I speak to you today as a lover of plain food. Not for me the aforesaid carrot foam (orange goop!), braised deer slices (bye-bye Bambi! 😦 ) or pickled quail eggs. I am of the opinion that only pickles should be pickled. But that’s just me.

All these dishes have recently appeared in recipes in our daily newspaper. But for me, please keep your rabbit (Easter bunny!), your mushrooms (fungus!) and your octopus (rubbery and too many legs!) to yourself. I suppose I should proclaim myself to be a vegetarian, considering my aversion to cooked erstwhile pets – Bambi, Bossy (moo!) and Thumper. But somehow I’m able to completely tune out the pet-associations of most common meat sources.

Maybe my admittedly uneducated palate is a throwback to what I grew up with. I’ve talked about the ultra-simple fare my mother used to make in a prior post, Food, Glorious Food! At least I’ve gone beyond her very limited cooking repertoire. After all, I do eat glorious butter chicken, souvlaki, and – for heaven’s sake – cauliflower.

I consider myself to be at around the middle of the foodie hierarchy. My sophisticated children might disagree; they would no doubt eat most of the “delicacies” listed above with gusto. They probably think I’m in the hierarchy’s basement when it comes to acceptance of unfamiliar foods.

Maybe they’re right, I should branch out from my limited tastes a bit more. But I draw the line at duck. Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie say: Quack!!