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The last thing you said is what I came in here to write. Everything in the NYTimes article is correct (about how easy it is to cook those 3 basic meals etc), b
by wdewind 16y ago
The last thing you said is what I came in here to write. Everything in the NYTimes article is correct (about how easy it is to cook those 3 basic meals etc), but it misses one thing: there is no way that someone goes from eating burgers and prepackaged foods to salads and lentils instantly, and it's not because it's difficult or time consuming to cook (it's not really for most things).
Restaurant food has a major convenience factor, but the NYTimes article completely disregards that it also just plain tastes better than a salad to most people.
As someone who hates healthy food, lives in NYC where I can literally order delivery off the internet, and is trying to cook a lot more, you can't force two things on people at once: healthy eating AND cooking. I'm beginning to really like cooking, but only because I'm making things that aren't super healthy. My mother is a librarian and highly encourages her kids to read comics because to her they are a) totally valid reading material and b) are sometimes a gateway drug to much more reading. It's the same with cooking: teach someone to cook a butter burger and fry up some potatoes first (they'll still probably be knocking a few hundred calories off a restaurant version of the same meal anyway) and get them hooked on it. Maybe they'll transition to healthier stuff, worst case you at least have them eating SLIGHTLY healthier, and far closer to the source.
TLDR: Make a man a salad and he will order delivery for a night, teach a man to make salad and he will order deliver for a lifetime.
- chipsy 16y agoYou seem to possess a dogmatised notion of "healthy food." Burgers, even the over-processed fast-food kind, stack up pretty well as these things go. It's the fries and Coke that'll destroy you. And if a salad gets you down, it may benefit with more oil or cheese. Understanding the relationships between carbs, fats, salt, and spices is most of what you need to make something taste good. "Healthy" just means that the food is beneficial and doesn't harm you. To know with some real certainty that something is or isn't harmful you have to run your own tests: The effects of sesame oil vs. olive oil, more butter vs. more sugar, etc. Given the speed at which dietary guidelines change, the facts and hard rules should be given less weight than your own feelings and behavior post-consumption.
- tptacek 16y agoSo, from a lot of random sources but (weirdly enough) mostly Cooks Illustrated, let me just observe that in a lot of cases, testers will prefer dishes that have been sweetened at various different points, even savory ones; similarly, you can get tasters to rate dishes more highly by boosting the "mouthfeel" with excess fats or - obviously - by frying them. Take the same item prepared at home or "commercially" (either in a package or at a restaurant) and the home version is apt to be healthier, because you have to go out of your way to make it as unhealthy as the commercial version will have been made so that it sells better. The most obvious example is that you're much less likely to deep fry something at home, but you're also less likely to spike your salad dressing with corn syrup.
- michaelchisari 16y agoI wholeheartedly agree with the point that homecooked meals from raw ingredients, are, by design, healthier than fast food or restaurant meals. I grew up eating homecooked meals, but by no means health food, and my family was all in generally good health.
- bobf 16y agoIn the same vein.. if you want a delicious salad, try making this: an over-easy egg served on top of chunks of crispy bacon over baby spinach greens, with a dressing of a mixture of a decent balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
- elptacek 16y agoWhen ramps come into season, I would suggest replacing your baby spinach greens with a lightly sauteed chiffonade of ramp greens, undressed.
- oiuytyuioiuy 16y agoQuick 'sort of ceaser salad' Half a teaspoon of dijon mustard (the dark stuff, not the yellow squeezy hotdog stuff) Half teaspoon of mayonaise Teaspoon of olive oil Teaspoon of lemon juice Shake and pour on lettuce
- tptacek 16y agoGah! What? No! Gah! What? Gah! You have olive oil, lemon juice, and dijon. All you need is an egg yolk and you have Caesar salad, not "sort of ceaser salad [made with mayo]". 1 egg yolk, 2 tbs lemon juice (or, just half a lemon's juice), spoon of dijon, dash worcestershire (if you have it handy), crushed garlic clove (if you have it handy). Salt, pepper. Mix mix mix mix. 1/3 cup olive oil, poured slowly while mix mix mix mix mix. CAESAR SALAD. Every time you put mayo in a Caesar, God staple-guns a kitten to a sheet of rotted plywood by the ears. I have this on very good authority.
- elptacek 16y agoThis is not too far from what I originally intended to reply to the article itself, too, until I read the other comments. My three would probably be soup, pizza and sweet potato fries. This would give you a kick start on sauces (soup base), breads (pizza dough) and deep frying. I should also point out that we lived in a small organic farm, giving me the advantage of an abundant source of vegetables, fruits, eggs and dairy.