Yummy in my tummy.
I have, perhaps not too surprisingly, very exacting food cravings. Luckily, these cravings - nay, obsessions - don't occur too often, but when they do, oh, hell hath no fury. They MUST be fed until completely and utterly sated. And there will be no substitutions. I can deny the craving all I want, but it just persists until I cave in.
It's a dilemna between the mind and some more powerful element, you know.
Some of my cravings are easily satisfied after I have them once. You know, as normal cravings should be. For instance, I'll want char siu bao, and will be happy after I have an order. Or a slice of pepperoni pizza from Pinocchio's - no other pizza place will do. Perhaps some peach sorbet. Or a half-dozen oysters. But those are the simple ones.
Then I have these long-lasting cravings which are merciless in their grasp. There was that time senior year when I ate nice and plump cocktail shrimp, with a little lemon juice squeezed atop, almost every night for dinner for a good month. That was followed by an equally long spell of raw tuna, marinated in a touch of soy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Many consecutive afternoons spent snacking on salami or St. Andre spread atop Finn Crisps or slices of pate campagne. Lunches composed of thinly sliced avocados, drizzled with balsamic vinegar eaten with Stone Wheat Thins.
More recently, I went through a two-week span where I ate nothing but chili - my roommate thought I was entering some sort of cook-off, with the amount of chili that I made. Mm, chili, with some cheddar melted atop and eaten with lavash bread. Then there was the soup - no, more specifically, lentil soup with sausages from Hi-Rise that I had nearly every day for lunch. I tried a different soup once - chicken noodle, I think. I was not happy with it. That was followed by miso soup, which luckily was simpler to acquire as you can buy those instant miso soup packets from the market - and that I had for another two weeks.
But this latest one! It's completely stymied me. All I want to eat right now are frozen pasta dinners. This is appalling especially to me, as I believe strongly and firmly in always eating fresh foods as often as possible, resorting only to frozen in dire emergencies. It's that whole preservatives thing, you know. I don't like them. Nevertheless, I think I've bought every single pasta from Stouffer's Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers (no, I'm not on a diet, but they had the most appetizing pasta dishes). I know that I could prepare a much better meal - and probably ultimately for less money, also - but gosh, all I want is the cheese lasagna florentine bake. Seriously. The food snob in me rebels against this, but "tender ribbons of pasta with zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, yellow bell peppers, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, mozzarella and parmesan cheese in a flavorful marinara sauce accented with garlic"*? It just sounds so good, and knowing that it's frozen and in my freezer right now just somehow takes the cake. It's not even a nostalgia thing, as we never even had any of this growing up except when I was home from school but my mom wasn't and didn't trust me with cooking, but then I decided that I was going to cook when I turned 8 and that was the end of microwaveable foods for me. What happened to that girl? What happened to the girl who used to make English muffins and ladyfingers and puff pastry from scratch?
There is no rhyme nor reason to these cravings. They end as suddenly as they start. But damn, I don't even want to know what's going to happen when I get pregnant and get those pregnant-woman food cravings. It might be a very bad thing. But until then, I'll be dining off my frozen pasta meals, thankyouverymuch.
*I had this for dinner last night, and incidentally, I do not remember a single vegetable in there. No matter. It's not like the part of me that wants frozen pasta cares.
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