Mona Ridder
Cumberland Times-News
May 03, 2008 11:30 pm
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When Amy Shuman was writing her column for the Cumberland Times-News, I often read with interest her focus on nutrition, especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables in season and organic menus.
In recent years I have begun shifting my focus somewhat toward a more natural diet. When I gave up cigarettes 16 years ago I discovered that food had much more taste and now I can distinguish many more nuances in flavors and palates.
Among my friends and family it is common knowledge that I don’t cook.
Actually, I quit doing that a long time ago.
It wasn’t long after I first learned to prepare a meal ... if you could call it that. I made tuna noodle casserole. It was horrible. I vowed never to inflict such a thing on my family again.
I ran across the concoction again recently at a luncheon meeting.
It brought back all of my cooking nightmares from the last 40 years. But, I ate it because somebody had to eat mine way back when.
I have since discovered a wide variety of frozen foods and prepackaged foods and combined them with fresh fruits, vegetables and juices.
I also discovered that I could feed just about anybody eggs and get away with it. In fact, I love eggs and potatoes.
But, the fact is, I like to eat and I appreciate good food and good taste so I have also eaten in a lot of restaurants over the years from gourmet to the local truck stop. Even fast food chains have been moving in a more healthy direction the last couple of years.
I’ve developed a particular taste for certain ethnic foods, including Mexican (not necessarily Tex-Mex), Thai and other Asian cuisine (all of which are unique to their origins). German, French, Italian and Spanish are a little further down on my list but authentic ethnic restaurants from many different cultures attract my attention. I have a special fondness for seafood but not sushi.
There are a couple of African restaurants and one that serves Indian food in the Washington area that my husband and I have been promising to try.
It is extremely difficult to reproduce the authenticity found in the cuisine of these restaurants in your own kitchen so I admire anyone willing to try.
I think most of my friends and family recognize that I appreciate good food so I would be very unlikely to serve a guest something I didn’t find more than palatable.
But let’s look at food shopping.
I buy most of my groceries at the Commissary in Washington and Martin’s in Keyser.
Despite the fact that they can be a little more expensive I have been watching the produce departments in the places I shop for labels that say organic.
The produce departments in both commissary and grocery stores clearly mark organic items.
Martin’s Food Markets recently announced that the company is making locating organic products in their stores easier.
The stores have introduced purple shelf tags featuring a leaf graphic that helps customers to locate organic products throughout their stores, including the Nature’s Promise brand.
Only U.S. Department of Agriculture certified organic products will be labeled with the new shelf tags.
Most areas of the stores, including the Giant/Martin company Nature’s Promise Marketplace will have the new signage.
Produce, however, will continue to use overhead signs as well as shelf strips and section dividers to point out the organic varieties, according to a company press release.
I really didn’t realize how many other products might be certified organic so I will certainly be looking for this designation in other parts of the store.
The thing about fresh fruits and vegetables is they are best tackled raw as close to being picked from the field as possible and I have discovered they taste even better if they are grown organically.
Whether we are talking about strawberries, squash, lettuce or whatever, fresh is best.
I never seem to have time to check out the farmers markets but I will probably try to make the effort this year, after all, I have a newly renovated kitchen that is motivating me to reconsider cooking ... maybe.
Contact Mona Ridder at mridder@times-news.com.
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