NTC #010 - get topped
Hello friends;
I was relieved when Austria finally went into lockdown. I’m in a higher-risk group, so I have been taking no chances with the Coronavirus. No relaxing with my friends, no visits to bars, no international travel - just a lot of worrying and being nervous. For the past six weeks, the rates of virus transmission in Austria have been higher than when we went into lockdown in 2020, and I felt really isolated and panicky.
above: me, for the two weeks before lockdown
I’ve been the one saying I can’t come in to uni, cancelling plans, and feeling terrible when I see my friends, and feeling like I was crazy at the same time as knowing I was right. It’s been a bit stressful, and that’s why this newsletter is so late.
It’s also why I’ve been craving a diet of chocolate and junk food. I want to be comforted right now, I want the greasy, fatty, sweet things that are terrible in the long term but delicious right now. I surprised my partner by requesting pizza during the week - it’s normally a weekend thing, something we do on Sunday night, rather than cook. But that’s the kind of food we want when we’re stressed, because of evolution.
Our ancestors lived horrible, cold, hungry lives, up until the invention of the supermarket about 1916. Food was hard to find, and harder to make, so our bodies evolved to make the most of fatty, sweet, and salty things. The more fat, salt and sugar our bodies could cram in, the longer we could live. This means that when we eat a bar of salted caramel chocolate, our body is high-fiving us and saying “omg yes! YES! You’re AMAZING!” by making it taste delicious. This is also how McDonald’s and every fast food place works - by making that magic trio of salt, sweetness and fat into something you probably shouldn’t eat regularly.
That doesn’t mean you should eat boring food. It also doesn’t mean your bad if you eat nice food; eating that salty, sweet stuff is going to make your body happy, and that’s going to make you less stressed. The good news is that it’s possible to add salt, sugar, and fat to everything you eat, and make everything you eat taste delicious. You’ve already been doing this - if you’ve ever put Parmesan on top of your pasta, or salt on your food, you’ve made that food better for you. Rather than eat too much chocolate, you can get the same kick out of eating soup, rice, or even salad, just by sticking some things on top.
SALT
This first one is the easiest. Buy yourself some nice salt! Go crazy in the salt aisle, and spend money on some big flakey salt. I don’t think the pink salt is better than regular white salt, and I wouldn’t buy salt with herbs in it, but I do think that slightly fancier salt is worth it. You can also have your cooking salt for when you need lots of it, like when making a soup. It’s also fine if your salt has iodine in it!
POMEGRANATE SEEDS
This pictures has pomegranate seeds and a few other things I mention below. Think of it like a guide!
Look, it’s time we stopped thinking of pomegranates as a seed, and thought of them more as a type of package for the seeds inside them - which go great on soups, salads, and a lot of other stuff. However, there’s a special trick to opening them, because if you just cut into it like some European idiot who has never seen a pomegranate before you’re going to spray seeds everywhere and waste a bunch of your expensive pomegranate. Am I going to tell you what the trick is? No. That is what youtube is for. However, since I started using pomegranate on top of foods, I will say my life is 85% better.
PARSLEY
There’s no reason not to put parsley on your food. It’s a staple of many cultures, and it makes your breath better. Plus it’s filled with vitamins. Does it make your food taste drastically different? No, not really, because it’s not filled with salt, fat, or sugar. Think of it like a cleanser for your palette, because it literally is.
PARMESAN CHEESE
I said parmesan but I could be talking about any hard Italian cheese. They’re all salty and fatty, so you’re hitting two out of three there. The purists out there are only going to want to keep it for special Italian meals, but you can sneak it onto hot lentils, grate it into soup, or even put it in a sandwich.
LEMON
This is the OG of food topping, as a cool person would say. Are lemons gangster? Hopefully not in the same was as avocado was found out to be last year. You can put the lemon juice on your food, but you can also use a zester to scrape tiny bits of delicious tasting lemon skin onto your food. I recommend a microplane, which you can use on both lemons and Italian cheeses.
TAHINI
Tahini is a sesame seed paste, a bit like peanut butter if it was made out of sesame seeds. A little drizzle of it on top of soups, pasta, and grilled vegetables can really lift the taste of your meal.
PINE NUTS
Pine nuts are expensive and kind of smell like popcorn when being cooked. The other thing on top of this is dried flowers, which a friend gave me (thank you!) and makes anything look colourful and fun. Even yesterday's kurbis soup.
Ok, pine nuts are crazy expensive, and I hate them for that. But you can buy yourself a bag of pine nuts and toast them gently, and then enjoy them on many things. Just don’t eat too many because your taste receptors will get confused, and you’ll only be able to taste pine nuts. And nobody wants to get confused about tasting things in the year 2021.
Do you need more? C’mon, just grab some stuff and experiment. It’s fine to have honey and cheese on top of your food, whatever it is. Do you want to put more seeds on your food? Go for it. Experiment with all of these things, and you’ll look like you’re a fancy chef when you’re just messing around. That’s all that toppings are: you don’t need talent, just a well-stocked kitchen cupboard.
Treat yo’self!
UPDATES AND STUFF: it was hard to write this, so I’m going to switch to doing a newsletter every two weeks. Maybe three. I still love you, but I’m trying to keep up with a few other things, and write some essays for university, so there are other demands on my time. That's why there's no charity to support.
If you want to read more, I suggest checking out this article about the cinnabon roll, a sort of ultra-processed cinnamon bun that you can buy in some cities. I saw one in London once, and was so turned off I had to wait outside while the people I was with brought one. It’s a fascinating example of how fast food takes food that we make and then turns it into this super-charged, high-fat/high-sugar monster.
Pete