I like the conversations we have here at The Amateur Gourmet. I feel like I’ve built something of a community. You guys are my global cooking village. Can I borrow some milk?
So I was thinking today, as I often do, about nothing in particular and thoughts flowed in and out of my head. One of those thoughts involved drugs the other involved food. They merged and had children. These questions are their children:
(1) How much does the average American pot smoker spends on pot? I don’t smoke pot, so I don’t know. (I’m not just saying that because my mom reads this. Hi mom!) If they put that money towards one fancy meal each month, what level restaurant could they eat at? Do you see where I’m going with this? Say No To Drugs, Say Yes To Fine Dining.
(2) So then I was thinking about ‘shrooms. Not mushrooms, ‘shrooms—mushrooms withou the mush. I don’t do ‘shrooms, and I’m not just saying that because my drug counselor is reading this. Hi Ted! But that led to a thought about food: so ‘shrooms like mushrooms grow in the ground and have hallucinogenic qualities. Do you think average ordinary every day vegetables have an undetectable impact on our perception? Like eating a bunch of carrots makes you see the glass half empty and eating a bunch of turnips makes you horny? We know oysters actually do make you horny. I’m talking about the things we don’t know that food does. WHAT DOES FOOD DO TO YOUR HEAD?
(I swear I’m writing this sober—if you want to apply my own theories to this post, tonight I ate duck and chocolate chip cookies. Ok, and I had a martini.)
1. Don’t know about the pot.
2. The chapter on garlic in Ruth Reichl’s Comfort Me with Apples convinced me entirely that eating loads of garlic is a great mood enhancer and probably aphrodisiac. Personally I think it’s true; also, I find that eating loads of garlic always makes me crave chocolate afterward. Something about all that garlic makes chocolate sound and taste sooo good…
1. I couldn’t say cuz I don’t live there so I don’t have the opportunity to engage in some friendly conversation with a “drug-challenged” person while I’m sipping my morning take away coffee. But I would guess a lot. Like that $1000 breakfast of caviar and lobster at I don’t know which place in NYC would be their regular sunday brunch. Like they would have their own special table at Nobu because they would come so often. And I think that it’s really possible.Drugs are the most expensive way of ruining your health in such a short period of time.
2.Are you wondering what to serve on Valentine’s Day Dinner? I’m sure there are tons of books talking about exciting food related side effects. The only one I’m sure of is ginger, which is known for its afrodisiac virtues.
I practice a lot of yoga, and in a lot of my textbooks (I’m training to be a teacher) there are details about which foods are best for you and how they make you feel. This can all be seen subjectively, of course, but in my own experience, one does tend to feel lighter, more alert and more meditative when one eats mostly fruits, veggies and other healthy stuff, and one feels very heavy and sluggish after eating, say, one of those chocolate cream filled beauties from Dunkin Donuts. I mean, who hasn’t pigged out on cookies and felt rather disgusting afterwards, and not just from feeling guilty of the calories?
A lot of yogi writers also theorize that the adrenaline left over in meat from right after the animal died effects the human body, making meatatarians more apt to be aggressive and pushy (since that’s what you need to be to catch meat, after all–no one said you had to be vigilant when hunting carrots). You have posed an interesting question.
“that’s what our love is! and the feeling’s so.. hot hot hot”
I took a macrobiotic cooking class a few years ago and learned about a wonderful thickener called kuzu. It is wonderful not only because it thickens sauces without so much as a remotely chalky taste, but it also makes one feel completely stoned, like a post 20 hour meditation high! I hate pot and most other drugs as I hate paranoia and feeling like an idiot after the fact, but this kuzu is something else.
–
“You mean…?”
“Peyote!” said Debbie and Jelly together.
“Then that professor was right. They *are* drugged.”
“Aw, come off it, Sissy,” said Jelly. “What do you mean, ‘drugged’? Every living things is a chemical composition and anything that is added to it changes that composition. When you eat a cheeseburger or a Three Musketeers bar, it changes your body chemistry. The kind of food you eat, the kind of air you breath, can change your mental state. Does that mean you’re ‘drugged’? ‘Drugged’ is a stupid word.”
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hmm. really can’t speak for americans, but if i had to use an average CANADIAN spending on pot money towards food, especially average BRITISH COLUMBIAN CANADIAN spending, i’d still be eating mcdonalds.
re: adrenalin in meat making one agressive…
a shot of pure adrenalin given to a small child makes them go crazy-hyper and bouncing all over the place, but i’ve never yet heard of it causing them to be agressive or try to kill/consume anyone.
I’d say taking drugs and eating a fine meal are not commensurable quantities, just like eating meat and losing one’s virginity (see comments on devvegging Lisa) are not comparable. Pleasures are pleasures and different, regardless what you inidividually prefer. I haven’t smoked pot since ever so long , and have never mushroomed, but I think everyone is entitled to his/her own different pleasure, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. Sorry if I sound European-decadent to you, but I tully believe this.
Let’s say the problem of drugs is a problem of traffic, and the problem of eating good food, well, maybe it’s no problem at all if you only have a stove on which to cook!
1) hmmm, very interesting! don’t ask me how I know this, but I think an “average BRITISH COLUMBIAN CANADIAN” pot smoker spends about $40/week. not that I ever have or ever will partake, but chalk it up to the experience of living in Whistler for a while…
So that equals aboot $160/ month. Enough to dine at say 2 swank joints in town. Or treat a couple friends to a nice dinner with wine and dessert.
2) definitely oysters. I wouldn’t be here otherwise. and absolutely chocolate. and I’ve heard large amounts of nutmeg will make you warm and fuzzy. but I think a Pink Floyd concert is far more effective.
–bubbie
From reading Naked Lunch (a scarier book has not been published), I am quite learned concerning the effects of nutmeg… apparently one tablespoon dissolved in a glass of water will give you all the bad effects of pot (headache, paranoia, etc.) with very few of the good ones. William Burroughs didn’t recommend it, and this is a guy who wrote some pretty crazy stuff while on drugs.
The problem of drugs is not a problem at all on a macro level. If say i could eat huge amounts of tomato and be fine while you are deathly alergic and could very well die if you consume very little. why would this be a problem for me to eat some? now each person will have common effects but not everyone reacts bad. If say i can spend only 40 dollars on pot in a month to enjoy, where am i wrong? plenty of people will stand there and say “but its illegal” while they spend how much smoking a pack a day of cigs. This makes no sense. I also believe that society plays a big role in some side effects of drugs. for starters ive never had a headache from pot who does im not sure. does anyone think the common paranoia effect can be directly related to the fear of being arrested, fined, ect.. I have never smoked cigs, thats a pointless drug but how many kids get a side effect of paranoia from smoking cigs as a result of being careful as to not get caught by their parents. i would assume plenty. but could you find a 30 year old cig smoker that gets paranoia? nope, because it is seen as a drug that is socialy acceptable. medical side effects i believe generaly have little or no influence from society but how many times can you read two things about drugs that say oppisite “facts”. its all scare tactics to prevent you from being one of the negative drug users. Id like to see some studies about everyday good people that use drugs once in a while, and how they function fine and are able to achieve good things in life, but they are to afraid to say they smoke pot. so instead we read about the pot dealer who stole a car and thats because he has no choice to keep his drug use private. how many sober people steal cars and how many stoned people actually dont? if you want to spend your 160 a month on pot or at a nice restaurant what the hell is the difference? and what number is ok and what number is not. what does this number judge?
Well let’s say the person smoked a gram every time they smoked, and smoked three times a day. That’s 3 grams, almost 3.5 grams, which is an 8th of marijuana. Per week that person would be smoking almost an ounce of pot. An ounce costs around 300-320 depending on where u get it. 52 weeks times 300 on the low end it around $15,000 per year. You do the math from there, it’s a crap load of money. These people could be FINE FINE diners.