Last night I went to see Mark Bittman, interviewed by my favourite CBC host, Matt Galloway at The Stop Barns. Mark Bittman's message is simple. Eat more plant based food. Cut down on meat. Cut down on processed food.
He’s honest and in good humour admits he’ll never cut meat entirely out of his diet. He merely wants North Americans to cook food so that they eat fresh ingredients with less sugar, salt, fat etc that's abundant in processed foods. That’s what everyone did 50 years ago. Suddenly we’ve become too ‘busy’ to cook. Being too ‘busy’ has cost the health care system billions of dollars while the average North American is getting fatter, weaker and getting Type 2 Diabetes earlier and earlier.
When he brought up the notion of being ‘too busy’ I couldn’t help but notice that the people next to and in front of me we're typing on their iPhone during the entire talk. When I looked a bit closer, I noticed they were both ‘tweeting’ Mark Bittman's talk on Twitter. When I came home and checked Twitter I noticed many followers writing quotes from the lecture, letting Twitter know that they were there.
What happened to being in places for the mere reason of being there to connect with the people also there and to take what's happening in just for ourselves to experience? Has the 'being in the moment experience' been lost to the ‘everyone must know what we’re doing on twitter/facebook' world?
On Saturday a friend came over and we cooked a meal together. We shared stories, opinions, thoughts and laughter while cooking a meal that turned out delicious. There was no tweeting or facebooking. Maybe I'm old fashion or maybe I’m too ‘busy’ cooking and being in the moment with people I love to waste time telling Twitter about it.
Here’s what we were busy making. It’s a simple, quick recipe that can be entirely plant based. Mark Bittman style.
Red Thai Vegetable Curry
1 cup of protein (tofu, paneer, chicken breasts, or chickpeas)
1 red pepper chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 clove of garlic chopped
1.5 teaspoon of fresh ginger chopped
1 small onion chopped
¼ cup of mushrooms (we used shiitake)
1/ 4 cup of coconut milk
¼ cup of green leafy vegetables (we used kale)
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
2 tablespoons of fresh cilantro chopped
Prepare protein of choice. Paneer and/or Tofu should be pan fried or baked for 30 minutes until browned. Chicken should be cooked.
Warm up oil on medium heat. Add garlic, ginger and onions until translucent. Add green and red pepper and protein and saute for 3-5 minutes. Add mushroom, green leafy vegetables, coconut milk and red thai curry paste and mix until everything is coated. Bring down the heat to med/low and let it simmer for 3-5. Garnish with Cilantro. Serve warm on top of brown basmati rice or quiona.
Feel free to tweet this recipe but don't tweet while cooking it! :)
1 comment:
I think you address a number of things here. Live tweeting events have value, especially when they go beyond "I'm here, you're not" and into information sharing.
"What happened to being in places for the mere reason of being there to connect with the people also there and to take what's happening in just for ourselves to experience?"
That has value too. I agree SOMEWHAT that the "being in the moment" experience has been lost but only if we let it. Same goes for taking photos at events and on vacations. It's great to document the experience but if you don't live in the moment you miss so much. People need to strike a balance between living life and documenting it.
I have friends whom I know from the Twitter community. I appreciate the time I spend with them best when it's not tweeted. I always hope, when I see friends typing on their phones, that they're not tweeting about what we're doing. I prefer time spent together for the sake of spending it together without the self-serving, self-validation aspect of making it public. I appreciate friends without Twitter accounts and the time I spend with them without online documentation.
Life doesn't need a hashtag and too often I feel like my life revolves around them.
Mark Bittman's Q&A however, was worthy of live-tweeting.
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