by Christina Anikari » Thu Nov 23, 2006 4:14 pm
Hmmm...i think i can officially say that i would like neither the classic thanksgiving meal nor your idea for one May. The concept of roasting a turkey whole sounds so immensely stupid to me. I mean taking the kind of meat that needs the most outside work to taste of anything at all and then serving it in a way that makes it very hard to actually get any flavour from the outside in sounds stupid. As for the gravy then how you make it is very important for how it turns out. The way my mother makes it for example it is pretty much just what you get by roasting the meat, with the fat skimmed off, with water and possibly a few seasonings making a very thin, dark gravy that tastes very strongly, though how much and exactly how depends on the kind of meat used. The traditional danish way of making it, on the other hand, involves large amounts of flour to make it more solid as well as coloring and...other things i don't know what is, creating a thick light brown gravy that doesn't taste of very much. As for cranberry sauce i stay away from it, my parents love it but i am not going to try it. Mashed potatoes is nice and in its simplest form consists of just that, with nothing added, though the form i am most used to has a bit of water, milk, salt and pepper added. I don't really think it fits gravy though, ordinary boiled potatoes is better for that, rice can be alright as well. And apart from the pie the rest of it just sounds like a really bizarre set of things to eat with any kind of roast meat and gravy, and pie just isn't a very interesting kind of desert...especially not if you are unfortunate to get it with pumpkin in it, then it gets really gooey...all this is at least my thoughts on all this.
I can't say i like vegetables or fish very much either. Salmon can be good, but only the marinated non-cooked kinds. If it is like that then it is great. Vegetables i have a large wierd psychic block that prevents me from even wanting to eat. That i think that it pretty much all has the same watery taste doesn't make it more appealing for me.
What i would personally choose for a meal like that would be to go with a traditional european serving. Roast duck, a bit of stuffing of some kind or another, a strong gravy with the fat skimmed off, boiled potatoes and possibly rice. Various less important things on the side and no desert. For most non-traditional dinners i prefer middle eastern and asian food of various kinds, though various mediteranean food is nice as well. Various kinds of seasoned bread can be really nice as well. And as you can probably hear i like strong-tasting or heavily seasoned food. It doesn't have to be spicy, just seasoned in some way.
As for the whole discussion of healthy food then i can't say it is something i care much about. I strongly prefer to eat food made from high quality ingredients and i am borderline obsessive about avoiding fat, though the last bit is mostly because i can't stand the taste or feel of very fat food and not out of any kind of health concerns. The primary reason that i don't care much about how healthy the food i eat is that i love the taste too much to sacrifice it for healthiness, and if my reaction whenever i have to eat food i don't like for extended periods of time is any way of judging then the blow to my quality of life if i started eating food after what is healthy and not after what i like would outweigh the benefits. At least after only a couple of days of getting food i don't like i lose all appetite and start withdrawing to the same extend i have done during my worst depressive phases. Food really is that important to me. That i haven't seen any health consequences at all so far, i am even in better shape than the average danish person without making an effort doesn't encourage me to give too much of a damn either.
I don't eat that unhealthily either. I prefer the healthiest bits of meat and get them served in smaller bits with other things on the side. That i also love things like shrimps, marinated salmon, pesto and rocket salad probably also helps. It is mostly just vegetables that are recognizable as vegetables i dislike. I just mean that i don't make a conscious effort at being healthy, more than i mean that i live unhealthily. I need to cut back on snacks though.
Makes the stuff in a can seem like colored water in comparison.
