Foodie

Okay,  so I've been waiting a long time--since my last post--for inspiration.  I thought surely a current event, or something I'd recently read, would get me all fired up.  Here's the problem as I see it: there are too many issues and problems in our world, too many big news items, to get me fired up.  Mostly they make me want to curl up in a corner, rocking back and forth with my eyes shut tight and my hands over my ears.  Also, most of my time recently has been spent zoning out while playing games on my computer (Plants vs. Zombies is my current fave) or while watching crappy TV (Cake Boss, anyone?). 

So today I am just going to rant about something kind of ridiculous: arugula.  Now, I am woman enough to admit that I have a mild case of Foodism, which is the disease that foodies have.  The major symptom is a snooty attitude about the food they consume, often noted by a turning up of the nose at anything that is not fresh, well cooked, or whole food (no processed crap here!). Only the freshest produce will do: local, organic, or (be still my heart!) both get huge bonus points.  True foodies are basically yuppies who can afford to shop at local co-ops, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and local farms.  I have been known to frequent all of the above...and might be heading to Trader Joe's later today.   Please do not get me wrong; I love all of my foodie friends and all of the delicious food I can get around here.

There is just one main point at which I diverge from foodies as a group.  It is a nasty little green called arugula.  I love greens--lettuces, spinach, kale. Yum!  Arugula, however, has a very specific taste: dirt.  IT TASTES LIKE DIRT, PEOPLE!  Foodies describe it as a "peppery taste" and then insist that it is one of the most delicious things they've ever tasted.  I submit to you that some famous foodie hyped up arugula in an article/book/lecture.  (If it's you, Michael Pollan, then you suck.)  Then all other foodies, like lemmings, followed suit.  If you take your foodie status seriously, you must not only chat up arugula, but you must also use it as often as possible.  "Oh, wow.  The arugula really makes this salad.  It's great with the warm goat cheese and cranberries.  Delicious,"  the foodies rave.  I always know that is what I am supposed to say, but my internal dialogue goes something like, "Good lord, did this salad really need arugula?!  I mean, the spinach is fantastic on its own.  It really highlights the cheese, though, since the cheese does not taste like I am eating the dirt in which the greens were grown." 

The moral of the story?  Please, for the love of all that is good and delicious in this world, stop deluding yourselves.  It is the green of the hour, but I am waiting and hoping for the day when we can be honest and say it's not peppery: it's dirt-y.

That is all.