So I’d like your opinion:
I have a good friend who has never-in his whole life- eaten spaghetti o’s or beefaroni or preservativioli. And though from a food ethics, nutritional, and aesthetic stand point this may be a good thing, I was still quite shocked. I mean, this is America, canned kid food is as much a part of our childhood as wedjie avoidance (and for some of us the love of the chef lasts a whole lot longer). So what do you think…
Chef Boyardee- Friend or Foe?
Nourish Blog'zine 
December 9, 2007 at 4:18 am |
Most definitely foe, and on multiple accounts: the headaches and stomach aches that arise from eating it, the environmental and social justice costs of manufacturing it, and, most of all, the chef’s wee beady eyes urging me to eat his nasty little canned product.
December 9, 2007 at 4:41 pm |
I was going to suggest a benefit is a low cost meal for a family that doesn’t have much income, but as Jonathan points out there are a lot of negatives to such a meal…perhaps it should get us thinking about how to provide low cost *nutritious* meals to low income families…
December 11, 2007 at 4:26 am |
Friend in the comfort food, nostalgia sort of way, but way evil in every other. It doesn’t even smell real.
December 12, 2007 at 4:53 pm |
I was all prepared to weigh in and say that NO! These products are awful/gross/horrible/unethical/probably made of raccoon.
Then I spent two days with no electricity and was wishing I had something to tide me over that wasn’t in need of refrigeration, or otherwise wasn’t Taco Bueno. I went to some friends’ house and had a can of beefaroni and it was DELICIOUS.
So now, I’m thinking that they probably still are made of raccoon, and there HAS GOT to be a way to create meals that are just as cheap but far more nutritious, enabling us to give good nutrition to low-income families, but I gotta say, when I was hungry, beefaroni fed me.
I’m going to go throw up now.
December 12, 2007 at 9:48 pm |
Matt, couldn’t agree more. For the first time in history, the poorest members of our society are overweight and, yet, remain undernourished (Isn’t this an apt metaphor for the state of affairs in the USA?). A dollar buys a lot more beefaroni than spinach, carrots, and apples (more on this later). But as Nate said, and Kathryn alluded to, the chef has nostalgic meaning to many of us (myself included). As preservative-ful, racoon meat laden as it may be…I had a childhood full of preservatives, and so I actually felt sorry for my friend who had never tried spaghetti-O’s. Isn’t it interesting to have such nostalgia for something so canned, processed, and awful for you. It sorta reminds me of the way I feel about NKOTB.
December 13, 2007 at 5:57 pm |
NKOTB. Wow. 80s pop culture may represent everything that is truly putrid and yet, at the same time, alluring about our culture.
December 13, 2007 at 5:57 pm |
Not that NKOTB is alluring. I was thinking more of, like, the Talking Heads, what with that giant suit and all.
December 23, 2007 at 11:48 pm |
Don’t backtrack too quickly, Jonathan. You loved NKOTB, and you KNOW IT!
December 25, 2007 at 5:16 am |
Dude, not a chance. I hated NKOTB. But I did like Electric Youth. I had their tape. ‘The future only belongs to the future itself, and the future is…electric youth!’