Hankerin’ for Hunger
Hankerin’ for Hunger
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Hankerin’ for Hunger
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Post #1 - October 30th, 2006, 7:29 pmHankerin’ for Hunger
The second best feeling in the world is eating when one is very hungry. I don’t mean hungry to the dizzy point of I’m-seeing-stars-starvation, that point when you might actually start pondering the option of eating your own toes to stave off the pangs. I’m talking about being hungry enough to feel uncomfortable and then the eating that sweeps over you with a wave of relief and flavor.
This feeling of hunger is one few of us fortunate ones experience very often.
We are so full of food most of the time that although we may feel like eating several times a day, we’re rarely really very hungry, ever.
I remember a few times in my life when I’ve been flat-out empty-tummied. Once in Brussels as a poor student, waiting for two days for a flight, too impoverished to afford a hotel room, I wandered cold streets, eating nothing but herring from a pail for a day, then Toblerone for my last day (boo-hoo), and then when I boarded the flight back to the US, I recall eagerly awaiting my in-flight chicken breast, which dazzled with astounding deliciousness.
It’s very satisfying to eat when one is ravenous. The senses perk, the mouth gets moister, the nose seems more acutely sensitive, and the first fast-breaking bite seems to set off a molecular reverberation throughout the body, as though finally getting food in the mouth causes the whole hungry system to shift out of survival mode into enjoyment mode. One shudders with satisfaction. Eyes close. Mouth noises are unavoidable.
We all like to eat. A lot. But how much more enjoyable it would be to eat if we could stay off our feed long enough to actually crave a meal, any meal, a Ritz cracker even. Not that this is going to happen any time soon, but I’m just saying.
David “I hardly remember hunger” Hammond"Don't you ever underestimate the power of a female." Bootsy Collins
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Post #2 - October 30th, 2006, 7:40 pmHammond, you may like this article on the calorie restriction diet.
"Your sense of taste really does become enhanced when you're hungry for your food," Michael observes. "You appreciate it more." This, on the one hand, is a point so staggeringly obvious as to defy comment, and on the other, it's a truth whose full depths can probably only be known to people who've gone hungry as long and as purposefully as this party has. There are nods of agreement all around the table. "I love to cook, and it is so satisfying to cook for those who enjoy their food," adds April. "I really hate cooking for people who don't do CR now."
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Quorn, at last! For as long as I've been following the blogs and mailing lists of the greater Calorie Restriction community, I've been reading about this patented wonder morsel, perhaps the ultimate in CR-friendly foods. Grown in fermentation tanks from a cultured strain of the soil mold Fusarium venenatum, Quorn in its virgin state is almost pure protein and very low in calories. Processing adds various essential nutrients, including a generous helping of zinc, which is concentrated in almost no other food but oysters and which the calorie-restricted can never get enough of. The end product tastes and chews remarkably like an unbreaded Chicken McNugget and can substitute for meat with all the versatility of soy (Quorn dogs, Quorn cutlets, and Quorn roasts are just a few of the faux-flesh varieties on offer) yet with fewer saturated fats and none of the alleged dementia-and/or-male-aggression-causing properties.
"Delicious," says Don, digging in.
"Delicious," I agree, lifting a forkful to my mouth.
"Not bad," concedes Adam, surprising us all.
....
I'm just about sold myself. But Adam is an independent observer, his judgment far less likely to be compromised by traces of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and he has seen all he needs to see of CR. He's heard the many arguments in favor of Calorie Restriction and the few that carry any weight against it; he's met some of its smartest and most likable practitioners. He's even tasted and declared "not bad" the best of its cuisine.
"So, whoa," says Adam. "I have got to say that that was probably the blandest-tasting meal I've had since, like, ever."
I'm confused. "But you said--"
"I was being nice." An awkward silence reigns until at last Adam puts his hand on my shoulder, looks me in the eye, and says, "Dude. It was bad."
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Post #3 - November 30th, 2006, 1:58 pmSalon.com now has a response:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/1 ... index.html
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Post #4 - November 30th, 2006, 2:23 pmSalon wrote:In the story, writer Julian Dibbell sampled Quorn (which serves as a meat substitute and can be purchased as Chik'n and Turk'y)
So it's this digit "E" that's caloric?
Glad tidings for such as I, who play at composing lipograms.
Mik*,
still looking for a dramaturgical company willing to put on his play "Mullgarry Mull Ross"Watch Sky Full of Bacon, the Chicago food HD podcast!
New episode: Soil, Corn, Cows and Cheese
Watch the Reader's James Beard Award-winning Key Ingredient here.
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Post #5 - November 30th, 2006, 3:49 pmMike G wrote:Salon wrote:In the story, writer Julian Dibbell sampled Quorn (which serves as a meat substitute and can be purchased as Chik'n and Turk'y)
So it's this digit "E" that's caloric?
Glad tidings for such as I, who play at composing lipograms.
Mik*,
still looking for a dramaturgical company willing to put on his play "Mullgarry Mull Ross"
I actually have a copy of "A Void" gathering dust on my living room bookshelf. It's genius ... impossible to read, but pure oulipo genius!
(And by one of the 20th century's greatest but most maddening authors, Georges Perec. "Life A User's Manual" is as great to read as "A Void" is not. He's sort of the Lula Cafe of French literature.
)
JiLS
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Post #6 - December 1st, 2006, 9:57 amI was hiking in the Tetons one summer with a friend and we were about ten miles from civilization when the stove went on the fritz. We had a small bag of trail mix but nothing else edible. I think the vision of a pizza (instead of a carrot) dangling in front of me got me off that mountain and fast! I did indeed go into Jackson Hole that night and order a Huge pizza.............MAN DID IT HIT THE SPOT!!!
