constantly asked me why Americans eat only food that comes from a can. I of course said, "Americans eat all kinds of fresh foods, not just foods from cans, blah, blah, blah." Now that I'm back I'm realizing that the brick-shaped frozen fruits and veggies, sealed tubs of organic spinach, sealed bags of salad, Duncan Hines cake mixes, cans of tuna and Goya beans, Kraft shredded cheese in a bag, sliced 12 grain bread in a bag, pita chips, plastic tubs of hummus, etc. are very, very different from her diet (okay, well that one I actually picked up in Peru when I was desperately missing tofu bagel shmear) and that she would not recognize any of these packaged products as being safe to feed to her kids.

The readjustment process coming back to the US from Peru after Peace Corps is coming along. I'm in Austin decompressing, noting differences that I never noticed before, spending time with my family and looking for a job... in that order. Even in my very traditional family, with whom I'm spending lots of quality time of late, family dinners are not so much cooked as assembled. Today we had savory, amazing enchiladas a la my mom made with ground turkey. All of the ingredients had wrappers except for the onions. Just to put it out there my mom is a woman who breast fed 4 infants for more than 6 months each, made baby food with a food processor, and would only allow us to buy that gross natural peanut butter where the oil separates and sits on top. She is not exactly a processed food princess. None the less the food at the supermarket is very... industrial.

In thinking about food, I want to post photos of a ceviche making extravaganza from northern Peru. The fish here is cabrillon... which I think is sea bass. This is a pricey fish even in rural norther Peru where these ladies' husbands work catching it. Usually these families eat fish called cabrilla, which is mackerel and a lot less yummy but this day was a special day. There was a huge party at town hall celebrating something or other. I don't remember exactly what but the mayor bought enough fish to feed an army.

I only just told Dora, my Peruvian adoptive mother, that I broke up with Michael (former fiancee) almost 2 months ago, and that Peace Corps jetted me off to the US from Lima on less than 48 hours notice. I explained the why of the matter, that when we got to Lima he changed. She took the opportunity to thank god that I had left and tell me that she never had liked that boy, he wasn't down to earth enough for me - of course. Then again, if you ask me pretty much anyone other than an incredibly handsome, kind, humble and fabulously rich doctor would have been less than desirable according to Dora.

So I'll leave you with Pollan's words of wisdom, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." And I'll add, in good company.