general mills...

i had a sudden thought today at work, "i would like to eat at the olive garden!"

it was a funny kind of thought. because i am a native new yorker and i have never been to an olive garden. there are a couple in new york city and they are the province of an exotic other. so i looked at their menu, and some things look okay, but if i were to get salad with my entree and a baked potato and what have you, it costs as much as dinner at a good, real new york restaurant, with a interior-designed interior, a graphic-designed menu, a chef. i mean, the olive garden has all these things but let's be real.

the olive garden, according to wikipedia, is owned by general mills. according, also, to wikipedia, most americans buy something created by general mills whenever they go to the grocery store.

since i try to shop the perimeter of the grocery store, buying fresh vegetables, plain unadulterated dairy, meat, soy products, and whole grains and wholegrain cereals, i figured, "ha! not me. i mean i ate ninja turtles cereal when i was a kid, but those days are over."*

WELL, I WAS WRONG!

one of the best things i buy in a can is made by general mills! they have several lines of organic food products. including muir glen and their bomb-ass fire roasted tomatoes. you can make chili with it. you can cook up kale and fresh garlic with it. you can throw eggplant in it. it has no additives and it has a subtle yet potent smoky flavor, and a deceptive from-scratch freshness.

ah, well! like the idea of the olive garden, i don't mind partaking in general mills. it has that air of middle-america kink to it; for when you are a native new yorker, especially a native manhattanite, middle america is as exotic--more exotic, much more exotic--than the amazon.

by the way, eating healthy has NOTHING to do with being a native new yorker or a native manhattanite. one of my best friends i grew up with probably has a special general mills blood type from eating so much general mills. and you will find many people who live in new york who are not from new york who are in williamsburg making artisanal pickles, they are NOT from new york. they are very weird. i feel like the tragic mulatto - i don't get the middle americans who come to new york as tourists, and i don't get their kids who come here to be artisanal. i mean they are very interesting and all.

great article about an article about this phenomenon, good synopsis. lol-worthy. ach!

by the way i ate a lot of THESE as a kid:



thank you, crotchrot, for posting. :-D

* actually, TMNT cereal was made by ralston-purina but i just felt like mentioning.