food, glorious food!
- 09 May 23
- 19:58
- No Comments
I could also have tagged this as ‘who needs M&S food?’.
The regular diet of folk out here is not unexpected, after all this is the middle of a 250 km2 refugee settlement, which is still home to 190,000 or so folk displaced from their homes and lives by a civil war; rice, posho, beans. Greens, maybe. Meat? No, not for the vast majority. For those entrepreneurs who have created an income, maybe once a week. But certainly not the average refugee family now living on a small fraction of the WFP recommended daily calories.
But for me, and the unimaginable (relative) wealth I have, the diet is good, in many ways better than my diet at home. Of course, it is basic (and I really do miss food) but I can buy whatever I need (different to want) from the market. Midweek my diet is very healthy, fruit and vegetables, pulses (though pasta sometimes). The weekend is a different story, I go to town and eat meat at a hotel. And maybe have a couple of beers.
Midweek meals though: delicious. Red onions with genuine flavour, the most delicious (after Mediterranean) tomatoes, crunchy green peppers (though they only last 3 days max). This last week I also found carrots and cucumber. So, most nights it is a massive bowl of salad.
But salad, without dressing… mmm? As it happens, I found some ‘olive oil’ last week. Jamie would be pleased. Complete game changer. Super excited. $20 USD for a half litre… ok, whatever. When I got home, I read the label (with the benefit of my spectacles). Best before March 2023 (sure, I’ll live). Pomace olive oil (oh, maybe I won’t).
To save you the google, pomace is chemically extracted oil from the pith of the olives. See, the process only releases about 92% of the oil, so in the name of capitalism we invented a process to harvest that last bit. Only the chemicals we use are carcinogenic, banned in Europe in fact. But of course, I am living in the 3rd world. Nobody cares about the how, just the what ($$$).
Not for me, I value my health. Three days later I had convinced myself that as an overweight middle-aged man, who did little, if any, exercise, a little bit of carcinogen on my salad would be fine. And actually, it was. Who needs ‘M&S food’…?
