What Is Your Biggest Pet Peeve?

Krista at Heavenly Savings surprised me on Sunday afternoon as I ate my toasted blueberry bagel with cream cheese, and told me that I'd been picked for the #3 spot in this week's "Admirer Monday" ... wow! What a great way to make new friends -- thank you!!!

And how great is it that Krista told me today's topic is one that everyone has an opinion about: What Is Your Biggest Pet Peeve?

Well! Can I pick more than one??? I've got a couple of contenders for that top spot!

No? Oh ... okay.

Then without further ado, here 'tis -- my chosen pet peeve:

PICKY EATERS!!!

I don't mean people who have health concerns or religious considerations -- these I can respect. But people who simply choose not to eat certain things ... oh, man!!! I could rave on for days about this one ... but I promise that I won't.

I have known people who do each of the following:

- who won't eat anything that's orange

- who will eat tomatoes in pizza or pasta sauce, but can't eat them raw

- who will only eat meat -- no vegetables, fruits, breads, nothin'

- who will eat spaghetti, but none of the other pasta shapes

- who don't like mustard or mayonnaise

- who will look at a plate of food and tell you "I don't like this" before they even taste it.

What are your own stories? Do tell!!!

I read recently that as the mental health "bible" -- the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) -- is being updated, there is talk of "picky eating" being classified as a form of eating disorder or OCD ... hmmm. I don't think it's deserving of the status of "mental illness." I think it's merely an annoyance ... a colossal annoyance, I admit, but only an annoyance.

When Jeremy was younger, one of his friends (who shall remain nameless out of courtesy) would take the cheese off of pizza. He refused to eat whole wheat bread. He wouldn't eat bologna or hot dogs. He wouldn't eat cherries or blueberry muffins. I ended up serving the same meal every time he came over: Kraft macaroni and cheese. That was it. That was all he would eat ... groan.

As far as my opinionated self is concerned, everyone should have the same attitude about food that I do: It's fun! It's an adventure! Try it, you'll like it! After all, how would any of us know we liked chocolate cake if we hadn't tried it???

And please -- if you know someone who doesn't like chocolate cake, just don't let me know. It would break my heart ....

My New Favorite Indian Restaurant

I adore -- absolutely adore! -- Indian food!!!  It's a complete sensual indulgence, from the rich colors to the gorgeous aromas, from the tactile experience of eating many items with your hands rather than with silverware to the vibrant tastes dancing on your tongue.

I've eaten at every Indian restaurant in Ann Arbor, I think, and it's been pretty difficult to pick one over another: Jeremy and I went to Temptations for my birthday this past year, and he finally fell in love with Indian food there (after much debate over the years) ... my very dear friend Jayne, who has lived in India and Sri Lanka for periods of her life, prefers Madras Masala, which offers a very fine and extensive buffet for indecisive people like me who love to try everything ... Raja Rani also provides an excellent buffet, in the charming old house with a porch that's perfect for summer lunches ... and Shalimar holds a special place in my heart because Tom and I ate dinner there on our first date, which had begun with breakfast at The Broken Egg, meandered into tea at Sweetwaters (the one on Washington) later that afternoon, and continued through dinner and late into the night as he kissed me while snow fell around us.  I'm always happy to eat Indian food, to cook Indian food, to shop at Indian markets, and to immerse myself in one of my favorite cuisines.

So when Tom's very dear friend Alan invited us to meet Heidi, the wonderful woman who has captured his heart and for whom he'll soon sadly be leaving Ann Arbor (trust me -- she's worth it!), I was thrilled when he recommended Neehee's -- which serves vegetarian street food -- despite the schlep to Canton when we have so many fabulous options here in our own little burg.  A new place on the radar was not a problem, especially since we also needed to visit that wretched circle of hell IKEA to get picture frames for some of Tom's digital photographs; one place was just down Ford Road from the other.

We met Alan and Heidi in the parking lot, having arrived just moments after they had.  She was wonderful -- with a radiant smile despite the cold drizzle, and after having visited with many people throughout the weekend -- and Alan is clearly very smitten with her.  They both seem to be adventurous eaters, which I always like to see -- picky eaters, as I mentioned in my very first post here, are the bane of my existence.  Although Alan had eaten at the Farmington Neehee's and could make some recommendations, he seemed as overwhelmed by the extensive -- well over 100 items! -- menu as Tom and Heidi and I did.  Everything sounded good, the photos posted on the walls of various items (with descriptions) looked amazing, and the aroma of freshly cooked food was tantalizing as we perused our many, many options.

Tom and I had been thinking of potatoes or perhaps spinach as we drove to the restaurant, so it wasn't too difficult (well, it was difficult but not wrenching!) to settle upon splitting the Masala Dosa -- a gigantic, crispy and yet pliable, lentil and rice crepe with a luscious spiced potato-onion filling.  It came with two chutneys as accompaniment, one coral-colored (presumably tomato-based) and the other a pale green (possibly a coconut variation, from my after-the-fact research online); both were delicious and spicy without being too hot.  And it also came with a soup which contained a variety of vegetables; we had no idea what it was, though I now know it was sambhar -- a broth made with tamarind -- which I also might have found out if I'd read the fine print on the menu.  We debated whether to ask, but frankly were too immersed in relishing our food to be able to move from our table.  I used it in a fashion similar to the "jus" of a sandwich served "au jus" ... in other words, I happily dipped my dosa in it.  Please forgive me my ignorance, but I just simply was engrossed in what I was eating!  Remember, I'm not a reporter seeking investigative details; I am merely a near-omnivore seeking to share my varied and blissful dining experiences.

We also split the Aloo Tikki Chole, some fabulous spiced potato pancakes (aloo tikki) smothered in a gravy with chickpeas (chole) and beautiful red onions, with crispy vermicelli on top.  It was absolutely divine -- spicy but not too hot, and readily complementing bits of the dosa (crepe) which I used to pick up portions of the dish.  We had originally thought we'd start with just a few things, reserving the option of going back up to the counter to order more -- with service being so quick that it would hardly be worth going back to the table to wait.  But the quantities of food for astoundingly fair prices ($4.99 for a crepe twice as big as the plate, accompanied by soup and chutneys and the fabulously generous serving of potato filling!) more than filled us up.  We did finish our lunch, but dinner was not going to be necessary.

Alan had initially recommended the Bhel Puri (pictured at the top of the page), which we all shared; it's a salad-like snack made with puffed rice, chutney, tomatoes, and onions.  It's crispy, it's very fresh-tasting, and it's a unique combination of ingredients that just really seems to work in unison.  He and Heidi had also ordered the Special Chaat (sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it!), which were like Indian nachos: crisp triangles topped with chutney and potatoes and onions and cheese, which were tremendously good!

Neehee's is in a strip mall on Ford Road just west of Canton Center Road, and conveniently located right next to a fabulous Indian market that I need to visit again and devote some time to perusing.  The seating capacity is 15, and take-out is absolutely an option.  The service is quick and efficient; and the trays, paper plates and plasticware not only make the self-bussing easy, but they clearly demonstrate that the focus -- in terms of time, labor and money -- is devoted to the fabulous, fabulous food.  What the place lacks in ambience it more than makes up for in amazing dishes that I will likely dream about as I doze off in a little bit (being so enthused about writing this to share the information that I'm up even past my own ridiculously late bedtime) ... :)

"Babette's Feast"

"Babette's Feast" is one of my very favorite movies, and watching it is on the "to do" list for my boyfriend and me because Tom hasn't seen it yet (which surprised me greatly when I learned that).  Yeah, I took it out of the library, oh, maybe 2 weeks ago; and we keep saying "We need to watch this" ... but it doesn't seem to happen. 

But it needs to, because this movie addresses issues of great interest to me -- belief in God, how best to worship (austerity and asceticism vs. gratitude for bounty), sacrifice and obligation ....  And, obviously, there is the sumptuous porn of the food in the feast of the title!  Needless to say, I vote for relishing abundance (while also seeking better distribution of resources such that the "no need for ... hunger" that John Lennon sang about might one day come true).

We've just celebrated Purim, and been immersed in the requisite hamantaschen.    Every year, there are debates about the merits of sugar cookie dough vs. yeast dough, of poppy seed filling vs. prune ... and why???  They're cookies -- enjoy!  Don't make some of them feel rejected because they might not be your very favorites.  I can't imagine turning any of them down, unless I've simply eaten too many and am on the verge of a diabetic coma.

I've known people who don't like chocolate (gasp!!!), who won't eat orange food, who haven't liked cheese on pizza, who would only eat tuna salad with oily tuna that hadn't been drained, who won't eat chicken unless it's boneless, and who've told me they don't like foods that they haven't even bothered to try -- people with food issues are very, very high on my "naughty" list, unless they've got health or religious reasons to justify their refusals.  It's one thing if you CAN'T eat a particular food, but quite another if you CHOOSE not to ... especially if your whims are going to inconvenience others, and you seek to impose your will upon them.  Eat what's put in front of you, or hit the McDonald's drive-thru for a Big Mac if you're still hungry after playing with the food on your plate rather than eating it.

So, clearly -- after my disbelief at the prospect of rejecting any cookie, and after my rant about picky and particular people -- it should be clear that I am truly a Food Floozie to the depths of my Pooh Bear-like rumbly little tumbly.    (Watch my favorite Pooh scene, in which he tries to do some exercises: "Up, down, touch the ground, puts me in the mood/Up, down, touch the ground, in the mood ... for food!") 

Any food -- from soup to nuts to chips to chocolate to cake to cookies to chicken to roast beast to salad to cheese -- has the potential to lure me in, singing a Siren song until I can no longer resist temptation.  I go on curry kicks, will eat Sander's milk chocolate fudge sauce (that my maternal grandmother used to bring as a gift when she'd visit us in NYC) straight out of the jar, obsess about Montmorency and Balaton cherries at the Farmers Market each summer, and generally spend far too many of my waking hours contemplating what I'm going to eat, how I'm going to prepare it, what newfangled treatment I can give it, and how much I enjoyed it.

I do consider fat or sodium or sugar contents, but then do my best to simply enjoy myself despite any warning signs; if I exercise moderation as a rule and am in good health, then I can certainly indulge my whims and cravings without regret.  Really, there are just too many wonderful, delicious things to eat in this world -- from fruits and vegetables to pasta and fish, and from Indian and Ethiopian to Turkish and Irish ... I wax rhapsodic, I effuse, I enthuse, and I relish the complete sensual experience that food provides.  It is not just about nutrients; food can truly be good for the soul.

And Girl Scout cookies only come around once each year, after all, so who am I to refuse ... or to only eat just one???