Have you ever eaten alone? Why or why not?
What a weird question (obviously I got this list of questions on line somewhere, but I can't remember where). Of course I have. I lived alone for many years. I eat breakfast alone most mornings because my husband and I have different morning schedules. I generally eat my lunch alone in my office. If I treat myself to going out to lunch on a workday, I generally eat alone. Is this a trick question?
What’s your earliest memory of homecooked meals?
My parents fighting over what to make for dinner and it would always end up being scrambled eggs and toast. Surely this is universal?
How has your diet changed/not changed over time and why?
When I was young, there was a lot of food insecurity and I never knew if we were going to have food or not. When I got to to college on a scholarship that paid for room and board, I've never had so much bounty. I just ate everything. And I do sometimes call myself a garbage disposal because I will basically eat anything if you put it on my plate.
And then I met my husband. Because of his dietary restrictions, I now eat a lot less junk and am much more thoughtful about my food choices. The whole way I eat has changed and that's definitely for the better.
What do your food choices say about your values?
I think we are limited in the United States about having ethical food choices. I have gnashed my teeth about this a lot. Sure, I eat mostly pescatarian, but I still buy food that has been shipped across seas and countries. Sure, I try to do a lot of shopping at Costco where I think employees are treated well, but who knows about the suppliers to Costco? Maya once said that she resents having to make these decisions herself and that government should regulate more of this and I agree.
Anyway, I'd love to make more ethical choices about food, but I'm really focused on making sure my husband gets enough food to eat to survive and sometimes that means I don't really do the research on companies I'm buying from.
If you were to die tomorrow, what would your last meal be?
I guess it would be Indian butter chickpeas because that's what we're having for dinner tonight.
Are table manners outdated or essential still?
Good manners are never outdated!
What food would encourage conversations?
All food encourages conversations, right? I took a qualitative methods class in grad school and we had to do an interview with our classmates. I always asked about food because it would get people talking about food traditions in their families, favorite foods, and what a traditional get together looks like (is it potluck? formal sit-down dinner?). Food is universal.
In your culture, what do you eat when you’re sick?
Saltine crackers and 7Up. Sometimes chicken noodle soup or broth.
How does your culture celebrate birthdays?
Cake and ice cream!
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What food do you eat when you're sick? Do you do cake and ice cream for birthdays?
That IS a weird question. Unless they mean "have you eaten alone in a restaurant" which is slightly less weird but still, who hasn't?
ReplyDeleteI love cake but I don't eat it with ice cream - just tons and tons of frosting.
I'm sorry about your food insecurity. No child should go through that.
Oh, I'll take lots of frosting AND ice cream!! LOL. And then crash from the sugar buzz two hours later.
DeleteFor for ailing person: saltines and ginger ale. I prefer eating alone which doesn't happen in my house- I do not like eating in public. In my part of the Midwest, cake and ice cream are the thing for birthdays, but I grew up with cake alone.
ReplyDeleteI do eat more vegetables than I did as a child, but I still have the palate of a 5 yr old.
Earliest food memory? Coco- puffs for breakfast? Maybe an ice cream cone for good grades? It was a long time ago.
Okay, but what's your preferred brand of ginger ale? This is VERY important information.
DeleteSugar cereal for breakfast! What a lucky kid you were!
It has to be Canada Dry ginger ale
DeleteYes!! That is the right answer!!
DeleteDealing with food insecurity sounds really hard, Engie. I'm sorry you went through that. What a good reminder not to take access to food for granted.
ReplyDeleteI love that you talk about food to get a conversation going! That is such a good idea! I often ask people which foods they refuse to eat, not because of allergy or even ethical choices, but the foods that they just hate! I find it so fascinating!
I agree that good table manners are necessary! Sometimes I wonder if the list of what is considered good manners and what isn't could be a little clearer. I feel like I had a very clear expectations for manners when I was a kid, and trying to teach those same rules to my own kid brings up a lot of "why Do we do it this way?" questions to which I do not know the answer.
I don't really have a specific food that I eat when I'm sick, but when I was a kid it was always Lipton noodle soup, a full sugar Coca-Cola, and possibly a grilled cheese sandwich. I don't actually like chicken noodle soup, but my mom still recommends it when I'm under the weather.
Sometimes I forget about how I grew up and I'm okay now, I promise! I only bring it up because it does sort of influence how I eat and shop now in subtle ways.
DeleteIf you're ever at an awkward dinner party and you have to kickstart things, you should ask someone what dishes their mom/grandma made that they wish they could have again! It works!
I don't like 7Up OR saltines OR chicken noodle soup, but that's what you get when you're sick, I guess. LOL.
Er yes I have had to eat alone just a few times in my 51 years on the planet. I agree with Nicole that they must mean eating alone in a restaurant. I used to hate doing that until I started traveling alone, and for some reason now I love it.
ReplyDeleteNote to self: I need to make butter chickpeas ASAP.
I'm with Nicole on cake: the more frosting the better, ice cream optional. When the boys were younger I always used to make ice cream cakes for their birthdays.
Oh, man, we make those chickpeas every week. Truth be told, I would rather never have them again, but they make enough for three dinners, so...we default to them a lot.
DeleteI don't want dry cake, so ice cream is crucial. Maybe I need to eat better birthday cake?
I love this! In fact, I might steal it for my own blog. Is that okay?
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm sick, all I want is toast. I recently became able to drink carbonated things again after getting off a medication, so I had some ginger ale when I felt stomach ache-y. It was miraculous (and tasted SO GOOD). Ginger Ale is back, baby!
Personally, I do not care for ice cream WITH things, like cake or pie. It feels unnecessary to me. I love all three of those things by themselves.
Feel free to borrow any and all topic ideas from this blog. Your answers will obviously be different, so it's fun!
DeleteTOAST! I sometimes forget bread exists. You're right. Toast is great when you're sick.
Cake is not okay by itself. It's dry, right? You NEED ice cream. Maybe I don't actually like cake. We had cheesecake at our wedding, not cake.
I eat alone all the dang time and have no issues with it! Like you, I lived alone - in my case it was for many years, 12 I think? I do not mind it one bit.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, I do not mind being GF, but one thing I really really miss is saltines. That was what I preferred to eat when I was feeling sick. My mom always had us take small sips of coke when we were sick to our stomachs. She was a nurse and said there was something about the acidity of coke. So that is what I tend to drink when I am nauseated.
I have never been a big fan of cake and ice cream. I don't like how the cake got sort of soggy next to the ice cream. I am actually not a huge cake person in general. So our family birthday dessert is a big pizza-shaped cookie. But I only make it for the kids' bday. We usually celebrate Phil's at my parents and my mom usually gets an ice cream cake for him. I will usually try to treat myself to something from the GF bakery in Minneapolis, or I'll get a few macarons.
The one thing my husband really misses is croissants. I feel terrible for him because there is NO good GF replacement for them. My dad used to give me sips of Jagermeister when I was feeling sick to my stomach. I'm realizing now that when I talk about my childhood, I make it sound dire. I was okay! Mostly. I am great now! Despite possible alcohol poisoning as a child.
DeleteJagermeister!! OMG! Sheesh. That makes me sick just to think about sipping that (but I had some bad experiences with jag bombs in my 20s and will never take a sip of that liquor again even though I like the taste of black licorice!).
DeleteI LOVE black licorice to this day. But since I don't drink alcohol, I haven't had Jägermeister since I left home. What a weird sentence to type.
DeleteIt's not really a thing from childhood or Taiwanese culture, but when I'm sick, I crave grapefruit juice and strawberry/raspberry ice cream.
ReplyDeleteI don't have your childhood of food insecurity - I'm so sorry that you had to grow up with that - but my parents were really frugal about food and I think I absorbed that growing up so food waste really upsets me. I hate it when my kids take a bite of something then throw it out. "Check with me before you throw food out!" I always tell them. I do think it might be a bit extreme - my mother won't eat sunny side up eggs because she thinks it is a waste of food if not every drop of runny yolk is consumed.
It's ironic that we seem to have unlimited food choice in the US compared to other countries and yet our ethical food choices seem so limited. I wonder if we had fewer choices, we would be able to have more ethical choices?
The things you crave when you are sick made me shudder a tiny bit, Diane, but I'm glad it works for you!
DeleteYour mom would DIE at our house. My husband will chuck something if it's the least bit suspicious - can has a small dent, the carrot has a tiny fleck of black, etc. It drives me crazy sometimes, but if he throws something out that I need to make something, he is the one who has to go to the store to replace it!
Buying food is the reason we will not get into The Good Place.
I laughed at your very practical answer about your last meal. If I were answering, I think I would assume what would you LIKE your last meal to be, like the best meal ever. I know for my husband it would include a big chocolate malt, because he hasn’t been able to have one of those in years. During the COVID lockdown, he used to say if he had to be hospitalized with COVID, please stop on the way to the hospital and get him a chocolate shake or malt. I said, ‘you won’t be able to taste it, so what’s the point’, and he said he wanted it anyway.
ReplyDeleteWe never had real food insecurity growing up, but we definitely ate a lot of rice and beans, and generic puffed rice cereal and powdered milk. I went to a sleep away camp with my school in 6th grade (it was free for poor families, or I would not have been able to go) and they had cartons of milk on the table, and you could go back as many times as you wanted for more. OMG, I drank so much milk that week. My husband had a similar situation, and we call those our ‘milk vacations’.
I like cake fine, but I will pick ice cream or pie 99% of the time over cake. I love ice cream, and I love pie, and cake is just OK. So of course I prefer my cake with ice cream, so at least I get some ice cream.
I’m with you and Maya, I hate having to figure out ethical decisions regarding food. I try to shop at union grocery stores and the Farmer’s Market. I try to buy milk and meat and eggs that has been more ethically treated, but I can’t afford that all of the time. I try to cook vegetarian a couple of days a week at least, though my husband prefers meat and veg for his dinner.
Full sugar coke, or ginger ale when I’m sick. Saltines maybe. Chicken soup if I can manage it.
I’m laughing at Diane’s mom with the runny eggs. THAT’S WHAT THE TOAST IS FOR! Maybe she runs out of toast before she runs out of egg? I’m careful about that myself.
Ha! In retrospect, you're right about the last meal thing. I was way too literal. I did answer my favorite meal in my AMA, so if you're dying to know, you can look there. (Spoiler: I'm a basic lady who would honestly just like a date to the Olive Garden.) https://ngradstudent.blogspot.com/2022/11/2022-nablopomo-q-part-i.html
DeleteWhen I went to college, I was SHOCKED at how much food I could get. And it was ALWAYS THERE. I am surprised I didn't gain like one hundred pounds my first semester. My meal plan (I was on scholarship) was JUST BELOW THE STUDENT ATHLETES.
Diane's mom is pretty funny. Maybe they eat it with rice? That can be hard to soak up?
I don't completely understand my mom's thing about runny eggs myself. Runny eggs taste better than solid eggs and I'm willing to take the hit on yolk loss.
DeleteShe also once gave me a hard time for leaving too much strawberry on the stem when I cut the stems off. Then proceeded to trim all my strawberry trimmings. I actually might have internalized this one - it annoys me when the kids eat strawberries and don't eat all the way to the leaves.
LOLOL. My husband throws away like half his strawberries and it KILLS me. But I don't say anything because it's my thing, not his.
DeleteWhile we used to do cake and ice cream for birthdays, we don’t always do that anymore. JJ doesn’t like cake, so we have cookies. I do like cake, but I have been asking for apple pie for my last few birthdays.
ReplyDeleteI don’t mind eating alone sometimes, and in the end, I would do that at work. I’d eat in my classroom and then I would usually drop into the staff room for awhile. I would not want to eat alone in a proper restaurant but would probably be okay enough in a coffee shop or fast food burger place.
My sick drink would probably be ginger ale.
Huh. I've eaten alone in many a "proper restaurant." If I'm by myself and that's what I want to eat, that's what I'm going to eat!
DeleteIt's amazing how many people feel uncomfortable eating alone in a restaurant. I do this all the time and have never felt even the slightest bit weird about it...much to the amazement of some folks. Why?! I get the same reaction when they find out I go to movies alone too. I would say it's a byproduct of being divorced and living on my own for five years, but I did the same things long before that first marriage ended, so...who knows?
ReplyDeleteChicken noodle soup when I'm sick. And ginger ale when I was a kid. Cake for my birthday, but rarely with ice cream. Unless it's an ice cream cake, of course.
It's definitely the case for me that I eat by myself with some regularity because my husband can't eat out, so I've internalized that people never eat with others. LOL. That's probably the extreme end of the spectrum.
DeleteI've only ever had one ice cream cake in my life. It was very good. Why don't I eat that more?
Who HASN'T eaten alone at some point? Odd question, but I guess what they meant is "eaten alone at a restaurant"? This is something that people are divided about (but I have and I would do it again! :))
ReplyDeleteWe usually do cake for birthdays (although I'd take ice-cream in a heartbeat). We sometimes do waffles with (hot) cherries and ice-cream - but otherwise ice-cream with pie/cake is not a thing in Germany.
Waffles with cherries and ice cream sounds DELIGHTFUL. I would like to be invited to that celebration.
DeleteIt took me a long time to feel comfortable eating alone in public! I always thought people would judge me as the 'sad, lonely girl all alone' but people are not thinking about me as much as I imagine they are!! Something I learned and I really do love going out to eat by myself.
ReplyDeleteSick food: Gatorade, ginger ale, and chicken noodle soup. Oh, and ice cream if I have a sore throat.
Yes to cake and ice cream for birthdays!
I can't imagine anyone pays attention to me at any time, let alone when they are eating, too! It never occurred to me to be worried about it. Plus, I learned in undergrad that sometimes you have to eat alone or all the good food gets taken!
DeleteI prefer popsicles to ice cream when I'm sick. LOL. The things we learn about ourselves as we get older, right?