Day Twelve: An Adventurous/Existential Lunch

I ate another hard boiled egg. This time, I brought it to the office, where I carefully removed its shell in one million little pieces, mostly into the trash though I'm sure there's some in the carpet and probably some in my stomach, as well. My mother mentioned that her mother used to put vinegar on hard boiled eggs, so I dipped mine in the vinaigrette I brought for my carrots and beets. I'm warming up to the texture but I'm still having a hard time with the fact that most of the egg is pretty tasteless, especially when they're icy cold (which seems to be the most popular way to eat them). I think hard boiled eggs are starting to move up to tofu level in my esteem. They don't really disgust me anymore, but when I eat them I can't help but think I could be eating something better.

I also ate beets today--or, really, one small slice of canned beet. And it tasted like dirt, no joke. So, yes, I stopped eating my beets. BUT--before you think me too much a quitter, I should tell you that I have been invited to eat real beets, not canned, roasted and cooked by my lovely and talented friend Kate, who is an amazing cook and who admonished me against the canned variety. And really, I know that anything that comes out of a can isn't going to be as good as fresh, but I'm lazy. There it is. L-A-Z-Y might as well spell Laura. So anyway, in a week or so, I will have more to report on beets and I'm sure I will be converted. I will be a beet-lover.

Also in my lunch (yes, I was very ambitious today) I packed a fruit cup, which I am currently working on. I think fruit cups (this one seems to have pear, pineapple, cherry--maybe peach?) have improved greatly since I was a kid. The fruit isn't mushy or sugared. It's just fruit. In water or juice or something. And it does double duty because it has cherry in it, which I'm enjoying just fine. So I'll be up to fresh cherries soon. I will be a true omnivore before you know it.

So now we get a little introspective. I am kind of proud of myself, in a certain way, for taking this on, but I'm also a little ashamed that there are so many foods out there that I have told myself I don't like. Especially in the fruit and vegetable kingdom (plantdom?). I am SO interested in food and yet I find myself shying away from it. And I know that's a cycle I'm trying to break and that's why I'm doing this and I should feel like I'm breaking down walls but I find myself more accusing myself of ignorance/bull-headedness/what-have-you because the walls went up in the first place. And in my head, I know that I can enjoy anything if it's prepared well (and should probably stop trying to eat canned things when I know fresh is better...) and I know that I am the type of person who likes categories, straight lines, right angles, and I kind of hate that about myself. Go with the flow, man, you know? Isn't that what artistic types aspire to? But maybe, despite the fact that I like to make stories and create new recipes (when I should probably be following established ones) and paint things and make earrings, I'm not an artistic type. Maybe I'm something else entirely.

Amazing what you'll find on the inside of an eggshell or at the bottom of a fruit cup.