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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

crap in a can

I've lived in various places in the US.
California, Tennessee, and Rhode Island to be specific.
It is true, that the food choices DO depend on where exactly you are, and what their specialties are.
For instance, Rhode Island boasts of things called Scrod, Quahogs, Grinders, hot dogs with hamburger meat on the top of them, with celery salt, on buns that look like folded white bread. I forget what those are called. I don't miss them. Oh, and coffee milk. I loved me some coffee milk. There is an actual 'coffee syrup' back there you make it with. Yummy.
What sucked out loud was that none of the stores I went to seemed to believe in Sourdough bread. They made fun of me when I had the audacity to ask for it.
Tennessee was fun, too.
Catfish and hush puppies, excellent BBQ anything. Elvis. Lots of southern fried comfort food. And Okra. I like Okra. Okra is under-rated. One does not starve in the south. But, no Sourdough.
The real crime of humanity in both of these places, though, and the one that damn near killed me dead
was the lack of fruit. The produce sections in the grocery stores was enough to bring this Cali girl to tears. I love fresh fruit. I am used to having fresh fruit. I don't get what the difficulty is getting fresh fruit to the East Coast. Or Tennessee. Or even Mississippi, when I visited there.I mean, we have fruit being flown in from Chile, and Australia and other exotic climes. Why can't the fruit make it a few hours more to the rest of the USA? Which leads me to the alternative. Which makes me upset to even type. But I will do it...
What I can't abide is fruit from a can.
Who in their right mind wants a syrupy, grotesque canned peach?
I remember my Mom giving them to us on a piece of lettuce, and a glop of cottage cheese. I turned my nose up like no body's business at that. She tells everyone I am the "picky eater" of the family. I just know what's good. And Canned fruit is a crime against nature, as far as I am concerned.
Why buy a can of 'fruit cocktail' when we can get fresh fruit, and use a little effort, and make a salad? I understand the cost of some of the organic, or exotic fruits may be kind of prohibitive to those on a budget, but there are some really good basic fruits out there that are MUCH better than buying crap in a can. I think canned fruit should be banned forever. (for that matter, so should canned beer... but that is another blog post all together)

16 comments:

Lia Hollander said...

Even here in Washington, in the land of fruits and vegetables, I turn to canned fruit in the winter. If you get the fruit that is in it's own juice rather than in a syrupy mess it is yummy.

Speaking of yummy....that body wash looks yummy!

CamiKaos said...

my brother LOVED those nasty canned peaches.

I will not eat fruit from a can...

wait... not I may garnish a tiki drink with canned pineapple if i am desperate... but that's it.

julie said...

I love sourdough bread. Fortunately, so does everyone else in these parts. :)

Jamie said...

If you saw the quality of fresh fruit on the island in Alaska where I grew up you wouldn't be so hard on canned fruit. If you drain and rinse it you can improve the flavor. I prefer fresh, but sometimes canned is the best you can get.

NanaKaos said...

No sourdough goodness here either. Well they say there is. The closest we get is the sour dough bread from Panera's. It's isn't the same as the SF bread we love so much but it gets us through. Fresh produce, not on your life. Once it is flown onto one of the import areas it is put on a truck and takes 5 more days to get here. The stuff that is sold as "Fresh" is two steps away from trash ready in California. Not much I like about California but the produce and the Sour dough bread are two of them.
Leaving for the Kaos house tomorrow very early, getting ready for "The Party", we will miss you girl, sorry you can't make it. We were looking forward to playing together again.
DaddyKaos is in Heaven today, they opened His golf course. Hurray, some alone time. NanaKaos

Jo Beaufoix said...

I hated canned fruit, especially canned peaches, they made me heave. My mum used to fling a big slice into a bowl of yogurt. Bleurghhhh.

Mimi said...

Sometimes syrupy peaches with cinnamon makes it to my lunch, but otherwise fresh is good.

And, can't do Okra - it's a texture thing. Blech.

But, sweet tea, that's a whole different story!

Daryl said...

I never 'got' fruit cocktail .. where's the booze? Celery salt is another one .. what is the point? And we do have fresh fruit on the East Coast .. apples from NJ/CT/NY, oranges, grapefruit from FL .. peaches for GA .. its those states in the Northern portion of the east that seem to be lacking Vit C .. I am not a big fan of most canned items .. and I hate cottage cheese and iceberg lettuce should be fed only to pigs.. Whew.. I feel lots better now. LOL.

Anonymous said...

I've heard our fruit and vegetables are filled with nothing. They have less value dietarily than they used to.

I'm always amazed at how differently fruit tastes so different when picked off a tree.

~Jef

The Ferryman said...

Hot dogs with hamburger meat on top? That's freakin' genius!

mielikki said...

Wow, a fruity discussion for sure. I still think the airplanes could fly better fruit into the rest of the country. Daryl, I am glad your getting some of the good stuff in NYC. Rhode Island fruit was ROUGH, though.
Jamie- if I were in Alaska, then, yes. I'd be eating canned fruit. Crying. But eating it.
Fabby- they are really not that genius. Really.

mielikki said...

NK- I wish I was going, too! But Our schedule is so messed up and bogged down right now that our boss isn't letting any of us out of her sight. Add to that, it is Easter Weekend, and shazam! I am screwed....

holly said...

okay but but but but all my fresh fruit either goes bad or EATEN before i get to it!!!

it enhances yoghurt?

just a little?

dang. the only fruit we HAVE in our house right now is canned.

i'd like to say it's not my fault. i keep *buying* it!!!

Gen said...

Hot dogs with hamburger meat? Am I the only one who gets a little weirded out when eating food that has meat from more than one animal? It seems unnatural to mix a chicken and pig together, although if I close my eyes and try not to think about it Chicken cordon bleu sure tastes yummy (even though :::shudders:::there is mixed meat in it.)

mielikki said...

groovy Mom-
it weirded me out, too. It just didn't taste quite right to me. Inthe Chicken Cordon Bleu, at least the ham/prociutto is very thin, more to add some salty to it, I think...
and the buns. Eugh.

sybil law said...

Who the hell eats hot dogs?!
Anyway, canned fruit takes on the flavor of the can - yuck and yuck!
We have fresh fruit here, but I go to the mroe expensive store to get it, and we also have the farmer's markets but I really only go to those in the summer.