Food For Thought

Food For Thought

   September 14, 2020       Vussey

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Let Me Ask, Does Fast Food Leave You Fasting?

I travel around the country a lot and guess what? I am really fed up with the kinds of food, fast food, which is available to me on the go!

Food on the go has stayed pretty much the same for years now - the same suppliers in the market, the likes of burger restaurants, fried chicken drive-thru, coffee houses (Which now have drive-thrus), and these are just a few where you needn’t even leave your vehicle and can order your meal through your window!  There’s a problem though, they are not really for the discerning foodie or the health aware are they, I mean lets face it. Though, admittedly, the burger joints might have introduced the odd salad here and there and the chicken places have a rice bowl, but made with the same gusto as their chicken and burgers, they are not!

What’s the alternative?

Are we asking too much for good food which is also healthy, tasty, accessible and quick? I don’t think so, and how about a drive thru which could offer juices, smoothies or soup? I suppose what I personally am looking for is not the current fast food restaurants to offer me second rate salads as a spin off, but a new and exciting one offering what I believe should and could be a bigger demographic, a tasty alternative. Don’t knock it until you try it.

But that’s my point - I want it (by the way, I am screaming this point). I want an alternative to these high fat, high sugar foods on the road that make me feel tired and sluggish when I’ve eaten them.  What they don’t do is make me want to continue to drive and work, which is not good, so ultimately I don’t stop and have them, which ultimately means I go without food on the days I don’t take something from home, which ultimately means I go hungry most days!

Obviously I should, can and do take homemade food to work, but not always and anyway, why can’t I have the pleasure of finding good food out and about. It is crazy how much easier it is to get a pasty, burger, fried chicken, fish & chips, pizza, sandwiches, subs, rolls (they all come under the same bready category) - a bakery can be found in every village or town, but try and find something in there which is light and even slightly healthy.  Some may have a pre packed salad or two sitting in their chiller, or just one flavour of soup on offer but to be honest the ones that do, well, lets say no more.

Desperation

The truth of the matter is this, having driven past fast food outlets deciding against going in, but deciding instead that upon entering the town they lay on the outskirts of I will find something more suitable there, I have actually been bereft of anything after walking up and down the high street searching for something ‘nice’.  Just ‘nice’.  I try to be less fussy than usual on so many occasions so I can at least be satisfied, but all I find is that well known bakery chain, or an independent which fares no better, a local supermarket or a deli which, come on, that’s a whole other story - when did we put a few jars of chutney on a shelf and a couple of hams in a cabinet and call it a deli in this country?

So hungry I go until one of two things happen - 1) either I get desperate (unusual), or 2) I come across a gem, a small independent cafe usually, where they have actually thought about the food they want to offer, make fresh salads with great ingredients, have an interesting appetising take-away menu and soups which are homemade and taste it! 

If you too have found this all a bit of a problem, then let me know what you have found, and more importantly, let me know about the little ‘gems’ you have come across, it would help me a great deal when I’m out and about.

So keep watching this space as I will be making note of these little gems, yours and mine, along the way, so keep following to find out where they are.