The Best and Worst Green meals in the same day

I had a hot dog for dinner tonight. Not a veggie dog or even a turkey dog - a plain old very not vegetarian hot dog. No one said a word to me which just goes to show the remarkable self control my seventh grader can exhibit if he wants to. Any time he's observed me having even the smallest taste of a non-veg dish I've prepared for him to adjust the seasoning he busts out with "How's that vegetarian thing working out for you there mom?". Snot. Curious, not a word tonight. More curious, why would this be the moment I'd choose to fall? Hot Dog? Probably you'd not be surprised to learn that it is 3:05 AM as I write this entry. I was thinking of trying hanging upside down for a while to see if I can dislodge the thing from my esophagus as every other attempt has been to no avail.

Which reminds me of last week when I had the best and worse green meals in succession in the same day.

For some reason I was really hungry one morning so I scrambled an egg. Not any egg, a beautiful, green, organic, locally produced egg from the cutest farmer who raises his chickens the way you would want them to be raised, purchased at the new Haight-Ashbury Farmer's Market. Yes, I said a green egg - there are usually at least one green, one blue and one rose colored in every dozen as this is how they are laid - in color. Made me realize finally at 45 years old why we must dye eggs at Easter. That egg served with a slice of avocado, a tiny sprinkle of truffle salt and small, intense, dry farmed early girl tomato took me through a "two a day" at the gym and long list of errands. Just as delicious as anything you'd want to eat, which is what makes the contrast with my unfortunate lunch so wrenching.

Being a serious soup lover I will normally travel pretty far out of my way to get a good one to go (the roasted tomato soup at The Blue Barn on Chestnut is actually worth trying to park in the f'ing Marina, no joke) but it was getting late, so I just grabbed a vegetarian split pea soup at Whole Foods. What a horrible, flat, mouthful of lumpy green paste that. Mercifully it was almost entirely tasteless so at least the experience didn't linger. Whole foods has lost it completely. Or maybe it never had it, good food just doesn't come from some giant aggregating corporation even if it is made from organic and sustainably produced ingredients. Good food comes from a small aggregation of identifiable individuals - a healthy animal, a carefully grown plant, a responsible farmer - and a cook who notices and cares about the energy, thought, and effort required to produce the ingredients. Sometimes it is hard to plan around the farmer's market schedule but it is just so worth it on every level.