Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Food for thought

"Curreem Sheppard, 4, sneaks a bite of homemade macaroni and cheese while his sister Curreda is not watching in their Baltimore home Thursday night. Their mother, Freda Sheppard, owns her own catering business, and makes her own homemade macaroni and cheese often."

Temptation is sometimes too difficult to control. For myself, I thought: Why is it when you cannot eat that you absolutely think of all your favorite foods and click by numerous food programs on television?

On Monday I had my wisdom teeth ganked along with some other dental work and after plopping onto the couch upon my arrival at home I was hungry. No, make that starved.

With my mouth in pain and the anesthesia making my face feel like an inflated Macy's Day Thanksgiving Day parade float, I craved for food. Something. Anything.

But as I drooled on my keyboard salivating at the scrumptious foods (and because I had no idea I was from all of the numbing) during an Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations marathon, I knew I'd have to settle for nothing.

From fish and chips, which I've never had, yet looked great, straight from the streets of Edinburgh, to mustard-based South Carolina ribs and fresh sushi from Tokyo, my stomach twisted and turned like a wash machine. I needed food. I was convinced I would not survive.

As time passed, so did the pain, bleeding and the numbing. I was starting to feel better and better. At that point I really needed to try and get something in me before I keeled over from lack of nutrients.

But as any college kid, my selection was limited. While I ended up snacking on some microwavable pancakes which I basically swallowed by the bite size, I really wanted some soft, warm macaroni and cheese. And what better than the batch I had photographed before the Eddie Adams Workshop.

About a month ago or so, I had a small food review assignment which was a little different than the normal shoot. Instead of going to a restaurant, I went to a home in Baltimore where a woman whipped up some of her famous mac and cheese in front of me.

Singing Baltimore club music, I was greeted and hugged by her younger children. I couldn't help but to laugh at the endearing qualities of her kids. However, that was about the only cute thing to happen.

The house was was hot due to all the cooking and it was humid, too. So much moisture that I had trouble keeping my lens from steaming up every couple minutes.

As Freda and her kids mashed their plastic covered hands into the tubs of thick, cheesy goodness I found it hard not to put my own under protected hand into the four-cheese dish and eat some.

As they prepared a couple different tubs of macaroni and cheese, I could not help but to laugh when one of her youngest sons kept sneaking bites to eat. It was if no one in the world was watching, not even the schmuck across the table with the ginormous camera.

His lackluster, carefree attitude made me think of my current situation.

Like putting his hands into the dish before it's served, it's difficult to sometimes control your own temptations and not think about the repercussions.

But you must control your actions, don't eat when you cannot and don't stick you dirty hands in the mac and cheese because you'll only ruin the entire process in one fell swoop and later regret the decision.

I'll continue not to eat all the foods I desire because I know that will only make my waiting time that much longer if I get dry sockets.

On a food related thought, Happy Thanksgiving.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thats so cute that she continued to sneak bites even though u were there. I really like this picture because everyone can relate to what she's doing. And I totally feel your pain when it comes to mouth surgery because I've had a couple myself!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 2:26:00 PM  

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