How Fresh Is Too Fresh?

moreintelligentlife.com:

What we eat--our tastes--comprises a mere subset of all the things we might eat (and a particularly small subset, perhaps, for Anglo-Americans) in even that short space between the parentheses. Consider two adjectives that typically connote desirable qualities in food: "fresh" and "aged". (And before you object: I do know that we don't want "aged" yogurt or "aged" fruit--but that's in the nature of those things. Culinarily speaking, "aged" connotes refinement; it is a positive term).

How fresh is too fresh?

Read the whole story: moreintelligentlife.com

Comments

[Kungfublood]

Remember if it's fresh from the sea,
the parasites are free!

[MajorKong]

Anything that gets up and runs off my plate is too fresh.

[askmeificare]

If you take a bite of steak and it moos, I would say it's a tad too fresh.

[biggeranium]

In discussing fermented foods such as "Cheeses, cured meats, yogurt, sourdough bread, even beer," the author misses a key connection. The distinct flavor and aroma of most of those items are caused by living organisms. We're not as squeamish about them because they're not known to be sentient, but the bacteria in a good yogurt are as alive as the octopus.

For the record, though, I wouldn't eat a live octopus. He hit the nail on the head for the biggest reason: aesthetics.

[SelfishHedonist]

DIS-GUST-ING. I almost yakked up my lunch.

I'm planning on going 95% ovo-lacto next year... I read the book "Skinny Bitch" (I'm a dude), and the vegan lifestyle the authors promote made sense to me on a lot of different levels.

The idea of ME, myself, killing another living thing just to eat it is GROSS. Skinning a fish and then nailing it to a board for consumption?The pleasure one would get at such a thing is perverse.

Sorry if I sound like yet another effete liberal urbanite, but come on-- there are plenty of alternatives to killing your food.

But I guess my next question for those who eat fish like this (or fish in general) would be: how do you feel about jellyfish? Because once all the fish are gone, what do you think is going to step up to fill the plankton-eating niche in the oceanic ecosystem? It's already started happening...