Redneck sushi is good for you
July 1st, 2008 by Cliff Bostock in Cooking, Food & Life
Once upon a time, there was a Chinese restaurant on Buford Highway where your meal was concocted sort of pharmaceutically. (It was located in the shopping center that contains Phuket.)
The owner-chef was a doctor who came to your table, read your pulse and then composed your meal on the basis of his findings. I’m not sure how he found the state of my health, but the remedy was always really, really bland.
But that was consistent with the advice of a Tibetan doctor who traveled with the Dalai Lama. I had an appointment with him years ago. The examination included a pulse reading and a look at my urine, which I’d been told to bring in a bottle. The doctor, after correctly diagnosing a muscle problem I’d never had before, held the bottle up to the light, swooshed it around and said: “You eat too much spicy food and you think too much. You must stop thinking for five minutes every hour.” Good advice for a dining critic and perpetual student, I guess.
In the 15 or so years since then, we’ve come increasingly to view food in a medicinal way. Yesterday, The New York Times featured a post in its “Well” blog entitled “The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating.” Topping the list composed by author Johnny Bowden is a food I actually eat quite often, beets, although I was surprised to see that I should be eating them raw. The best treatment of beets I’ve regularly encountered is at David Sweeney’s Dynamic Dish.
Another (stinky) surprise, popular in trailer parks throughout the South, is this dish, which I’ve heard called “Redneck Sushi” before (especially when served on Saltines):
Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.’’ They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins.
How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.
Check out the entire list here. There’s a spirited discussion in the comments section following the post.
(Graphic from mattbites.com. Check out his recipes.)
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