Behold my first official KFB indulgence. It's called the chum chum.
It's not my favorite thing in the world, but on Friday I was in the mood for something sweet. I thought I'd dive head first into a fro-yo so delish that my kundalini would rise, but then I found myself in Little India. So I thought what the hay. Time to return to my roots to satisfy the craving.
The owner of the sweet shop was nice enough to give me an extra something something, a sample of coconut barfi.
Concentrating on eating the items was a little awkward. I didn't love how they tasted, but I thought if I just focused more, I could turn them into something else. I had childhood flashbacks, memories of my mother stirring the stuff on the stove and the shame I sometimes felt when she explained to my friends that she was making something called barfi.
Barf?
No, barfi.
The sugar made my teeth ache, but, you know, each mithai did its thing. Made me feel a bit overwhelmed and sluggish.
It's funny how little attention I pay to the textures, and sometimes, the taste, of "clean" KFB food. Like, it doesn't feel so unholy to inhale kale in front of the computer, because it's kale and why should I expect its consumption to turn into a sensual experience? No offense, kale (especially the purple one...you really ARE a beauty).
And doesn't it technically not matter whether I keep eating the kale mindlessly (I mean, is anyone examining how they feel after chewing each piece of kale 20 times? You're eating your allotment! Doing what you've been told!) because overeating isn't really a danger, if I'm following the rules? Why should I concentrate on consuming this beautiful gift nature gave me? Do I ponder how the PeptoBismol is going down?
But shouldn't I?
Even if our food is medicine, we can do more than just shovel it around and in like fertilizer. Like pellets.
Geneen Roth would surely argue that both kale and cocoa (and, in effect our spirits) are equally deserving of appreciation, no?
I would like to have a chum chum right now. Never tasted one.
ReplyDeletei think you are right. Eating our clean food in a mindful way could be such a challenge. We have practiced a lot with sugary oily stuff and the high or low produced by it is fast and evident. So paying attention to subtle reactions produced by complex textures of fruit and veggies sounds like a good experiment.
Indulgences are welcome, though!
Nice idea! I think you're right—that would be an interesting experiment. Patrick? New idea for mindfulness consumption challenge?
ReplyDeleteI do think more about the crunch of kale (or this morning, chard stems) now that I'm trying to chew my food more. But I think I could slow down even more. You have given me an assignment today. Thanks!
I try to eat my dinner while doing nothing else - in the hopes that it will make me more mindful and aware of what I'm eating (and be more sating).
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I find doing so difficult. I want to be doing something else, the urge of long habits ...
Someone just reminded me that this was my goal on PCP - to eat even the single egg white with elegance.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to make a real effort to do this!
This is kind of the back door strategy, to make people realize that consuming mindfully makes the good stuff better and the junk stuff worse.
ReplyDeleteI love it! This is exactly the way I was feeling a few days ago and you elegantly put it into words. Thanks! Great post.
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