Here’s an exercise in creativity. How would you start the following sentence?
“…, as rats are very skeptical of new things.”

Yes, it’s a real sentence I came across. Seriously. Stop for a second and think about it. What would be a good opening for it? Here are some of mine:

• Don’t try confidence games on rats, as rats are very skeptical of new things.
• The newest fashion is wasted on rats, as rats are very skeptical of new things.
• Rats haven’t moved from myspace to facebook, as rats are very skeptical of new things.

If you’ve got good ideas, add them as comments to this post.

I’m taking the New York City online Food Protection Course, a course that all supervisors in restaurants and food establishments must take. This is not a backup career choice. It’s a way to understand food safety better, and get a feel for what our Aunties (the internal nickname for sellers on auntieChef) have to go through.

Imagine my surprise as in the middle of this dry material about the proper way to wash dishes (you’re all doing it wrong) and why that lasagna in the fridge must not be placed under the thawing chicken for tomorrow’s dinner I suddenly come face to face with the very skeptical rat comment on the food safety course:

“Do not set up traps for several days to allow rats to become acclimated with the traps, as rats are very skeptical of new things.”

This is so much more than rats just plain avoiding new things.

Imagine you’re a rat, snooping around, minding your own business when suddenly, there’s this new thing you didn’t see before? You immediately rush to your friends to have a debate about it:

- Rodney, you there?
- Yep George. What’s up?
- There’s this new thing up there. Not sure what it is. Waddaya think?
- Hmm. New thing? What new thing?
- This thing, Rodney. This square thing with other thingies on top of it.
- Hmm. I’m not sure George. I know! We’ll send Kenneth to check it out. He’s gullible. He’ll try anything.
- Hey Kenneth! Kenneth! Come over here a sec, we’ve got something for you to try. It’s really cool.
- What is it Rodney?
- See that thing over there? It’s a new Rat game. Go ahead – try it out. Jump on it a few times. Food will come out.
- Cool! Let me take a running leap and j… <snap>
- Well George, now we know. Stay away from it.  I knew not to trust these new things.

Or maybe it means rats don’t like change?

- Hey George, we’re planning tonight’s run. Your path is through there, as always. Just go around that new thing there.
- But we’ve always run that part straight, Rodney. It’s the way we’ve  always done it. Why should we change now? If it ain’t broke and all that.
- Well George, would you believe it’s because the competition is coming out with a new business model that will cause our sales to drop? No? Ok – just run it the way we’ve always done it.
- Hey Rodney, it’s not a probl… <snap>

Well, off to the next chapter in the course where I’ll find out which diseases can kill me when I eat at restaurants.

Don’t forget to comment on this post, as rats are very skeptical of new things.

Endangered species?

Faithful reader(s)- let me start off by saying: Don’t Panic.

I consider myself a relatively calm person. Not exactly nerves-of-steel, but let’s be honest: I don’t freak out.

I’m freaking out.

I just heard about impending Eggo crisis. Read about it on this economics blog if you’d like. The Kellogg factory has had some “technical malfunctions” which has resulted in a nationwide shortage of their frozen waffles. Anecdotal/circumstantial evidence/rumor suggests that Target’s Eggo shelves are running bare – and then what? What next?

How long will these Eggo last? No one knows.

Yes, so maybe frozen breakfast food isn’t exactly homemade. I get it. But you know what? I grew up in an Indian household, and Mom most definitely was not making us waffles from scratch (Idalis, dosas, upama? Yes. Waffles? no). It was Eggo. It had to be. And Aunt Jemima. Every Sunday.

I’ve gotta cut this blog post short, because a trip to the grocery store is in order. Stockpiling – there’s no shame in that.

Kellogg, don’t make me kick “Leggo my Eggo” up a few notches – you know I will!

A couple of years ago I was in Kitzbuhel, Austria for a corporate training seminar.  Three weeks in the Austrian alps!  How could anyone possibly concentrate on corporate finance and accounting classes?  My work buddies and I hiked the lush landscape, wandered on cobbled roads and ate more variations of cheese preparations than we thought existed (the nightlife wasn’t too shabby either).

One afternoon some colleagues and I took a field trip to Salzburg (of “Sound of Music” fame), and stumbled upon a local farmer’s market in the town square.  There were several farmers, all selling their own special variations on one product:  pumpkin seed oil.  You can only find this variant of this oil in this region of Austria, nowhere else is it such a specialty.

The best part of this experience was listening to the farmers (through a translator) tell us how their family has produced this oil in small batches for generations.  Each farmer’s bottle had a different flavor, a different story.  Instead of touristy knick-knacks that usually find their way into my suitcase, I packed a bottle of Salzburg’s finest to take home.

Back to my daily routine in the States. When I put a dash of pumpkinseed oil on my salad, the first bite always takes my mind to that sunny day, the Salzburg square, those farmers.

This is the taste of authentic.

True, mom has a big family, but its not THAT big.  So let’s clear up the confusion.

In our South Asian family, an “auntie” is any woman in my parents’ generation who would take care of me like her own child.  Friend’s moms are your aunties.  The woman working at the grocery store is an auntie.  That nice woman you met in the park?  Yep, she’s an auntie, too.  Aunties (and “uncles”) are everywhere.

You gotta love this system.  Okay, for one, you never have to remember lots of names (“Hi uncle, so good to see you again!”).  But more importantly, you’re automatically treated like a member of the family (“Come and stay for dinner… don’t be silly, of course we don’t mind”).  And no matter where you go, you have the support of your community.

At auntieChef, we want to instill that sense of community and belonging into the food you eat.  For us, the idea of an “auntie” isn’t about ethnicity, gender or age – it’s about neighbors treating neighbors like family.

In the midst of the daily corporate grind, we tried our hardest to cook something simple and remotely nutritious (let’s be honest, its not hard to sauté some spinach).  However, we’re not going to lie, there were those nights when dinner was a Hot Pocket.  Maybe paired with a nice glass of Merlot? (But really though, you can’t class up a Hot Pocket).

We all know that greasy fast food is high on the yuck factor when it comes to being healthy (if you haven’t watched the movie “Supersize Me” yet, take some time to watch it – we promise you won’t look at an innocent chicken nugget the same way ever again). Putting countless preservatives (TBHQ? Dimethylpolysiloxane?) in your body just can’t be a good thing.  And of course, not everyone can break the bank every night to get fancy restaurant delivery.

It’s a tough dilemma, because nowadays life moves so blindingly fast.  Eating well sometimes gets shoved aside when there are looming deadlines to meet, late-night presentations to prepare, and soccer practices to get to.  We end up eating just to quell our hunger rather than nourish our bodies– not because we want to, but because there’s no good alternative.

Wouldn’t it be great to have food that’s affordable, convenient AND healthy?