Slow Food

There are some foods that necessarily slow us down and make us work for their culinary pleasure.  Maybe they could be described as foods with an attitude – “if you want me, come get me”.

This thought came to me as I watched my husband Rob wrestle with the strong adductor muscle holding together the craggy shells of a ½ dozen oysters the other day.  The slimy, sinewy inner rewards of this labor are not my preference, but Rob loves raw oysters on occasion. He adheres to the old food rule that the best time to enjoy these bivalves is in cooler months containing the letter “R” in their names.

Rob was introduced to the delicacy of oysters years ago. His grandfather would return from an annual New England fall foliage road trip with a gallon container of oysters nestled in a cooler on a bed of ice to share with his family.

Here’s a list of 10 other foods that come to mind when I think of “slow food”:

1.    Pistachios in the shell
2.    Grapefruits
3.    Lobsters
4.    Pomegranates
5.    Corn on the Cob
6.    Edamame in the shell
7.    Whole Artichokes
8.    Oranges vs. Orange Juice
9.    Sunflower Seeds in the shell
10.    Steel Cut Oats

Their natural packaging encourages us to savor not only the food but the process of eating.  It gives our stomachs time to naturally communicate to our brains that we’re comfortably full and thoroughly satisfied.  Maybe by having to work a little bit for our meal we are able to embrace the full pleasure of eating these slow foods.

What Slow Foods do you enjoy?