An un-American lack of squeamishness

July 27, 2011

This afternoon I’m cooking lentils to go with some rice and vegetable curry. I’m afraid the lentils might not work out, but at least the curry is great on the rice!

My problem is that I looked a little too closely at the lentils as they were boiling. I noticed one lentil looked a little strange, a little darker in color than usual, and I had a fear. It turned out my fear was well-placed: there was indeed a big black bug that had crawled in and eaten all the goodness out of the shell.

I spent at least an hour yesterday cleaning these lentils, sorting out the bad ones and the rocks and the other random junk that gets into the huge bags in the shops where I buy bulk grains and beans. As I was working yesterday, I realized that this batch of lentils was just about the absolute dirtiest and most bug invested that I’ve bought, ever. Perhaps overly desperate to make the most out of my purchase, I just kept cleaning out everything I could see. I thought the bugs would only be in the lentils that had big holes in them. I was wrong.

As I pondered what I should do, I kept looking for more suspect lentils. And I found them alright. It didn’t take much searching to find two more with bugs. After a short break to enjoy some curry on rice to console myself, I found yet another bad bug lentil after just about five seconds of looking. Things aren’t looking good for this batch of lentils. Sadness.

The funny thing is, as I was searching and debating whether I should throw my lentils out or just brace myself and attempt to forget I ever saw something (let alone four somethings), I thought about how before my time here in Morocco, I would have immediately thrown everything away, lost my appetite, and probably made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Now, I’m inured to one fact of life in most places around the world: bugs exist, and they like to eat our food too. In America it seems like we do a pretty good job of pretending that bugs aren’t around. I suppose there are fewer, actually. But what is a bug except a little extra protein? Is it good cause to lose appetite and throw food away?

I had a funny conversation with a friend as I was pondering my situation and searching for more evidence to convince myself to throw the lentils away. It went like this:

me:  ok

I have a dilemma

I’m cooking lentils

I spent forever sorting them

they were some of the dirtiest lentils I’ve ever bought

and now that they’re cooking, I’ve spotted 3 that had bugs inside them, without looking too hard

I’m thinking maybe I should just throw them away

thoughts?

so frustrating!

Timothy:  I dunno

Living in a civilized country

A single bug is enough to burn all the food I own, generally

I gotta say, I’ve come a long way in Morocco. I used to feel the same way. I wonder if perhaps I’ve gone a little too far in my adjustment to the realities of cooking here… but I think in the end I’m pretty happy to have developed a very un-American lack of squeamishness.

~ by marjmallow on July 27, 2011.