Confessions of a food connoisseur:
For a self-proclaimed 'foodie' I have a deep, dark secret that I've been hiding for a long time. I've suffered in silence long enough though, today I free myself from the crushing burden that weighs down on my conscience, day by day wearing me down. I'm going to shout it out from the rooftops: I like Taco Bell. I realize Taco Bell has single-handedly lowered the standard for what can be considered 'food,' and they're most likely the only restaurant chain that suffered from the passage of California's proposition 6 (for those of you not in the know, this banned the usage of horse meat in food.) Their food would probably get a second or third glance from medieval peasantry if served to them. They're also the only chain that has an unspecified 'meat' product for sale - for example, there's the chicken soft taco, the beef soft taco... and the soft taco. Who knows what fills those pressed flour tortilla tubes? Cows? Sheep? Pigs? To quote Krusty the Klown "Think smaller. Think more legs."
But god damn it, I can deny who I am no longer. I like the way it tastes. During those long years of vegetarianism (1998-2002) Taco Bell was my only friend in the fast food industry - the only chain that had a reasonable selection of vegetarian cuisine. And they're true to the age-old maxim of Americanized Mexican cuisine - you can serve literally anything covered in sour cream, cheese, salsa and guacamole - and it will taste good. And it does. Tonight I ate a grilled stuffed (I refuse to spell it their way) burrito and a beef meximelt, and despite various ensuing gastrointestinal difficulties, I regret nothing.
Don't get me wrong - I appreciate good food, in fact it's one of the things I love the most in this world. I've made a point of trying great restaurants all over the place, and it's my favorite way to blow a bunch of money. But I don't think that should preclude me from indulging occasionally in some not-so-haute cuisine. And liking it. And actually, while Taco Bell is usually full of various disgusting people, some of whom are sleeping in the store, many of whom are only vaguely familiar with modern notions of personal hygiene, sometimes I prefer their clientele to the people who I see at fancy restaurants. At the very least, I'm a lot more comfortable hanging out with the waitstaff and bartenders at nice places than I am with the other patrons. Blech. Rich people. They can be demanding in a way that only rich people can. But it's late, and I digress.
Anyway, my secret is out. Go ahead, make fun if you want. I can take it.
For a self-proclaimed 'foodie' I have a deep, dark secret that I've been hiding for a long time. I've suffered in silence long enough though, today I free myself from the crushing burden that weighs down on my conscience, day by day wearing me down. I'm going to shout it out from the rooftops: I like Taco Bell. I realize Taco Bell has single-handedly lowered the standard for what can be considered 'food,' and they're most likely the only restaurant chain that suffered from the passage of California's proposition 6 (for those of you not in the know, this banned the usage of horse meat in food.) Their food would probably get a second or third glance from medieval peasantry if served to them. They're also the only chain that has an unspecified 'meat' product for sale - for example, there's the chicken soft taco, the beef soft taco... and the soft taco. Who knows what fills those pressed flour tortilla tubes? Cows? Sheep? Pigs? To quote Krusty the Klown "Think smaller. Think more legs."
But god damn it, I can deny who I am no longer. I like the way it tastes. During those long years of vegetarianism (1998-2002) Taco Bell was my only friend in the fast food industry - the only chain that had a reasonable selection of vegetarian cuisine. And they're true to the age-old maxim of Americanized Mexican cuisine - you can serve literally anything covered in sour cream, cheese, salsa and guacamole - and it will taste good. And it does. Tonight I ate a grilled stuffed (I refuse to spell it their way) burrito and a beef meximelt, and despite various ensuing gastrointestinal difficulties, I regret nothing.
Don't get me wrong - I appreciate good food, in fact it's one of the things I love the most in this world. I've made a point of trying great restaurants all over the place, and it's my favorite way to blow a bunch of money. But I don't think that should preclude me from indulging occasionally in some not-so-haute cuisine. And liking it. And actually, while Taco Bell is usually full of various disgusting people, some of whom are sleeping in the store, many of whom are only vaguely familiar with modern notions of personal hygiene, sometimes I prefer their clientele to the people who I see at fancy restaurants. At the very least, I'm a lot more comfortable hanging out with the waitstaff and bartenders at nice places than I am with the other patrons. Blech. Rich people. They can be demanding in a way that only rich people can. But it's late, and I digress.
Anyway, my secret is out. Go ahead, make fun if you want. I can take it.
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Oh, about the culture/neurons thing, as I'm sure you know, language is only one part of the brain that seems to be shaped by differing experience. Me and a person in Papua New Guinea could be beaten every day of our lives and though our lingual centers would be different, we could have more similar brain structures to each other than to our respective neighbors. I figure that it's a lot like "race" in that it's a series of spectra that are unrelated.
zzzz, I can tell I'm babbling again. Where did you go to school before Columbia? I'll have to come up with a topic for you later, I haven't read the newest Science yet.
Your post on GMOs was good, btw. I hope I didn't trivialize it with my deep desire to own my very own Lucy.