Skepticism

Afternoon Inquisition 10.11

It’s autumn again, and I have once again failed to eat anything close to enough fresh garden tomatoes this year. Yes, tomatoes are available year round in the store, but as far as I’m concerned, those are a different thing entirely to the big juicy delicious pieces of heaven that we Minnesotans get for only about two months out of the year. I don’t think I’d want to live in a world without tomatoes.

What food would you not want to live without?

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48 Comments

  1. I love cheese, I would be a very very grumpy person without cheese.

    Just to rub it in, I grew my own tomatoes this year (Maine has close to the same growing season as Minnesota) and they were so delicious.

  2. I had a rather nasty health problem where I had to give up just about everything, so I can speak from experience when I say that there is no food that I couldn’t live without.

    That said, the first two things that come to mind are pizza and sushi. I could live without them, but I would be pretty grumpy.

    And, if I left New Mexico, I would miss the green chili here. And the breakfast burritos.

  3. Ajuma peppers keep me running – they are sooo versatile. Apart from the taste, any dishes I use them for, are an unfailing source of conversation as most people don’t graduate to that level of spicyness.

  4. carr2d2: I’m jealous. I’m from your neighboring state of WI. I still crave those fresh REAL tomatoes that we grew, not those red tennis balls they sell in the grocery stores.

    At least we have a very strong and growing “local foods” movement. The farmer’s markets and a few local organic grocers carry fresh fruit and vegetables that actually have a flavor to them. We get fresh local peaches, apples and vegetables in season. Right now, it’s peaches and pears….Speaking of that, I’m going to go get one… :-p

  5. Noadi: At least cheese travels well. I can get all the WI cheese I want…though good Sheboygan bratwurst are hard to get out here.

  6. Haha. That’s an easy one: BEEF! :D

    “I love to smoke. I love to eat red meat. I’ll only eat red meat that comes from cows who smoke, ok!? Special cows they grow in Virginia with voice boxes in their necks.” – Denis Leary

    ;P

  7. SUSHI. So I guess that means I couldn’t live without fish, avacodo, cucumber, squid etc

    Also, RANCH DRESSING! Holy fudge sticks that dressing goes great on just about everything. I put it on my baked potatoes, cooked pasta, spagetti, chili, salads, french fries, chicken fingers….It’s just great with everything. What can I say? :)

  8. The one food I couldn’t live without… chocolate. Maybe french fries… but Chocolate is more important.

  9. hi hotphysicsboy! i guess the cat’s out of the bag, as they say. i’m surprised it took you this long to find me out :p

    and noadi, i am so with you on the cheese. my life would be dull and meaningless without cheese.

  10. I gotta say cheese as well.

    My favorite food is buffalo wings but … since i always end up regretting eating them i usually have to do with out. And besides they’re not really any good without blue cheese.

  11. @Andrés Diplotti: Good one.

    I guess I would say cheese. I have usually about 5 varieties of cheese in my fridge at any given time. Seems to be a popular response so far… could cheese be linked with skepticism!? Consult the media with this meaningless apparent correlation!! :)

    When I was in the hospital, though, for my appendectomy and eating only gross hospital food for a week, I never really realized just how great salad is. With tomatoes. They don’t have those in hospital food.

  12. Chickpeas, as hoummus or in a bean salad or cooked into pasta soup, either that or bruschetta with parma ham and buffalo mozzarella, but thats really 3 things.

  13. Tomatoes? Seriously? I can barely live in a world WITH tomatoes!

    My can’t-live-without is cake. Ice cream, too, but mostly cake. I once went several days eating nothing but cake and water (and lost weight doing so).

    I also love pasta, which is why I tolerate tomatoes.

  14. TLDR – corn.

    @JRice: I hear ya on getting sick and not eating the same anymore. I can’t have wheat, birch protein (read: most fruit and many vegetables. And, no, the shot don’t work), various nuts and legumes. Oh, and milk products make me hurt like a fibromyalgia patient. I haven’t had a real pizza in 8 years since this happened to me.

    At year 6, during a particularly dreary month, I met a woman who changed my POV. She was allergic to both wheat and corn. I cannot imagine how difficult her life must have been, especially the social isolation, but also finding products that don’t contain even a small amount corn.

    As I snack on my corn syrup-filled candy and beverage, I am going to say that if I ever became unable to eat corn, I would kill myself. Twice. (just in case)

  15. Trader Joe’s Meatless Meatballs. I make my own fake meats from scratch, but nothing I make can come close to those little buggers from TJ’s.

  16. The Hell with it. I can’t think of a food that I can’t live without. All of the above and then some!
    Cheese (Nod to Kimbo)
    Beer Bratwurst
    Beer-battered, deep fried fish (I can hear my arteries clog as I type that)
    Marinara sauce
    Chicago-style pizza
    (Damn, I’m getting hungry!)
    Fresh peaches, apples, grapes…
    Veggies, raw and cooked
    Sushi with extra ginger and wasabi (with a nod to the SkepticMetalChick)
    Puerto Rican cuisine (including Dulce de Leche!!)

    That’s It…I’m off to raid the fridge…. :-D

  17. @kimbo

    I think dreamsphere is right.

    WC Fields said the best thing to do with kids is
    “…eat them while their bones are still soft.”

  18. @Detroitus:

    Are the ’souls of unbaptized infants’ considered food?

    As a matter of fact, those are the only ones which are. Why do you think baptism is supposed to save your soul? Because it makes it uninteresting as food! Baptized souls lose a lot of their nutrients, just like boiled vegetables.

  19. @Detroitus: It’s true. I saw a non-peer-reviewed case study published last month about this very topic. According to their findings, baptism can reduce the nutrient content of babies’ souls by as much as 30%! Although I hear the nutrients are preserved by the flash-baptismal process. So if you can’t afford fresh baby souls, buy canned. Don’t get sucked in to that brand name nonsense though. “Baby No Name” is just as good as “Cannibal’s Choice”.

  20. @ JRice

    Oh my god I miss green chili something fierce. Especially in the fall when I can almost smell them roasting by the side of the highway, or red chilies drying in huge bunches.

    That is the food I miss most… and pasole…and carne adobada…and, and, and!

  21. Cheese, onions and coffee.

    Those are things you’ll always find in my fridge. Everything else goes by season, or what I feel like. I can’t live without cheese, onions are an excellent spice in almost any food, and I don’t want to live without coffee. I could, I have tried, but I don’t want.

    And I second that cotw for Kimbo Jones.

  22. It’s a toss up between Pizza and Fried chicken, I am a really picky eater and those are the only two main meals I can eat, but I love them to death.

  23. I would really miss Twinning’s Earl Grey Tea.

    I used to think it would be hard to give up any nice (i.e. unhealthy) food, but after my GP told me I would die if I didn’t lose weight, I gave up Alcohol, Anything Fried, Soft drinks, Sugar and Full fat milk and lost 50lb in less than a year. (I also stopped carrying loose change with me to prevent snacking)

    I think its just a question of willpower, you can give up anything if you really, deep down, want to.

    However, there will always be a special place in my heart for the memory of Goat’s Cheese wrapped in Bacon and Deep Fried in Lard with proper English Fried in Lard Chips

  24. Chocolate, especially Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream…though I don’t eat that as much as I want to, since if I did, I would weigh 300 lbs instead of the 200 lbs I’ve been trying to keep myself under.

  25. @flib:
    After I saw you mention these meatballs, my wife and I ran out and picked some up. You are right, they are amazing. We had meatball sandwiches with them. They are probably the best veggie meatballs we have ever tried. Thanks for the tip! Can we PM with you to exchange recipes?

  26. @Kimbo Jones:
    Ummm… breastmillk is pretty darn full of lipids. I had a little one that topped 25 lbs of chub at 6 months; I’m sure she would have tasted very buttery (but anyone who tried to taste wouldn’t have lived to tell about it).

    My sine qua non is coffee. Does that count as a food? If it has to be a solid, I vote for cheese also. My chubby little one is allergic to dairy, so I have far less of it in the house these days. :-(

  27. I am also going with sushi. I am surprised at the number of people who said sushi, I mean it can’t be that common, I can get someone to go out to eat with me all the time, except when its sushi, that I generally eat alone.

  28. @edwardv: Really? I’m always the odd one out amongst people I know because I don’t like sushi (and for me the problem is not the fish, it’s the seaweed.)

    As for mine? Pizza, probably. Ice cream. Oh, and nice, crisp apples.

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