Food

My housemates - mostly middle aged bachelors - are a reasonably cultured bunch. Most of us have a university education. They're always popping off to the theatre, to a dance performance or an arty film (where good photography outranks horrendous plots). They like Ted Hughes and Shamus Heaney. Indeed, not so long ago we were discussing our favourite 19th century novels (I had to wrack my brain to come up with a 19th century novel, but realised I've read the collected works of H.G. Wells some of which were written before the turn). They tend to scoff at popular music and Hollywood films. Get the picture? Not really snobs, but...

For all this sophistication the buggers have not educated their pallets. They poo-poo B movies and Big Brother, but would eat chips and beans, and fried egg sandwiches everyday if they could. We're all veggie, so no bacon butties. They serve up an unremitting diet of stodgy curries - often a potato curry with white rice which is about 95% carbs. One guy fries almost everything in an inch of oil and what isn't fried is smothered in an inch of mayonnaise, or covered in piles of cheese - and then everything is lathered with pickle. Another will carefully steam vegetables (using a different pot/steamer for each kind and thereby using every pot in the house) only to pour cooking oil on them "to make them tasty". I'm presently living with the worst cook I've ever lived with (and I've lived in many different set ups and many different people - over 30 houses, and about 100 people). I don't know what he does sometimes: often the food is undercooked (crunchy spuds), but usually it's just awful looking and tasteless. He himself has been known to wolf down plain pasta with nothing on it. He has no concept of what a balanced diet consists of. Ugh. I've started avoiding his cooking day whenever I can. Once a month is about as much as I can stand. I find it depressing and I've put on a lot of weight. Must write about my own eating habits some time.

The contrast between the attitude to food and the taste sense, compared with sight and hearing is astounding. I won't even get into smell - another pet hate! Maybe I should write about why I live communally at some point?

Since I'm doing the Gupta program I'm keeping track of my negative thoughts, and I have to say a lot of them revolve around this. Since I've recently stopped having psychotherapy I have a bit more money which I'm spending on olives, falafels, humous and sushi. Oh, and it's peach season, so lots of yummy peaches.