Letters to the Editor
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typo
in headline?
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I think you mean...
...real men.
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Headline Writers On Strike?
Your sub-header reads "Real mean eat asparagus". Really? I feel real good when I eat my veggies. Perhaps you meant "real MEN".
Who is proofing your material...George W. Bush?
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To quote Brak (from Space Ghost)--
"Love is when a male part of the species goes up to a female part of the species and says 'Hey, would you like to go out on a date?'...So they go to a restaurant and she orders something called a 'salad', and he orders a big pile of beef. And that, to me, ladies and gentlemen, is love."
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Everyone eats asparagus!
It's the food of the demi-gods! and it's back! yay!
This is brainlessly simple though -- guys eat meat, because they are not watching their weight (or paying any attention to their high cholesterol, or bulging beer bellies, or coronary health) and women are eating salads (miserably, I might add) because they are always always always on a diet....yes even the ones who are already slender (so they don't GET fat).
Yet -- most of us, statistically, are overweight. So apparently meat makes you fat, and salad makes you fat, too (even while it's tasteless, cold and really unappealing in the winter). But order anything else as a woman, and you'll be looked at funny. Your girlfriends will make catty comments about how you're "not sticking to your diet" or don't care about what you look like. Eating salad is as linked with being female in our culture as wearing high heels or makeup.
BTW: when you order a salad, but pile it with croutons and cheese, and drown it in dressing (even 'diet" dressing), it often approaches or EXCEEDS the calories in a small steak or hamburger. Counter-intuitive, but true.
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i never understood
what's so unmanly about quiche. Quiche is bacon and eggs in a pie crust. Bacon is manly, eggs are manly, pie is not only manly but patriotic... what's the problem?
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Nigel Slater, freakin' genius cooking writer, asks about Brussels sprouts...
..."Why would you want to eat little watery balls that give you gas?"
Why, indeed. There are a million better and healthy vegetables to eat. Bok choy, or cabbage, or asparagus, or artichokes, or...anything. Just say no to brussels sprouts.
Also, it can't be said enough that Nigel Slater is a freakin' genius. Just thought it should be pointed out twice.
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you know...
my ancestors didn't fight, claw, and scratch their way to the top of the food chain so I could eat vegetables.
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third dude guy man...
Brussel Sprouts are cabbage.
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True
But aside from the fact that women seem to be on perpetual diets, they also tend to read more thoroughly about nutrition in general. I doubt that most men are aware about the benefits of eating nuts & yogurt(they're a good source of potassium which means good for the heart) & since there has been so much intense focus on women's heart disease lately, this seems like a logical trend for women to follow.
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Of course, asparagus can be seen as "symbolic" for guys...
...like various other foods I won't bother to enumerate here... And I think one reason both males and females are asparagus-averse has to do with a famous "aftereffect."
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Speaking of Brussels Sprouts
Remember that famous episode of "Leave it to Beaver" about his aversion to Brussels Sprouts? Could this be a factor among those who have seen this episode?
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Brussels Sprouts
They're evil. They're sulphurous fart bombs on a plate. Asparagus makes your pee smell funny. Maybe guys don't care about clearing the room, but I sure do.
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the common thread in all men's food choices is that it requires less time and effort
to prepare them than the ones women make. Even the asparagus. It costs money, but it's simple to prepare.
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Hmm
Yoghurt requires time and effort to prepare? Grabbing a handful of nuts requires time to prepare? No, I don't think that hypothesis holds water.
I think it has a lot more to do with socialization, women are on diets much more often than men.
It would be interesting to do a survey not on what people actually eat; but on their dream meals. Ones they actually want to eat. That would really tell you what people's food preferences are, particularly as some people may not be able to afford what they actually really like very often--Lobster and pepper steak come to my mind.
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women may be on "diets" but they aren't really depriving themselves of calories
they eat as much as men do relative to their caloric output, that's why men and women are equally fat, more or less. Women just feel more deprived and complain more. Many more men than women are muscular enough to be BMI "fat" so this has a few percentage point effect. In general of course every fat person, male and female, claims to be "muscular" and of course it is usually a lie, with women it invariably is.
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@ squalorholla
Mais oui!
Bacon, eggs and pie are manly, sure, but the combination is, gods forbid, *French* -- the ultimate in surrender monkey unmanliness, at least according to the kinds of people who determine their diets via gender.
There's even an old joke to that effect -- "My husband won't touch quiche, but he sure does love my famous egg-and-cheese pie!"
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Theory re: quiche
Back in the late 70s/early 80s quiche became branded as the ultimate "yuppie food." And yuppies, especially the males, have always been a bit "suspect" in the minds of macho types. So if you eat quiche, chances are you also wear designer suits with yellow neckties, live in a loft and drive a (leased) BMW. Get the picture?
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Asparagus recipe
Try this--simple yet very tasty.
Chop asparagus into 2 inch pieces. Dice an onion and several cloves of garlic.
Bring a pan with several tablespoons of peanut oil to a very warm temp. Saute the onions & garlic for a minute or two. Add the asparagus.
Stir-fry for 3-4 minutes with a little salt & pepper & soy sauce, or whatever your favorite flavouring is.
Serve & be the new place to have dinner of your friends & family!
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Real men don't eat meat.
Real men protect the innocent and vulnerable, and that includes children and animals.
As for the incredibly delicious and nutritious brussel sprouts: by coincidence I happen to be cooking some tonight, and my method of cooking them is proven to win over even the staunchest foe of that beloved vegetable.
If you think you don't like brussel sprouts, give this method a try: wash the sprouts and trim off the hard remnants of the stalks. Coat the sprouts with olive oil and coarse salt, then put them in a baking pan and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, shaking the pan every ten minutes or so. You want to bake them until the sprouts are browned and just on the verge of turning black.
This will give you brussel sprouts that are crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, and absolutely delicious.