Food

Food

I’m not known to be a picky eater. I don’t know where I got my omnivore tendencies from because my father is very particular when it comes to food. If it’s not pizza, burgers or ice cream, he shies away from it. As for me, I’ll eat anything, well, almost anything. The only two things that I have come across that my taste buds refuse to swallow are canned spinach and brussel sprouts. It is strange that I turn my nose up at these things since I love spinach in any other form and cabbage is great. Guess it falls under the same reason why my dad doesn’t like tomatoes, but likes ketchup. Anyway, the food they serve here in the DFAC, or dining facility, is very meager. Because we share the DFAC with a basic training unit, the cooks tend to go more for quantity than quality. Here is an example of the dinner this evening. The choices were Shepard’s pie, fish, and mystery meat. When my squad leader who was standing in line in front of me, asked if this was spinach or collared greens, the response he got was “Dunno. Beat’s me.”

Yeah, not very reassuring when the person who prepared the food and is putting the food on your plate cannot recognize what she is dishing out. So, my squad leader Ryan went with the Shepard’s pie as well. He said that it had no taste. As in none at all. As in, he could feel the firmness of the corn and the texture of the beef, but he said it had no taste. I told him that he was exaggerating. I mean, it didn’t look that appetizing, but it couldn’t be that bad.

After I took a fork full of it and shoveled it into my mouth, I immediately apologized to Ryan and told him that I stood corrected.

Now, I don’t want to fall in the trap of being negative all the time because it is very easy to do in the bitter atmosphere of IRR soldiers being called back to duty, therefore I will try to make a point to insert some “positive outlooks” in my blogs. So, when it comes to food, I will say that the breakfast is good. Of all the meals I’ve eaten at this dining facility, breakfast is by far the best. Eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and a slew of flapjacks, waffles, pancakes and French toast. Add fruit, cereal, yogurt, toast, bagels and all the chocolate milk you can guzzle down in a sitting and you got yourself a meal fit for a lumberjack or a Sumo wrestler. Anything you can think of for breakfast, they have it and it is hard not to eat it all. In my civilian life, I was accustomed to eating a bowl of cereal at my desk at work, and maybe I’d get a little crazy and add a banana to it (I’m insane like that!). I love to cook and eat big breakfasts on the weekends and special occasions, but I’m not use to having this kind of selection every day. It doesn’t help that I’m an honorary member of the Clean Plate Club (clean trays are also part of the charter) and whatever the cook slops on the tray, I’ll eat it… all of it. Couple that with the lack of any real exercise lately and I feel like I’m just slowing eating myself into the next higher ACU size.

I guess it’s a good thing that my days here are numbered. Like my fellow FA officers, I received my orders this afternoon and they state that I’ll be heading to the Home of the Engineers (and MP and Chemo folk) in Missouri some time at the end of this week, or the beginning of next week, or maybe the end of next week. Who knows, right? It’s all about being flexible. Regardless of “when” I will be going, I know that I will be going there and will, God willing, be put into a room at the BOQs or at a hotel off post. To tell you the truth, I don’t care if they put me in a tent, just as long as I don’t have someone snoring in my ear all night.