Day Forty-Seven: Criss-cross Applesauce

I can't imagine two foods more different than pork chops and applesauce. One usually requires a tough set of teeth, the other requires none. One is animal, one is fruit. Savory, sweet. Fatty, fat-free. And so forth. But it seems that the nature of food, color, art, life (I know, I'm expanding pretty far here, but go with me on this) is to put opposites together. We crave contrast, whether visually or on our palates. What if Abbott and Costello were both fat guys? It wouldn't be nearly as funny.

All this blathering on is going somewhere, of course. It's my way of building up to the fact that I had a pork chop with applesauce for dinner tonight, and despite my distaste for applesauce, it was a nice combination. And strange as it may sound, I had a bit of a revelation. Applesauce is SAUCE. Sauce! It's not a dish unto itself. It's a condiment. So why don't people eat it that way? Granted, it's not as delicious as hollandaise or honey mustard or regular mustard or ketchup, even. It's blander, obviously, which is perhaps why many find it palatable on its own. But think about this: applesauce is one of the few foods doctors recommend to patients with tummy troubles. But with pork chops, it's okay.

Also tonight, I had a few spoonfuls of rum raisin ice cream. I don't think I've ever had it before, but it tasted exactly as I imagined it. Maybe worse. Rum and raisin. Quite literal. There's a slight ice creamy taste to it, since it is ice cream, but mostly it's rum and raisin. And while I do like a good rum and coke or mojito or what-have-you, rum on its own is not my favorite flavor. As for raisins, it's taken me years to get used to them. I like them covered in yogurt or tucked into oatmeal cookies. I'll occasionally snack on them alone. But I think the rum and the cream don't quite bring out the best in them. It's kind of a sickly, vomititious flavor. (I know vomititious isn't a real word, but I think it should be.)

Anyway, there's that. I still don't love applesauce but I do like it with pork chops, so if I go to someone's house (my parents' included) and they serve that combination, I'll be happy. Rum raisin ice cream might be more problematic. But I still have most of a pint in my freezer, so that, too, will be overcome.