Finished Omnivore's Dilemma

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Thoughts on the last section of The Omnivore's Dilemma:

It is, as R promised, hilarious. Pollan starts cooking on Tuesday! For dinner on Saturday! And then he worries that his dinner won't be good enough! (Oh noes! The pie is burnt! That means my dinner is ruined!)

Also, take a look at what Pollan does for this dinner:
1. Learns to shoot a gun so he can hunt wild boar.
2. Gets up at 4:30 in the morning so he can beat other mushroom enthusiasts to a recently cleared (burnt) pine forest.
4. Goes abalone fishing in dangerous and freezing tidal waters wearing an ill-fitting wetsuit.
5. Harvests fava beans - which must be shelled, washed, then shelled again, and then washed again - and lettuces from his garden.
6. Scours his neighborhood for cherries for pie, herbs for seasoning, and yeast (!!) for bread.
7. Comments that gathered meals are not practical and are only for "sometimes," as a ritual to remind ourselves of where our food comes from.

Maybe if you weren't making everything from scratch in an elaborate and restaurant-quality meal to serve to professional chefs, it would be more practical, dude!

Another thought is that this kind of gathering is more possible in Berkeley, where there are a lot of these kinds of nut cases running around. (I'm not knocking it, actually it sounded tasty... and fun! =D)

The author hypothesizes that there are four kinds of people: those drawn to the mathematics of building, those drawn to the... something of knitting, those drawn to the "comedy" of gardening, and those drawn to the "emotional drama" of hunting. However, from where I'm sitting, it's hunting that looks like the comedy. You wait all morning in the bush, a mighty hunter... and then on your way back from the lunch, chatting with a friend, the pigs come over the hill and you don't even have your gun loaded. Ha, ha!

I have always tried to be a mathematics of building person but truthfully, I'm probably best suited to hunting. ^^; As you are no doubt aware, the flip side of an ADDer's short attention span and normal obliviousness is an ability to hyper-focus at key places and times.

R also wanted to be a mathematics person but she is probably more a gardener... she likes to take care of small, helpless things. Sitting around would bore her. Also - going by Pollan's definitions - R would definitely agree that her life is a comedy.

Comments

[via_ostiense]

Another thought is that this kind of gathering is more possible in Berkeley, where there are a lot of these kinds of nut cases running around XD. (I'm not knocking it, actually it sounded tasty... and fun! =D)

{raises hand} Guilty as charged! I haven't gone foraging yet, but I do make homemade liqueur infusions.

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How do you do that? Are they tasty? *intrgued*

[via_ostiense]

It's really straightforward, and yes, very tasty! I'm making nocino tonight, and that's on the more labor-intensive side, just because the walnuts need chopping and I had to call a nut orchard to get the green walnuts. But limoncello is dead easy, and so are cherry and apricot liqueurs. For cherry or apricot, take

1L vodka (the cheapest kind you can find, seriously, I use the $9.99/1.75L vodka from BevMo)
dried cherries or dried apricots (cut apricots in half)
1 large, wide-mouthed glass jar

put vodka in jar, put in enough dried fruit to come up to 1/3 of the liquid's height, and let sit for a couple weeks in a cool, dark place, and shake the jar every few days. Depending on the fruit, the liqueur might get syrupy (dried figs in particular), so add more vodka as needed. Once it's all done, you can keep it in the same jar or pour it off into smaller bottles. They taste great mixed with soda water or Sprite, and the alcohol-soaked fruit pieces make a nice garnish.

[petronia]

Funnily G keeps telling me about this manga about a guy who's obsessed with obtaining rare ingredients (including killing weird magical beasts) for a perfect meal...

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Is it good? This is very important. I would recommend it to R based on the premise, but if it is bad she wlll be disappointed and hungry.

[troisroyaumes]

Heh, yes, I thought this section of the book was the most amusing! Berkeley's atmosphere really does encourage the DIY mindset for sure. (S. and I are attempting to make our own miso at the moment and we've been making different types of kimchi for a while.)

Hm, I'm curious to know what the "whatever" of knitting was (I don't remember either), because now that I've gotten hooked on knitting, I think I'd classify myself as that type. XD

repost

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I think it might have been in another section, where he talks about people being drawn to activities that satisfy basic needs like food (cooking), shelter (building), and clothing (knitting). But I don't remember if there was a personality type associated with knitting.

I did think of you when knitting was mentioned, though. ^^b

How's the miso going? I keep hearing these things about how stuff you put together yourself is better than store-bought stuff (the latest was that baking soda and vinegar washes are better for your hair than shampoo!).

Re: repost

[troisroyaumes]

We won't know about the miso for a while because it takes at least half a year to ferment properly but last time I checked on it, it smelled like proper miso? ^^ Our kimchi has gotten pretty decent though!