Chance Flavors The Prepared Mind

Definite sign I've adapted to tropical living: I was peering in the fridge just now, checking behind the capers and so on, muttering, "how the $#% can I be out of tamarind paste? I bought a huge block of it last week!" Actually, this speaks to something that my mom regards as madness (mild madness) but which I think is a great step forward in my life: the massive storehouse of food system. Fresh things I buy every week, herbs, veggies, fish. And some I buy even if they do not fit into the plan of meals I have mapped out for that week (really). But when you look into my cupboards you see serried ranks of duplicates, arranged in rows. Are you about to use that can of Italian plum tomatoes in sauce? Go on, there are three more! Putting a new jar of fruit-only apricot jam into the fridge? Just move that one behind it up, and put it on the list! My mom mocks me, but the end result of this is that I (almost) never run out of things. Pus it gives me a strange feeling of security to look into the cupboards and see cans of sardines and kilos of rice and flour and gram flour and beans and coconut milk and... If some gun enthusiasts in the states have unhealthy fantasies about how, precisely, they will kill some burgalar, I have fantasies in which I am suddenly called upon to feed 50 people! But I can totally do it! For a brief time when I was young my family really was hungry; we would eat generic box macaroni and cheese 4 night a week, and my mom would steal Lance crackers and stuff from the snack room of the place where she worked and Ben and I would take them to lunch at school. I doubt it affected me at all, though. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm, just going to rotate my sealed containers of various types of lentils so that the next time I make dhal I will use the type with the closest expiration date. [Later: looks like it's urud dhal's lucky day! It expires in November. Also, remind me to put fish sauce on the list.]

UPDATE: OMG, this is so great. The new, unopened fish sauce was just in the wrong row. Problem solved (but I'll still order a new one. See how it works?)

Comments

[Anthony]

You can never have too much fish sauce.

[David Leland]

My after school job at a Piggly Wiggly in South Carolina taught me the importance of "rotating stock". A lesson that still has me reaching to the back of the shelves at the market to get the freshest lettuce. I totally understand the comfort of having a well stocked pantry. Though I never really did without as a child, my parents were from the Great Depression era. I actually remember seeing my mom squeezing ketchup packets into the big glass Heinz bottle and filling the milk carton with powdered milk. When my two brothers and I chided her, she would say "that's perfectly good ketchup, why throw it out?"
Unfortunately, I did not inherit my mom's frugalness. In fact I think I have more or less rebelled and refuse to have an attitude of lack. If I want it I buy it, if I'm through with it I throw it away. I am extremely wasteful and I KNOW IT!
I think the Red Green Man Prayer sums it up best: I'm a man but I can change, if I have to, I guess.

[LizardBreath]

Jesus Christ, I'm married to you. Maybe living in Singapore is different, but in an NYC kitchen there is absolutely no reason to have stocked-up supplies. The store is just down the block. If you want something for dinner, buy it, cook it, and eat it -- don't clutter up the kitchen with it for six months. This drives me absolutely batty.

[Russell Arben Fox]

I love this post. You should see our pantry, Belle; from the buckets of rice, flour, sugar and cornmeal stacked against the wall, to the rows of cans and jars of crushed tomatoes, peaches, garbanzo beans, tuna fish, salsa, and beef broth on the shelves, we're into food storage. Someday, if I'm clever, I'll build some of those slanting shelves that my father-in-law made for their basement, so you can buy twenty cans of artichoke hearts at a time and whenever you need one have it slide right into your hand, with the next one taking its place.

[Sailor]

Hints of the exotic, mysterious East, but no real substance, dear. Specificity! Donde esta La Singapore schwing, you know, local color, bars hotels, links, healthy thai femmes for the bargain minded....;)

[DavidL]

Real classy.

[Saheli]

You should certainly have 3 days of food on hand for emergency's sake. But don't you have to do a lot of fighting off of the tropical insects? Or are you just really, really good at shutting the jars immediately?

[Susanne]

Hi Belle, my husband David Leland has been ate up with your blog for a week so I finally decided to check it out. Very interesting....
I share David's refusal to have an "attitude of lack". However, I don't keep much stockpiled in the kitchen. I estimate that we have no more than a week worth of food at any one time. I disagree with needing 3 days of food on hand for emergency's sake. If the worst happens, I wanna be on the first bus out, know what I mean? There's a lot worse things that could happen than dying a quick death.

[almostinfamous]

note to self: follow susanne in case of zombie invasion.

[Mom]

I may do some mocking about the stacks of 3 of each item, it is true.
But then again, I run out of things and have to dash to the store and you don't.

Plus, I adore you. XX

[Gary Farber]

"For a brief time when I was young my family really was hungry; we would eat generic box macaroni and cheese 4 night a week, and my mom would steal Lance crackers and stuff from the snack room of the place where she worked and Ben and I would take them to lunch at school. I doubt it affected me at all, though."

Because of a long history of frequently scraping by with a couple of potatoes, or endless ramen noodle and peanut butter, I've always been a food stock-piler and hoarder, inevitably resulting in, despite efforts at rotating and Paying Attention, my noticing that These Items are years old, and tossing them.

I've finally gotten somewhat better in the last couple of years about really vigorously making sure I don't hold onto stuff too long, and using Massive Discipline to not stock up all that much, but it takes major attention and devotion for me to avoid overly stockpiling when I can.

Major recent aid and improvement: finally, two and a half years after moving into this apartment, moving Massive Heavy Stuff out of the way of the incredibly awkwardly placed (four feet off the ground) storage area long enough to throw lots of crap into it, and finally having a relatively clean floor and apartment for the First Time Here Evar!

Which also means clear access to the stored food, and having done a good job of tossing out all the stuff that had gotten to Food Alzheimer's Stage.

Factored into all this is that my Second Biggest Neurosis, after Things Relating To Money, is OMG, Is This Food Spoiling?

[Danielle]

With my OCDish tendencies, I find this absolutely inspiring. As soon as we move into the new apartment, yes, oh yes..!

[Wrye]

I'm with Saheli. Any attempt to stock up on pasta, rice, oatmeal, etc while I lived in Japan was defeated by the endemic meal moths. The only solution was to keep dry goods in the refridgerator. How do you do it?

[belle waring]

I put each opened thing in a freezer-style zip-loc bag and then back on the shelf, unless it's something like whole wheat flour or coarse-ground cornmeal, in which case I put it in a zip-loc bag in the refrigerator.