Nutrition Facts
Unless you’ve been asleep in a boxcar for the last few years you’ve noticed what was once the culinary norm turn into a grassroots revolution that eventually made its way into your local Safeway, or better: a return to your local farmer’s market. The “organic”, “whole food”, “holistic”, “beyond organic”, “sustainable”, whatever trend that is radiating out from people and places large and small, far and wide can be interpreted in many ways. Some see it as a raised fist in the face of the military-industrial complex, others as an unwillingness to ingest napalm grade ingredients with their lunch, and then there are those who spend their entire paychecks at Whole Foods because it’s cool, and right, and gives them something to brag about at dinner parties (“…well my strawberries were grown by Swedish hand models with doctorates in Fragaria copulation!)
Personally, I enjoy buying, preparing, and consuming food that tastes great. Food that travels less than I do, has less intoxicants within it then I had within me last night, and whose profits will make their way back to the people committed to producing such staples of happy eating is what I seek out. When at home in the People’s Republic of Portland this is nothing if not a luxurious joy as the options and varieties of such fare are bountiful. Out on the rails it becomes a different story.
As the clickity-clack of the handcar passes by runway sized fields of corn, hay, and soybeans (never mixed mind you) I am often left wondering why none of it is devoted to vegetables. The answer is an obvious one (profit) but a frustrating one nonetheless. Instead the inhabitants of these frontier outposts (those who do not garden themselves, of which there are many) rely on farmers in Chile and Mexico to provide them with food that tastes nowhere near as good as what could be grown right out back. The same is found as the path leads you to the pantries and walk-inns of what may be the most apt representation of America’s dining culture: Ma and Pa’s Homestyle Restaurant.
Luckily your guide is not of the highbrow sort who would overlook the sheer deliciousness that comes out of such establishments simply because their sugar is not in the raw. I stand with the writers, editors, and fellow subscribers of Saveur Magazine who believe that tasty, authentic food should be enjoyed always and if it’s organic, local, and antibiotic free, all the better. After all, value judgments run the risk of deeming you insular and granting your taste buds probable cause for a mutiny. Eat well. Live happy.
