Well, not really.
Fried baloney is very popular around here. Brewster the dog loves scrambled eggs with fried baloney. Kiki the parrot loves baloney in any form. The only person in this house who doesn’t eat baloney is Lady Sofie. She politely tells me “Cats don’t do baloney but we do like cat treats”
Now I’ve ate a lot of baloney in my life and always assumed cheap baloney would be about the worst food you could give somebody.
But I was wrong.
I had never tried to eat food that do gooders think is “good enough for poor people”
The Police department in partnership with a do gooder group have been operating a drive through food pantry in our neighborhood every Thursday. I happened to be working on some vacant lots over that way. So I pulled in and talked to them.
Last fall before I went into the hospital I had been working with the Buddhist Temple passing out fresh fruit and veggies. The boxes of fruit and veggies were large and more than one elderly person could eat before they spoiled. So I would let everybody pick and choose, then I gave what was left to a large extended family that would use the rest.
When I pulled in I was thinking about doing it again. They thought it was a good idea and gave me 4 boxes to pass out. These boxes were different in that they had dairy and meat products in them as well as fresh fruit and veggies. The meat products were cheap hotdogs, and 2 packages labeled taco meat.
The label on the taco meat said meat and soy fillers. So I thought ok. Taco Bell.
I wish.
I had a package left over so I opened it to see what it was like and maybe tacos for supper. I put some in a bowl and nuked it in the microwave. I took it out and the “meat” was swimming in grease. After straining out the grease I had 1/3 cup of “meat” and 1/4 cup of grease. A look at the label and the product was half fat with more grams of fat than protein. Of the 160 calories in a serving 110 of them were from fat. From what I could tell the manufacturer ground up beef tallow trimmings added a bit of soy to boost the protein and sold it as meat.
But it was good enough for poor people. If there is one constant in this neighborhood it is that statement.
Thank you for letting me rant.
Jack