doritos, tater tots, and the anatomical vagina of the sea

/ carrot quinn

Yesterday, C and I made a list of things to take to Idaho. It was a food list- grains and legumes, oils and spices, animals. Plants. This evening AM came over to practice reading aloud and read a piece about the food she has eaten- all the food she has eaten in her entire life. Her mother’s shopping cart, memorized. Jars of ragu, flats of chicken top ramen. And I thought, What do I eat, what did I eat? What did I eat today?

C and I ate breakfast in the backyard today. It was late morning and sun washed over the wooden deck. I’d gone running in spite of my amoebic dysentery (the test results came back, this is what I have, now I am taking the harsh antibiotics) and I was so ready for food, so open to it, the way I am after running, like I have never eaten before, like I have never smelled bacon before, not even once in my life. C had made breakfast while I was running so it was all there before me, like magic. Brussels sprouts and broccoli sautéed with onion and garlic, flat tortillas fried crispy in the bacon grease, peppered bacon and fried eggs broken by my impatience. Some rice. C had come over for dinner the night before- valentines day but neither of us are into that sort of thing, adamantly, maybe a little TOO adamantly, and then C leaves me a bunch of flowers on the rain-wet cement outside my shack door, so maybe the dinner is a coincidence, maybe not. I made steamed mussels, I found a recipe on the internet and sautéed leeks and garlic in a stockpot. The recipe called for one single shallot but I don’t know what a shallot is so I used a leek instead, assuming it was an oniony thing that was called for, and that the universe would forgive me. The universe did. The recipe also called for white wine but there was only red, a bottle on the counter leftover from Kristi’s birthday party, so I used that, a much greater offense, I am told, than the leek/shallot substitution, but the universe forgave me again. The mussels were delicious. They were steamed in chicken broth as well, and had parsley wilted on top. We ate them with asparagus because it is asparagus season for the next five minutes, and Brussels sprouts cooked in coconut oil with lemon juice, and tater tots. Mussels and French fries is the thing that tastes best, but French fries cannot be replicated at home so tater tots did the trick. I do not know how they make tater tots so delicious, I think it is the magic of the cylinder. It is quite pleasurable to bite the crispy browned cylinder. Corinne also brought beet salad, made with boiled cubed beets and homemade pickled cucumbers and red onion. All in all there was quite a lot of vegetables. I waited too long to eat and got irritable and then ate too much, too many small anatomical vaginas, because everyone knows that’s what mussels are. Go look at one. You will see.

Then when AM came over this evening I was making some dinner- leftover fish that my housemate’s friend had caught sautéed with some brown rice, more beet salad, and kimchi that just finished culturing in the big glass jar on the counter. It’s the best kimchi I think I’ve made yet, all spicy and tasting like ginger.

What did I eat ten years ago? Tuna salad and pickles on roman meal wheat bread that I made at home. I remember cutting the pickles on a plate with a dull paring knife, the way they made the plate green. Vlasic. The way the juice smelled when you opened the jar. Taco bell bean burritos, liquid and hot and running all over the paper wrapper, with lots of salty mild sauce. I worked graveyard shifts at Denny’s, so lots of “moons over my hammy” and sick, gummy pancakes. Ice cream, scooped from the cooler with a metal scoop that stuck to your fingers. A single cheeseburger from the McDonald’s drive through, with the salty meat-cheese and smattering of pickles and smear of ketchup and dusty white air-pocket on the bottom of the bun that every McDonald’s hamburger has. Doritos, nacho cheesier kind, burning my mouth with MSG. They indescribable mouth-feel of a single, unbroken dorito. I liked cool ranch too. Food had different names back then- instead of Brussel Sprout and Beet and Fish it was Dorito and Vlasic Pickle and Taco Bell Bean Burrito.

What do you eat for breakfast, dear reader? And what did you eat for breakfast ten years ago? This is what I want to know. I am curious! Leave comments!

And also! I need new music. Slow, barely audible instrumental music, with sparse lyrics and little rhythm. Music to write to! Do you have any suggestions?

16 thoughts on “doritos, tater tots, and the anatomical vagina of the sea”

  1. music to write to: veda hille, nouvelle vague, calexico, iron and wine.

    breakfast food now: massaged kale and beet salad with apple cider vinegar, olive oil and so-coarse-it-crunches sea salt; leftovers of chicken n’ chickpea yogurtycurry, farinata (a.k.a. socca). cracked and boiled bone broth– as if its tea; nettles.

    breakfast food 10 years ago: white sourdough light rye from uprising bakery with vegan margarine and nutritional yeast; yves fake bacon; or bagels with avocado and dulse. smoothies. grapefruit halves.

  2. music for minimal distraction & maximum accompaniment: air, brightblack morning light

    breakfast in the past was nonexistent. back then i ate whatever i wanted, whenever, usually at night. tortilla chips, triscuit crackers, sandwiches made out of mayo & romaine on roman meal bread. sometimes i miss that bread, & want to buy it out of nostalgia, but my husband would rather i didn’t.

    breakfast now: i’m really digging my spicy oatmeal. i presoak raisins & apricots in hot water so get them all gooshy, and then i mix them into plain oats with some butter. & then i dust it all over with black pepper & it warms the very marrow of my bones.
    also, kitchari.

  4. music: dead voices on air & volcano choir (maybe)

    breakfast of the past: mix up chocolate milk powder, pour over cocoa puffs, add hersey’s syrup and microwave for 1 minute. yes, I did have behavioral/emotional problems 10 years ago.

    breakfast today: dank bacon (from the butcher!), oatmeal w/ grade b syrup and frozen berries

    breakfast changes about once a week for me. it feels like there are so few seasonal appropriate breakfasts that I stretch them out, to not get sick of them all at once.

  8. I write to Electrelane and Silje Nes

    Breakfast 10 years ago: soft scrambled eggs with cheese and buttered toast.

    Breakfast this morning: homemade granola with cranberries and Nancy’s nonfat plain yogurt.

    Thanks so much for the words of encouragement last night.

    Also, to read Dorothy Allison’s amazing story about food, read her book Trash

  9. everyone needs to eat Lena – surely all shared experiences are worth talking about….

    anyway, here’s mine

    10 years ago – no breakfast
    now – 3 pieces of fruit, natural yoghurt, museli. Love. It!

    And as for the music, maybe you’d like Explosions In The Sky. Or the Mice Parade.
    I don’t keep up with much music, it tends to flow past me before I can catch tags and tails like names of bands or tracks. I love listening to online radio though. There’s a UK DJ called John Peel who was an inspiration for obscure/underground/oddly brilliant music listeners. He died a couple of years ago and this radio station was set up in tribute. It plays everything – I mean Everything and I love it! I’m listening to it right now. It’s http://www.dandelionradio.com

  10. i just ate some refired pinto beans, mushrooms, garlic, two fried eggs, some salad greens in a tortilla, and some leftover buttermilk biscuits with 4 day old coffee

    10 yrs ago – a single piece of toast with peanut butter on it and a little orange juice

    music—arthur russell (crazy disco cellist)
    ———–dreamland faces (from minneapolis!)

  11. then: honey bunches of oats. toast with pb and honey. big glass of water.

    now: local bacon, eggs, toast. pancakes. french toast. tea with honey and milk.

    music:
    joseph spence (mumbly, often inaudible lyrics)
    elizabeth cotton (her instrumentals)
    john fahey

  12. Ten years ago I ate cereal every day,which sounds boring until you realise that it is the choice of cereals that makes it exciting. One of the best things about going to my grandparents was that they had a whole new cereal selection! (I was 10, OK)

    Now I eat porridge (but I suppose I should call it oatmeal) almost every day, it is amazing! It is still all about the variety of things you can put in it though.

  13. Today: oatmeal every day.
    Ten years ago: leftovers, pizza, stuff-n-munches

    I like to print to fiddle music- just fiddle no backup or anything, and it gets very trancey which is good for my brain, not sure how it’ll work for your writing. Especially kentucky solo fiddling, and of late Edden Hammons of WV.

  14. Breakfast then – scrambled eggs, buttered toast, “Steak-Um” (cholesterol and fat with bread) & coffee

    Breakfast now – Raisin Bran & Grape Nuts with soy milk, coffee and a big glass of water.

    Music – Mannheim Steamroller, Jesse Stern, the album “Pure Wellness & Lounge Music: Zen Meditation Retreat” (don’t let the title put you off, it’s much better than it sounds)

  15. 10 years ago: boxed cereal and milk, every day, often out of a cup as I ran out the door with my shoes untied and juggling stacks of books in my arms — then a little later, I would try to sneak by not eating any breakfast at all
    today: almond butter, ground at the co-op using my secret technique, with marionberry jam on big rye-oat crackers and a couple sips of kombucha from the store

    the Dirty Three (Australian guitar + violin + minimal drums that drones and brushes), Godspeed You Black Emperor, maybe Dead Can Dance or Sigur Ros

  16. for breakfast I eat turkey bacon, egg and provolone cheese sandwiches or French toast or sometimes blueberry muffins or just coffee or peanut butter banana sandwiches before a long run (everything organic non-gmo).

    I used to not eat breakfast – just coffee – everything processed crap

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