Foodies

I love to write posts about life in Boston from time to time. This is such an interesting place...and also very quirky. One of the things that has been such a learning curve for me/us has been, of all things, food. I'm still not terribly adept at maneuvering food issues, at times.

Here are a few things that I learned pretty quickly:
1. If you are providing food at an event, you always provide vegetarian options. *Note: This is not standard in the Deep South. Vegetarians are WAY more common in these parts.
2. Gluten-free options are also somewhat expected. Gluten-free menu planning is so very much not my forte. And, on top of that, Brad is rather resistant to the concept of gluten-free. More on that later.
3. Not buying grass-fed, organic, free-range, raw, etc. opens you up to ridicule and judgment. Those words might be ever-so-slightly extreme, but the sentiment is accurate.
4. If you have strict dietary preferences, like vegan, kosher, or gluten-free, Boston is just the place for you. 

Growing up in Alabama, I think I only ever knew one actual vegetarian. She was low-key about it, but it was always an interesting thing to wrap my mind around. The concept of eating meat-free for conscience or health reasons was just not something I ran into very often. In Boston, though, there are large portions of the population that choose the vegetarian lifestyle. So, when we have meals after the service at church (which is every week), the menu is always divided so that half of the meal is vegetarian-friendly. We have a vegetarian friend in our small group (from church...it meets in our home), so we always have vegetarian dinner options for small group, as well. I coordinate meals for the monthly gathering of the families (i.e. those with children) from church. I have to keep in mind menu plans that lend themselves to convenient vegetarian alternatives. The same goes for a baby shower that I'm helping to host (it's a double shower and will be vegetarian and gluten-free). It's a very different way of thinking. Some things aren't difficult and are no-brainers, but others take a little bit of effort. Occasionally, without even trying, I find myself unintentionally planning a vegetarian meal or two into our weekly menu. Maybe once a week or so.

Gluten-free is an interesting thing. Some folks around here who are gluten-free are so because they have medical reasons. Celiac disease or a few other g.i. conditions. Some folks are trying it out as an exclusionary diet-type experiment to see if it will help with unidentified health issues. Some folks try it out because it's sort of trendy. Some gluten-free preferences coincide with the Paleo craze (which has been dying down quite a bit in Boston...don't know how popular it is elsewhere). Whatever the reason, you will almost ALWAYS find a gluten-free option at any eating situation. Restaurants have entire gf menus, someone will bring gf foods to potlucks, and you will definitely have several gf friends. It's a lifestyle that is very prevalent here. 

Note #1: I am not good at making gf meals. Maybe I'm not committed enough or maybe I'm just not in tune enough with the gf culture. For example, I had no idea what teff flour was the first time I heard it mentioned. Had to have that one explained. But, it's a thing.

Note #2: Brad is extremely skeptical of gf foods (CAVEAT: he isn't skeptical of those who need to eat gf for health reasons; he is skeptical of eating gf foods himself. And here's why...). Brad has developed an iron-clad philosophy about a gf diet. See if you can keep up:
1. Quinoa is a preferred gf alternative, as it is a seed, not a grain.
2. Brad, who rarely gets sick to his stomach, was up sick on two occasions last year that were immediately after eating quinoa dishes for dinner (I didn't make them; they were made by excellent chefs who did a great job on them. Truly.).
3. Because quinoa, a gf favorite, made him sick, he obviously needs MORE gluten in his diet. 
He finds this logic irrefutable. Don't try to change his mind.

Another side effect of growing up outside of a big city (at least this is one reason that I've found) is that we don't have ingrained in us the need to buy all things grass-fed, organic, free-range, or raw. Not that we have issue with this or that we don't agree that all of those things have nutritional benefits. We just don't put an insistence on them. Eating entirely that way is difficult- not because we don't have access to them (like I mentioned earlier, Boston is a great place for foodies to live) but because it's extremely expensive. We live about a mile from a Whole Foods, so we definitely have access. We just don't have unlimited funding. The same goes for a Trader Joe's (except it's a couple miles away). Now, admitting to this is a little bit dicey for me. Because we live in Boston, there's a kind of expectation that you'll buy and eat this way. I always feel self-conscious when we have people over for dinner or when we take food to church things. Once, when it was our turn to take taco meat to church, we were even asked by someone (who, granted, was on a strict exclusionary diet) if the meat was grass-fed. I felt so called-out and awkward about having to tell her "no." 

On another occasion, I overheard a conversation that made me laugh and made me awkward, simultaneously. We were hosting a potluck at our house. When we were starting to clean up, I overheard a conversation (I wasn't eavesdropping: we were all crammed in our kitchen):
Friend 1: Could you hand me that bag on the floor?
Friend 2: Sure. (pauses, picks up bag, glances inside) Um, did you bring a piece of processed cheese?
Friend 1: Yeah. You know it got left at the apartment the other day. I was hoping I could get rid of it here. I thought maybe one of the guys would eat it, but they didn't.

Y'all...this conversation was about a piece of cheese from a package. Like, the kind that's in slices, individually wrapped in plastic, and comes in a crinkly/square plastic package. The kind that people put on sandwiches and burgers. When this conversation occurred, I knew for a fact that Brad and I had a pack in the fridge. I guess I should have piped up and taken it off their hands... Incidentally, we no longer buy that kind of cheese. Not because we have changed ideologically but because Brad prefers the taste of "fancy cheese."

But, on the flip side, if you choose to be specific in your dietary choices for whatever reason, Boston is the place for you. Even in our tiny grocery store, we have an entire aisle of kosher foods, and two aisles (out of, like, 10) of organic and gluten-free foods. Not too far from here, there's a vegan- not just vegetarian- Chinese restaurant (it's right next to the Burmese restaurant, by the way). Bakeries carry all manner of gluten-free goodies, and yes, you can get raw milk in these parts. 

It's funny how culturally different the food is when you relocate to a foreign country...I mean, New England. :) 

Yet another note: I really do love my friends and New England. It's just a different way of life than how I grew up in the South. These are just loving musings on where I am right now. Go, quinoa!