It's in the Genes

My favourite science question: are we a product of our environment?

I wanted to perhaps come up with a scientific theory why some people are so picky, but after thinking about it, maybe there isn't a specific reason.

Being picky, I have discovered, can come from many different sources. Perhaps it's your environment and what people around you like to eat. Maybe your parents forced you to eat your broccoli and now you love it, or maybe that's the reason why you despise it. Perhaps it could be a part your genetic makeup and your brain tells you what you like and don't like. Or perhaps for no reason at all your just annoyingly selective and are a brat when it comes to what you like to eat (like me). Here's a peek and my genetic picky background (sorry rents).

My mom is genetically picky. She basically has no choice. She is lactose and tolerant, diabetic, allergic to broccoli and cauliflower, and was a vegetarian for as long as I can remember but has just started eating chicken for health reasons. She has like no options. She doesn't take any diabetic medications so she has to eat a certain way in order to keep her blood sugar good. I could never eat that way, nor could I not drink milk. I drink a 4L to myself. Her genetics tell her what she can eat, and it also might be a pre-programmed thing if you have a distain for let's say, seafood.

My dad is the total other end of the spectrum. He can eat what he wants, but he chooses not to like it. He's raised Ukrainian Canadian, but he doesn't like what his dad liked. My Grandpa would like to eat everything really rare, and maybe that caused my dad to act the opposite. My dad will burn things. He'll leave his burger on the BBQ way longer than me until they are dark little nuggets of burgers. My dad is also particular like I am about the little things. He microwaves his plate before he puts food on it, he always makes a square pizza so there's more crust, and he must only use his favourite bowl, plate, cup, mug, fork, spoon, and knife.

I must be just annoyingly selective for no reason, because my brother tosses my theories of experience and genetics out the window. We both have the same genetic picky background and same childhood environment, but we like total opposite things. I hate, but he likes: spicy food, cabbage rolls, sauerkraut, raw garlic, and won't eat McDonalds. I really like Micky D's and I have a passion for seafood, my bro won't even eat a shrimp.

I think that particular theories could work for certain people, but altogether I'm not sure if there can be a sure fire scientific theory (except it would be cool if there was). I suppose as a race we just have to learn to not be so picky.

There you go, a blog about psychology and food .

Dippy Eggs

Being a self confessed picky eater, there is not just the issue of WHAT I eat, but also HOW I eat it. Things such as pizza and burgers I can scarf down quick no problem, but meals like stir fries or a full plated diner (like chicken, fish or beef with veggies, carbs and other goodness) require me to eat very slow and mindfully. It's the science of the perfect bite. Ratios of deliciousness.

Over easy eggs, toast and bacon is seriously the best combination. It's a staple that I love in the morning, but I do have to be a bit picky about it.

I cannot eat sunny side up. The membrane around the yolk must be fully cooked. And scrambled eggs just don't make sense to me, my favourite part about over easy eggs is eating the yolk and white part separately.

So, once I have perfectly cooked and plated my brecky, I always follow the same routine. I open the yolk with my fork so yolk doesn't infect the other food (including the egg white) and rip off sections of my crust to dip in the yolk. Once all my crust and yolk has been demolished, I move on the creating the most perfect delicious bites.

Following my science of the perfect bite, I cut pieces of egg to perfectly fit a corner of toast. I top it off with a teared piece of bacon, and there you go. It's all about the ratio. Not too much toast, or egg, or bacon. If hash browns are added for supreme breakfast awesomeness, I eat them with ketchup. In NO way does that mean that the ketchup can touch anything else.

Level up breakfast? Ukranianize. With egg, with toast, with kobausa, with perogie. Oh, damn. My arteries also like this one. Most unhealthy breakfast, but so Ukrainian and oh so yummy.



I call this blog Dippy Eggs because that is what my best friend calls them lol. She did when were maybe about 11, and it's just funny. So when we go out for breakfast we always get the same thing: over easy, with marble rye, with bacon, cube potatoes and chocolate milk. But she has to order dippy eggs. And we eat it the same way <3


You know what, she might even be pickier than me...

Fav Picky Eater

My favourite picky eater has to be Sheldon Cooper from the Big Band Theory. He forces his firends to order only certian foods from certain restaurants on certain nights. He the only person who could actually force his pickiness onto others. Not only does he make being picky hilarious, he makes me feel not so bad about bugging the McDonalds people for no ketchup extra ketchup. Or no tomatoes on my wrap from Timmys. Or how I won't allow certain foods to touch.

In this clip Sheldon and Penny are in a feud and she gets back at him by making him think something could be wrong with his burger.






Sheldon Cooper is a whole other world of picky. Every thursday (or maybe friday) is pizza and retro game night that must only be ordered only from a certain restaurant. In this clip, Leneords new girl firend is a lawyer and finds loop holes in Sheldons roomm mate agreement so the firends can order greek food on Sheldon's pizza night.

Christmas Feast

The best part about the Holidays is food, and holy dina did I eat. Apart from the Christmas dinners and treats, I went out to eat a lot. Like I mean ALOT. I usually try not to go out and eat that that often, but Christmas break offered more than enough reasons to park myself in a restaurant and blow my limited cash on food and drink. One reason why I don't like to go out to eat is I'm so frugal. 

One of the first new dishes I tried for my blog was Sushi. I was impartial to it. Not a fan but I would eat it if I had to eat it in a social situation; but over the break from school I went TWICE. I went to Sushi Ya the first week off of school with some fellow CreCommers and oh damn was it good. They just knew the right stuff to order and it was a quality restaurant. We had rainbow rolls, shrimp tempura rolls, chicken teriyaki (my fav) and veggy ones, among other things.

During that whole week after I had the most insufferable Sushi cravings. I can get kind of obsessive with a new dish that I fall in love with. When I first discovered how much I love PB&J I would have at least one sometimes two a day. So, the last week of holidays I went to Asoyama Sushi, closer to my house with my boyfriend for the first time. We have been together for years, and friends for even longer and he loves Sushi (actually he'll eat anything, he's the one person I know who could win Fear Factor) and we have never gone for sushi together.

I'm still not an expert at ordering, like a person who's never been to Starbucks trying to order a latte. So, some things were not the same as when I went to Sushi Ya. I wanted a Shrimp Tempura Roll but I failed to say roll and we just got giant breaded shrimp, with no plum sauce. :(   I'm starting to know what I like (not the tea) and  I just needed to give Sushi another chance.

Other than that I went to Perkins, Montana's, Boston Pizza, The Old Spaghetti Factory, Altos, and that doesn't include fast food. I am ashamed, but my justification was it was the very last weeks of 2011, the perfect time to gorge. Being the foodie I am, I'm not going to stop eating out, but it's about moderation (a word I had no comprehension of on break). But I did have some great lunch dates catching up with people I love.

2012 will hopefully mean more healthy eating for me (even though I literally just ate a plate of fries). It's wrong, but when I eat a healthy meal, i justify eating pure garbage later. I would like to this year have a complete day of healthy eating without a chocolate or a treat, sugary drink or junk food. I also need to work on my obsessive pizza addiction ;). 

 

my christmas cookies me and grandma made :)

What a Whirl Wind

Food Unrelated Post



look at these beautiful people ;)



What a whirl wind. I never thought in a few months I could learn so much, laugh so much and be so inspired. I learnt so much from such amazing teachers, and such great classmates. They made me laugh so hard, had my back on tough days, and inspired me everyday to be more creative and try harder at everything.

My life has changed so much. Before summer ended, I was working two jobs and living with my disabled dad and grandma out of the city. I moved in with them when I was 18 to help them out, and they helped me out too.

Moving in with them, I had to give up a lot. It was really hard giving up being selfish. My friends would go out; while I spent my time either working, doing the shopping and the laundry, cutting grass and doing outdoor stuff, and just spending time with my dad and grandma. At first I was upset, and jealous of my friends, but after time it didn't matter if I missed a party.

There is a sense of urgency having a sick dad. It makes you think different about a relationship that most people get to treat a little more nonchalantly. When he right pisses me off, I kind of got to step back and get over it quick.

I did though, think I forgot about myself. Sure I was saving up money, but where was my life going. I had people telling me I have to think about myself, but that can be a difficult thing to do.

After thinking long and hard, I applied to CreComm, just in case there was a chance that this is my true path. If it's supposed to, it'll happen. CreComm has changed so much of my life. I haven't been so wrapped up in myself for a long time. I moved in with my mom so I wouldn't have to drive half an hour to school, pay for parking.

CreComm has been insane. Even though we groan at home work, the projects we get are so fun. I'm most proud of my improving writing skills. I started off getting 5 and 5.5 as I hadn't even wrote in so long, and I'm happy to say I ended up even having a few 8's in my back pocket. When I was younger I would have slapped together my projects, and have probably been late a hundred times. But spending that time with my dad, and my grandma gave me more perspective. CreComm is my chance (and everyone's chance) to make things right for myself, and take care of my life first. naturally good things will flourish with trying to be better.

Wow CreComm:

-First bomber game (sad,   but true story)

-First Election night (actually pretty exciting) (plus I actually understood what was going down in politics :O)

-Used actual film equipment

-Used actual radio equipment

-Wrote tv and radio ads

-Made a twitter... And Blogged

-8 am due dates, when your at the forum till 10, and that's what your assignments on

-Two hour blog classes (yes this is my school)

-Eating waaay too much Tim Hortins

So here's to first semester, and I'll keep you updated if I try anything new over the holidays. I will be doing ALOT of baking for Christmas so I'll post my favourite things to bake.

And please post some comments of your favourite recipes for baking. :) 

Holy Guacamole

I've always been curious about guacamole. I've never had an avocado before so it's such a mystery. My mom had these little individual packs of the bright green paste.

I don't really think it looks like it could taste good. It definitely plays into my disgust of dips. Even though I've given all kinds of dips a chance, I just can't wrap my head around their appeal. I think it's the temperature, and I can't like sour cream or cream cheese.

But no dip could taste like crushed up avocados, could it? I tried it with a Tosititos chip, and I didn't like how mushy it was. I knew it would be, but it made the chips too soggy when I ate it. It was much more bland than I thought it would be. But I still didn't like the flavor. I was able to have a couple bites to really taste it, and I just thought there was nothing special about it.

Perhaps it would taste better home made, as I've heard from guacamole lovers. With so many dips out there that are 'supposed' to be delicious and that I just don't like, I don't think I'm really missing out on anything.

** out 5

the fith avacado Hilariousness that peaked my interest in guacamole... haha

Maybe it's worse than I thought

I’m googleing away for stuff picky eaters usually don’t eat and maybe I should try. Like a myth or something that my people and I just don’t eat. And I find my way onto Wikipedia (not a good source I know) and there’s actually a disorder in which prevents a person from not wanting to try new foods and only sticking to a limited diet. It’s called a Selective Eating Disorder.

Selective eating disorder (SED) (also known as fussy eating, picky eating, or perseverative feeding disorder) is an eating disorder that prevents the consumption of certain foods.

"Selective eating is the little-studied phenomenon of eating a highly limited range of foods, associated with an unwillingness to try new foods. Common in toddlers, it can persist into middle childhood and adolescence in a small number of children, most commonly boys. When this happens, social avoidance, anxiety and conflict can result."

I’m suffering from a serious disorder here. Well I’m not sure what happened that makes me just disgusted by the sight or smell of certain foods. But now I feel like I have a perfectly good reason to get out of that awkward situation when you’re at someone’s house and they offer you a whole load of stuff and you’re like “oh no thanks. I ate just before I got here." It’s not you or your food, it’s me.

 “Oh Grandma that looks like such good lasagna, but I can’t I have SED. Yes, I know, it’s too bad isn’t it.”

So maybe I’ll exploit this for a bit, or go through some serious soul searching and find the root of my problem, and maybe one day I’ll like lasagna.