Nourishing the Soul on Junk
12 burgers and two fries $11.40
What are White Castle sliders and Twinkies doing on a localvore blog?
Food is medicine. Good nutrition comes from good clean local food. These are my mantras. So what happens when the family wants to engage in junk food consumption?
Yesterday, we drove through Flushing, New York where my husband grew up.
We had just buried his mother and driving through the old neighborhood seemed necessary. Our 12 year old son, Oren was with us and my husband, Rich began his stories of youth and his favorite snack haunts as a kid; Gloria Pizza, Mickey’s Candy store, Sy’s Creamy Egg Creams, Carvel and White Castle. When my son heard the words “White Castle” he said, “White Castle, I love White Castle!” I was suspicious. I am the control freak that knows his every move, and the junk food avoider. “How could my kid know about White Castle?” I asked. As it turned out, Oren, who is a hockey player, had them at the rink, where they were served straight from the freezer to the microwave. And he LOVED them!
Cheap fast food. This kind of food has become just fuel, and bad fuel at that. But this fuel has history and meaning. We park our car in one of the six available slots in the parking lot off the intersection of Bell and Northern Boulevards, but there are customers in cars waiting to get to the drive through and they are wrapped around the corner blocking traffic.
The selections are far more than all beef hamburgers, but we simply order 12 burgers, (no cheese), two fries and a soda . The original slider of an all beef square burger with 5 holes on a steamed bun served with ketchup, a pickle and grilled onions. My husband informed me that the old marketing statement was that the holes added flavor. We are handed a soda cup that is bigger than my head. Supersize me! I am interested in what is going on behind the counter. Are they really cooking this stuff? The buns are steamed, there is a giant dispensing unit that is hand squeezed for ketchup and each slider is served in a box.
We sat at a table and I withheld judgement and absorbed the scene around me. I considered the amount and cost of cardboard that was wasted on packaging, the processing plant this beef came from and the chemical lased potato fields. The customers included a family in a booth eating perhaps both their lunch and dinner and the elderly woman with piles of bags and coats hanging off her cart who helped me with the locked bathroom door that needed a buzzer from behind the counter to get in. Could I enjoy this burger without the guilt that I have choice about not eating this? I knew how bad this was for our health but what about the soul? There is nourishment in learning about a person’s past. There is nourishment in sharing a meal. (Okay, this isn’t a meal!).
I noticed the historic pictures of white castle surrounding us on the walls and felt a sense of time passing. These brought reflections of my life and that of my husband. This experience of showing our son his life, his neighborhood and the telling of his stories was historic. My son couldn’t be happier and looked at me and ever so slowly took a burger out of the box and said, “slow food”. I burst out laughing. I took a bite as both Oren and Rich watched and waited. Interesting; I got the flavor of the onions, the pickle and the ketchup. I helped myself to the fries with ketchup.
I didn’t grow up with White Castle. I do have a vague memory of late night munchies at White Castle while at college in Minneapolis. I didn’t even remember that the burgers were square! Certainly not the fact that the holes add flavor!
Later, at my sister and brother- in-law’s house for Shiva, I scoped the dessert table and noticed a wooden bowl filled with individually wrapped Twinkies. “Now that’s interesting”, I say to my sister. “It’s my birthday and I always get a Twinkie on my birthday” she explains. But today is a day that we all need “special” nourishment and so there is a bowl of Twinkies for everyone. She asks me to eat one with her, and without thought I take a bite and enjoy the moment with her as this is about nurturing the soul and celebrating life.
At breakfast the following morning, my son retold his White Castle experience to my brother –in- law who told us the last time he had a White Castle burger was when his office was in the building next to the towers of 9/11. On that day he walked over three miles home to his apartment, then later that night had White Castle burgers for dinner. He needed the extra comfort, he explained.
I am not the purest that I thought I was. Perhaps junk food has a place in my life after all.
Sharing moments and memories, this is what brings us joy and nourishes our soul, no matter where the food comes from.
Twinkies for all