SOME GEEZERS LIVE TO EAT
Don Akchin [TheEndGame] writes about aging with joy and purpose ~prime tomato time means BLTs galore!~same with watermelon time~summer charcuterie boards~James Beard award winners in small cities
By DON AKCHIN, a recovering journalist, who enjoyed a long and winding career through news reporting, publishing, corporate communications, nonprofit marketing, and academe. He currently writes and podcasts about aging with joy and purpose at The End Game [TheEndGame.substack.com]. Special thanks to Wayne Christensen at Vintage Morels for inspiring this post.
Aging has put a few limits on an adventurous appetite.
As the American political climate became more divisive and the national conversation devolved into a national hollerin’ contest, food became the sole subject on which my family members could agree. We are all in favor of it. And then some.
Perhaps this is why I was shocked when a high school teacher, having one of her frequent pedantic moments, declared, “We are supposed to eat to live, you know—not live to eat.”
Not in my house! It was an unspoken but understood principle that eating was for pleasure and “living to eat” was not merely tolerated but encouraged. The joyless, bloodless, latent latter-day Puritanism of “eat to live” had no resonance in our home. Nor could I subscribe to a system that treated gluttony as a cardinal sin, rather than the prime directive.
We are all products of our times. Both my parents were children during the Great Depression, when hunger was widespread. They were teens during World War II, when sugar, meat, coffee, butter, and canned goods were strictly rationed. So by the time they started a family in the 1950’s, they were still celebrating their freedom from poverty and limitation. Food was abundant and affordable, the economy was in high gear, and they were passionate that their children would not face starvation – even for a few hours.
So like many in my generation, I grew up well-nourished and appreciative of tasty fare. My idea of “exotic” was tasting unfamiliar foods for the first time. To that end I pursued Chinese, Thai, Indian, Korean, Mexican, Venezuelan, Ethiopian, Greek, Afghan, Middle Eastern, and more cuisines.
Today, I remain epicurious, but my geezerhood status has forced me to make certain adjustments to my lifelong dining habits.
I would not call the adjustments extreme. No, I do not eat dinner at 4:30 pm., regardless of discount. No, I do not eat stewed prunes for breakfast. No, my wife and I do not order one entrée for the two of us. Yes, I still have all my teeth and they work quite well.
I do find that I eat less now and feel satisfied. I suppose my appetite has finally fallen into line with a slower metabolism, and not a moment too soon.
But there have been sacrifices, some of them made reluctantly. I have learned by painful experience, for example, that my digestive system can no longer tolerate Southern fried chicken or Thai dishes with a hotness factor of 5 or more. I avoid chocolate because it aggravates my acid reflux, as do orange juice, potato chips, carbonated sodas, and an excess of cheese. I have given up coffee, though I drink one chai latte each morning and try to convince myself it is equally effective. I don’t drink alcohol because it interferes with my medication. (Because of my abstinence from smoking, drinking, dancing, and cards, a few friends suspect me of secretly being a Southern Baptist.)
I still make a biennial pilgrimage to New Orleans to sample all the city’s signature dishes—gumbo, crawfish etouffee, Andouille sausage, jambalaya, oyster po’ boy, muffaletta, pralines, and beignets—but as a concession to my age, I limit myself strictly to three meals daily. The price for this orgy is equivalent to dropping an explosive charge into my intestines, but I endure the short-term distress willingly for the pleasures of the palate.
Being married to a thoughtful and health-conscious vegetarian, my everyday diet is a healthy balance of whole grains, fresh vegetables, nuts, beans, and fish, prepared in dozens of innovative ways with the assistance of the New York Times Cooking website, which I do pay for. Desserts are either fruit or non-existent. When I feel the urge to consume meat, I check in with my son. He is on the Paleo Diet and consumes regular servings of beef, pork, chicken, and mastodon! in season. We pay no attention to “superfoods” or the diet fad du jour.
All my adaptations to age are minor. None has taken the fun out of food. For as long as I am able—and I hope that’s a long time—I plan to continue to savor the tastes and textures of foods from many cultures and many great cooks. I live to eat because food continues to add pleasure and excitement to my life.
How has age impacted your eating habits?
THE BLT SEASON
BACON
Choosing the best bacon for your BLT can be as simple as using whatever’s in your refrigerator or as complicated as searching high and low on the internet for something you’ve never tried before. For starters, here my three cents' worth. #1 Benton’s Bacon, which was written up in Gourmet magazine in 2006: “Allan Benton is the man behind some of the most flavorful ham and bacon we’ve tasted in years. Breathe deeply now, and inhale the sweet kiss of hickory.” What was true back then remains true. #2 My wife is from Iowa and so is my favorite bacon of all time. It’s from Vande Rose Farms. #3 And Bill-E’s Small Batch Bacon.
For an all around guide to bacon, check out this Washington Post article. When it comes to cooking bacon, says The Spruce Eats, consider using your oven, even in the summertime. Even doll up your bacon with maple syrup and brown sugar if you’re so moved.
But, when BLT time rolls around each summer season, I summon the wisdom of one of my favorite food website geniuses, Eliza Cross, at the BENSA Bacon Lovers Society. She surely knows everything there is to know about bacon, just sayin’. I also like her favorite bacon recipes, even those that don’t involve lettuce or tomatoes. See for yourself. How about bacon-butter?
For making summer’s best bloody mary’s, there’s bacon vodka. And for just about any backyard party you’re invited to, Cross just loves bacon parmesan crackers.
LETTUCE
Skip peppery or grassy greens for preferably shredded, sweet, crunchy, structurally supportive iceberg lettuce, so Serious Eats founder Ed Levine demands.
TOMATOES
Maybe y’all have your favorite tomato and even your favorite time of the year to eat tomatoes. I do. Since tomatoes are best from mid- to late-summer and last through late fall, I begin to gear up now. In my world, the GOAT [The Greatest Of All Time] tomato is Cherokee Purple Heirloom, originating from Tennessee, and thought to have been passed down from Native Americans of the Cherokee tribe.
This heirloom tomato variety consistently ranks very high in taste tests, not only mine. Slice a Cherokee Purple tomato for rich, dark color and unmatched sweet, rich taste. The tomato is a beautiful dusky pink with a deep, rich-red interior. Cherokee Purple grows well in most regions of the U.S. Let the fruit ripen on the vine for the best flavor. This one is a consistent taste test winner at tomato fests around the country.
If you’re compelled to do some research at least on heirlooms, one place to start is the Gardener’s Path. Or if you yen for more recipes with tomatoes, here’s what Martha Stewart recommends.
RULES FOR MAKING A PERFECT BLT
OK, just how to make one, you wonder. J. Kenji López-Alt, a stay-at-home dad who moonlights as a culinary consultant of Serious Eats, has lots of thoughts on the subject. Forget the fancy bread and toast your white bread low and slow in bacon fat.
Salt and pepper your tomato. [My go-to coarse sea salt is Maldon flakes.] Cook your bacon in a microwave, in the oven, or the best way, pressed by a construction trowel on the stovetop. A what, you say? Check it out. Assemble the sammy any way you want but López-Alt says to layer carefully with iceberg next to both slices of bread. Protest all you want against iceberg but give it a chance, won’t you. Finally, cut your BLT in triangles. They fit easily into your mouth.
WATERMELON TIME
Go South, young man/young woman, for your watermelons. They like early spring, hot sunny weather, not cloudy and never cool. Not all watermelons are created equal. Some have seeds, while others don’t. Some are sweet, others crazy-sweet. And thump your melon before you buy it.
“What you want is a defined ringing sound instead of a dull sound,” says Garden & Gun magazine. “If the sound is dull, it was likely picked over-ripe and won’t have that crispness we all want. But if the sound is too sharp, then it might be under-ripe.”
LOVE SUMMER CHARCUTERIE BOARDS
They’re perfect in summer. Skip the cooking as often as you feel like it. Instead, create luscious charcuterie boards and PureWow will show you how.
Or just assemble all your fave cheeses, cured meats, fresh summer fruits, nuts, crackers, breads, and condiments before your guests arrive. They’ll love you for it.
FOOD CITIES GO SMALL
New York, Chicago, and San Francisco will always be dining destinations, but this year's James Beard Awards show that the national dining scene is changing.
Cities less than large and itsy-bitsy tiny towns achieved Beard awards last month, signaling that new bakeries, bars, and restaurants outside of what have traditionally considered the only “game in town” morphed this year. The coveted awards have begun to recognize what chefs and food lovers in smaller cuisine cities and towns know: Incredible restaurants exist all across the country. Congrats Charleston, R.I., Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Honolulu, and Monson, Maine [population 609]!
Love your ode to the summer BLT! (I wonder how many of your readers, like me, will be picking up an extra construction trowel at Home Depot this week?) You turned me on to Vande Rose Farms artisan bacon last year, and I'm forever grateful. I planted a Cherokee Purple tomato for the first time this year, and now you've got me fired up for the harvest. And watermelon! I like to make a simple salad with watermelon, raspberries, quartered strawberries and a bit of chopped fresh mint. Don Akchin's words are a delight, as are yours. And thank from the bottom of my heart for mentioning BENSA Bacon Lovers Society and sharing some of my fave bacon recipes. I'm toasting you from Colorado! <<Cheers, Wayne!>>
“I plan to continue to savor the tastes and textures of foods from many cultures and many great cooks. I live to eat because food continues to add pleasure and excitement to my life.” Great words! Me too.