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Saturday, March 01, 2003
Femme Food
By Ober Khok
Femme fatale, yes. Femme food? I don’t know about that.
Trapped between a deadline and an obligation, now your Uncle Ober knows how a salami feels when pressed between two pieces of bread, tomatoes, lettuce, and mayonnaise.
This assignment has to do with food and Women’s month. I recruited a writer of Sun.Star Cebu (name withheld on request) to ask a few people on the matter of feminine food while I scurried to a shrink to ask if there is such a thing as feminine food.
The writer’s assignment was to verify the gender of ice cream flavors. Her quick, non-academic survey showed that the preferences varied a lot in the newsroom.
One man liked mango ice cream and another rocky road. A female colleague picked ube and another lady, “anything with chewable bits.” Two others liked chocolate.
Why all this trouble? A few years ago a quiz show survey (don’t question my intelligence, please) found that men liked chocolate ice cream the most. Women liked strawberry.
As for food as a whole, I turned to an expert, my niece Joy. At the insurance office where she works, the women believe dessert and soft food are feminine.
My other niece Crystal told me that male colleagues at the bank where she works think innards and meat like that in pulotan, especially the barking type, are male. On the other hand, the women liked those kind of food, too.
I had no luck with the shrink either, which is just as well. You don’t need expert opinion on the matter and praise Betty Crocker, the answers debunked the crazy theory.
Call it luck. My nieces were able to goad me into watching Oprah last Monday. The topic was on eating well and lowering your cholesterol.
The queen of gab had Andrew Weil and Rosie Daley as guests (he co-wrote a book with Daley, The Healthy Kitchen). Isn’t she a card, my mother? She thinks a healthy kitchen means bug-free.
Not surprisingly, the recipes were meant to keep the heart healthy. Now girls, if you know how to maintain a healthy heart, so will your family.
Come to think of it, boys, we should read on. What’s good for the goose should be good for gander too, ho, ho, ho.
Daley praised ginger. “It is good for circulation, and paprika and garlic are good for the heart.”
Weil told Oprah that a clove or two can keep the old heart pumping healthily. My herbal book recommends roasting the cloves till soft. Pop it into your mouth and swallow quickly. Follow it up with honey to remove the aftertaste. For best results, do it with beer like I do.
Good that Weil said a little (read: a small wine goblet) alcohol is good for the body.
Carbohydrates are admissible if you know the good kind. Squash and other “floury” veggie fruits are good sources, according to Weil.
Daley said nuts (walnut, hazel, cashew) are good but you are allowed to eat only a handful.
Weil frowned at butter as no good – I know that – and praised dark chocolate, which I didn’t know.
The downer? The label must say “it’s 70 percent chocolate” and you are allowed to eat only a small square. Now tofu, that soya derivative, is good Weil said.
Soya, scientists found, has natural chemicals that boost a woman’s estrogen, the hormone that sets women apart from men. It’s also a good anti-cancer food for everyone.
I appreciate that, but unlike Oprah, I am not open to the possibility of having tofu as a table companion for the rest of my life.
Daley prepared soft tofu in mock scrambled eggs using tumeric for color. At this point, I left the living room to fix me a fat salami sandwich and watched Snow Queen on my old television set in the kitchen.
(March 1, 2003 issue)
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