Lessons in food management
Since I live in an apartment with no meal plan, I always prepare my own meals. By ‘prepare’, I mean order takeout.
From time to time (when I’m broke), I actually cook something using items purchased at a grocery store. My schema for choosing what to eat is logically valid, if not entirely sound. There are two factors that affect what I choose to eat: time to prepare and number of dishes to wash. Other factors, such as nutritional value or taste, have little or no effect. Since takeout requires almost no time and no dishes, it’s obvious why that’s my default mode of nourishment.
Things get interesting as we add a cost constraint. Then, you’ll see me doing things like making soup, ramen noodles, or pasta (one pot); or grilling some kind of sandwich on the George Foreman grill.
A week ago, I was inspired to change this schema. This inspiration lasted about 15 minutes, unfortunately while I was in a grocery store. I decided that I would buy a bunch of bananas, since normal people who prepare normal meals on a regular basis sometimes eat bananas. And I kind of like bananas. Bananas, however, are in sharp contrast to my no-fruits-no-vegetables eating policy. My eating policy frowns on perishable items.
Arriving home from the store, the inspiration was waning. I put the bananas, symbolic of a new era of healthy cuisine, into the refrigerator. They were forgotten for the next 7 days, until I smelled them today.
As a reminder to my future self, the lesson to be gleaned from this story is: You’re delusional if you think you’ll actually put the forethought and effort into preparing something that requires more than a minimal amount of effort. Remember the rotten bananas.
Update: I’m an idiot for keeping bananas in the fridge.
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October 4th, 2002 at 10:51 am
Sorry man but your last post made no sense. Bananas do not take anytime to prepare nor do they require the washing of dishes. They are readily edibly and require only a garbage to put the peel. The don’t usually perish (completely) in only 7 days if you keep the OUTSIDE of the refrigerater and not outside of any sort of bag.
Also, speaking as a college student who has no meal plan and has been cooking for a year and a half I would say that bananas would actually be a really good cheap way of feeding yourself, because that really fill you up and they don’t cost much. Plus when they get brown they make great smoothies. So the bottom line is I think you have given bananas an unfair rap and they should have nothing to do with you laziness when it comes to cooking. Sorry I don’t mean to be to harsh - but you know I got to defend the nanas
October 5th, 2002 at 1:22 am
Have to add: the reason that bananas, and most fruits in general, should not be kept in any sort of closed container, including a refridgerator, is that as they ripen they release ethylene gas which is strong ripening agent. This is why “one rotten apple spoils the bunch” and why fruits should be kept in a well ventilated, cool, dry place if you want them to keep. As you can clearly tell from this comment, I am drunk on biology.