I am a Tall Drink of Water

Does the expression, "you are what you eat" really make any sense? Sure, I acknowledge that whatever we ingest becomes a part of us, but most food nicknames for people have negative connotations. If you are not that smart or are plain stupid you're called Meathead - not because you like sweetbreads. If you are inactive or actually can't move or think you're a Vegetable - not because you had a green salad for lunch. If you ate too much or eat a lot all the time you're a Porker - ok, maybe that one is accurate.

So if it were the case then after today's lunch I would be one cold chicken. I had a fabulous chicken chili that my wife had made over the weekend from a recipe she had gotten from a friend from another friend from a party from the internet or Betty Crocker or something. I love how recipes move. Some people are real sticklers for recipes. "I can't make this, I don't have a pinch of Kosher salt." Others (maybe someone like me) never followed a recipe exactly - "I'm sure it will be fine with a beer in it instead of plain old water!" My wife had no hesitation substituting almost half of the recipes prescribed ingredients. Why? "Didn't feel like going out to the store. "

Good reason. I like that about recipes. They allow for originality. Or at least creativity. So if you are what you eat then its a compliment that depends on who created your meal - is it a meatloaf that uses ketchup and Lipton onion soup mix? or a meatloaf that uses diced tomatoes and fresh parsley?

So if I eat Fruit Loops tomorrow...

Plate of Shrimp

Lunch today in Chinatown. Suishaya. Great sushi and Korean fare. Really enjoyed it even though all this mercury talk kept me from ordering tuna. Gah.

So despite the title of this entry, I didn't get shrimp. But on the way there I had a "plate of shrimp" moment. Yesterday I was randomly thinking of co-workers whose weddings I had attended at various points in my life. (This is actually a fun exercise to help yourself remember points in your past.) But while thinking of that I thought of other random people - like a girlfriend I had in college whom I had taken to my sister's wedding. Well we only dated for a short period of time, so she's a random memory but a permanent one because of the wedding thing. (Which is why I think its fun to remember co-workers whose weddings I've attended - some of them I am still friends with, but mostly not. So to think that I am kind of a permanent memory for them in their photo albums is kind of neat.) So she's this random permanent memory and for whatever random reason I was thinking about her yesterday.

And then, today, on the way to Chinatown - you know what's coming! - there she is. On the street. So we stop and say hi and all that and its very nice. But how random and "plate-of-shrimpish." So i got salmon even though I wanted tuna and thought about various other college days...