Dinner Al Fresco...

I think I shall title this the summer of super fresh foods...the one that I went to the Farmer's Market almost every week to stock up and then ran home and made some pretty amazing things...mixing new tastes trying to use up the fresh veggies...although, I often go back to my favorites.

The other night after getting home from Oatman and finding myself just a little hungry...needing to eat something light but nutritious it struck me as I cut up tomatoes, basil, and garlic to toss with olive oil and a soy Parmesan cheese mix over a handful of rice pasta, how beautiful and simple this meal is...it is one of my favorite marriages of flavors, yet so very basic. The smell and taste of this meal makes me smile and sigh with pleasure. It's also darned filling...meaning I never have to eat a big portion to feel like I've had a full meal...just a small handful really, and I usually have enough to eat for lunch at work (cooking for one is not the easiest thing in the world...but, I never complain when eating this meal again the next day)

Speaking of portion size...I just flipped on the news (which I hardly ever do, only I've been feeling the need to be inspired by all the Olympic stories this year) and they were talking about childhood obesity in China. The only country that beats them is the USA. Apparently obesity started becoming a real problem about 10 years ago. I immediately wondered when we introduced our legacy of fast food restaurants in China...which is apparently a huge huge part of the problem (making me wince slightly...KFC is the fried food of choice there) Portion size is also a problem. They tried to say that Chinese food is very fattening, for shame...but apparently, like the USA, the Chinese have increased their portion size recently while eating meals (it was always interesting to me to travel in Italy, and certainly Prague...where you receive good fresh foods, but at a very small portion compared to home...even when you're eating a large coursed meal, the portions are not that big, which may be a key...I never left a restaurant feeling hungry from eating a small portion size while traveling...a good mix of flavors on a small amount of food...hmmmm)

They also went on to say that there are more obese boys than girls, only because of the one child per family law, so parents tend to really spoil the one child they do have...The thought that traditionally in the past, the Chinese want to have boys more than girls went through my head, and usually give up their girls, and perhaps that's why there are more obese boys than girls? also flitted through my head...but, I don't suppose they wanted to announce that on the news, seeing as they were standing right in the middle of the Olympic park...

Anyway, I thought it was interesting, and a little sad as well, that they are following our example of larger food portions, and eating more fast foods from American companies, since a lot of the more popular foods you get from fast food companies don't seem to have a lot of nutritional value other than...dang, their fried and boy do they taste good! (cause' I can tell you one thing, I'm not usually there for the salad...) They also mentioned the fact that they put a lot of extra mayonnaise and sour cream on their fast foods...and seeing as fried chicken is the leading choice in China, it makes me wonder exactly what that would taste like on a drumstick from KFC?