Today I got an appreciation of how much I’ve learned the last 6 years of being a nutritarian. A co-worker was curious about my squash and I said “it’s squash mixed in with a little veggie bean soup.” I gave her a taste and she said, “You must have added lots of spices.” I said, no that’s actually the taste of the squash. It’s very flavorful. She said, I have no idea how to cook that. I said, I just threw it in the oven for an hour. Someone else chimed in saying you need olive oil to keep it from drying out, and I said, no, just put it in whole and the moisture stays in. I think when the conversation ended, my friend still felt that squash was beyond her skill level (despite her Ph.D. in astrophysics). I suspect she thought you had to do something fancy to make it taste that good. That was me too 6 years ago. I didn’t realize how good fresh high quality produce could taste. I thought you had to know a lot and put a lot of effort into making food taste good. I relied on restaurants to supply me with the really good food. I figured, they were the professionals. Now I realize whole foods hold fantastic flavors. Processed and restaurant foods can’t compete.
It’s good to realize this because I sometimes get the silly notion that I am deprived because I don’t get to enjoy the same foods as everyone else. Sure, my food can’t compete with ice cream for pure stimulation. But pretty much everything else I make tastes a lot, and I mean, a lot, better than what I used to eat.
