food obsessions

Prickly pears and cherries.

Right now, cheese.

So you're only vegetarian, not vegan? When did you become a vegetarian and why, Terry?

To save the planet. And to get healthy. I was a pretty strict veggie for about 20 years, no milk, eggs or dairy products. No chicken or fish. And I used soy milk, tempe, tofu and gluten a lot. I started out macrobiotic and then progressed to a more diverse diet including fruit and natural foods. When I was with Louise, we had a little health food store in Oregon called the Wonder Natural Foods store (way before Whole Foods) and I started the Wonder Bee Pollen Collective. You know what's good? A smoothie made from Hunza dried apricots (soaked overnight in spring water), bee pollen, ginseng and honey. Louise was a very good influence on my diet and she put a lot of good spiritual energy into our food every time we had a meal. Nowadays, I'm much looser and more relaxed about my diet. Not too strict any more.

I am a true omnivore. With one notable exception, if it tastes good, and will make it through the digestive tract, without getting stuck, I'll eat it. The exception is human flesh. I never intend to try it.

Why? Philosophical reasons?

What do you mean WHY, Wer???? Terry: That sounds cool - I wish I were as decent as you about things. You don't seem to possess any kind of self-destructive mechanisms. Tim: Same here! I eat ANYTHING (except the human flesh, of course!). I don't eat as much meat as when I'm back home, but at least once a week.

Cost of a hamburger at a fast food restaurant: United States: $2.56 Australia: $1.75 Belgium: $2.87 China: $1.20 Denmark: $3.39 France: $2.84 Japan: $2.08 Russia: $2.00

The reason that I don't eat human flesh is that, with what I already eat, I have to be careful who is around when I'm eating. If I started eating human flesh I'd really have to be careful who I was with at the time. A long time ago, I was told about the cravings that a pregnant woman can get. I figured that the food obviously wasn't dangerous, so, I tried some of the combinations, and went on from there. A couple of examples: Try a peanut butter and mayonaise sandwich with sliced pickles and ancho ies. Rattlesnake stuffed with squirrel, breaded and fried, with a little chocolate syrup drizzled on top, and dusted with powdered sugar.

Hmmm...haven't tried those combos, but I do like peanut butter and mustard on hot dogs...

Had to try it. It is good, but add a little mayo, and use honey mustard.

�shivering in my shoes� I like snake though - often have them barbecued in Africa. Pofadder and mamba are particularly good.

We have rattlesnake festivals here in Texas where you can buy and eat fried snake. Otherwise, you have to find a live one and prepare it yourself.

Do you also like snake?

Yes I do like snake, and this is the best time of year to catch them. the cold makes them so sluggish that they can't strike.

I know - it's hilarious! But in Africa it's really hard to FIND them in winter, not least because the whole landscape starts to look like the back of an adder.

Here, they are pretty much in the same places that they were in the summer. This time of year you tend to suprise them before they surprise you. What does the back of an adder look like? For that matter, what does an adder look like?

An adder is a thickish, deceptively clumsy looking snake, with a big head, and little horns above the eyes. They don't move very fast, not like the mamba which not even the fastest adult could dream to outrun, but they bite faster than lightning, and when they don't look like they're going to bite. They dig themselves into the desert sand for maximum heat in summer, and the only way to see them, is to look out for the little horns sticking out, and a very vage s-shape in the sand. The colour is like a ale sort of dessert sand, with darker and lighter, diamond-like shapes. Last, but not least, they are lethal, as are most snakes in Africa. Most snakes in America are pretty lethal too, aren't they? Oh, and I wanted to ask: have you ever had snake salad? WONDERFUL STUFF!

Never had snake salad. I will look forward to the opportunity. It sounds good. How is it made? Do you have a recipe? Only a few breeds of snake are poisonous here. By far the deadliest is the coral snake. The king snake, same size as a coral snake,(@25cm), marked with same colors in a different order, is harmless. A favorite practical joke is to put a king snake in somebody's desk drawer. the usual reaction: move first, then look real close. The diamondback rattlesnake, which is the largest snake in North America, at 8 feet or so full grown, is the least poisonous snake around here. After being bitten you have a couple of days before you are in serious danger.

OH, cool! Strange that such a big, horrible sounding snake is so relatively survivable! Our adders give you between 5 and 12 hours, but the mamba, a stunning, black or bright green snake, which grows up to 10 meters long, gives you 2 hours. Except its poison destroyes tissue - so if you should be lucky enough to have your respiratory systems spared, you still end up with huge patches of raw flesh all over your body, which don't heal, because the tissue is dead.... I've seen it, and it's pretty awful. But let's talk about nicer things: SNAKE SALAD! I'm not entirely sure how my mum makes it, but the snake is obviously cooked, cut up into small pieces, and cooled. The salad is a mixture of the snake flesh, a mustardy, mayonaise-like sauce (that's the part I'm not at all sure of), and bits of lettuce, apple and gurkin. When you eat it, it must be really really cold - very refreshing in summertime.

What is gurkin? I think I could make this if you could find out what the sauce is made of.

gerkins are pickles (I think) ./

That makes sense. I think you are right,

gherkin: a) A tropical American vine, Cucumis anguria, bearing prickly, edible fruit. b) The fruit of the Gherkin. c) A small cucumber, the fruit of Cucumis sativas, especially one used for pickling.

Whatevva! Yes, it's a small, sour cucumber, a pickle. I'll ring Mum, and ask her about the sauce, I promise. Then you can make the salad, and report back.

Will do, Thanks, My mouth is watering in anticipation. By the way, have you ever had conch salad?

as a quick aside: Salsa -- a Latin American dance, a spicy sauce, and now, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a vegetable. Requests from schools in the West and Southwest prompted the USDA to grant the new designation, making salsa reimbursable under the federal school lunch program. Salsa fares much better than ketchup did 17 years ago, though. The Reagan administration's attempt to call ketchup a school lunch vegetable drew plenty of protest. But salsa, with its mix of chopped tomatoes and veggies, gets high marks from both school dietitians and students. you may now continue with your regularly scheduled conservation...

Wer, I BOUGHT that very same sauce in Germany last weekend! It looked like a good break from ketchup, and it really tastes great! PLUS: it gives me an excuse to go again! Tim, what on earth is conch salad???

It is a salad made with crunchy veggies and finely diced conch meat. Conch is a giant sea snail that lives in the Carribean Sea.

Snail.....brrrr. Never had that, not sure I will. Isn't it awfully slimy when you eat it? I don't think I would like that very much.

Actually, it is about as dry as chicken. It tastes nothing like chicken, but it is as dry.

Really! How weird! How do you think they get rid of the slime?

These are sea snails. They are not all that slimy to begin with. Secondly, you are not eating the whole snail, only the foot, the muscle it uses to walk around

I'd assume that, when they clean the snail, they do something. I don't know what and I've watched them do it.

They sell the fillets in the marketplace. They are not slimy at that point.

THAT must be what Charlie Sheen does in his spare time!

Polishes snails? HMMM Interesting occupation. One gets to hang around the docks where the passenger ships come in? sign me up!!

Sucks the slime off his own kind! And we all know what you want to hand around the docks for, don't we?

We probably have a pretty good idea. Are you familiar with passenger ships? When I was in high school, I got to play passenger during lifeboat drill on the QEII.

Oh, cool! You probably just wanted one of the pretty crew members to give you a mouth to mouth resuscitation anyway! Just kidding. Tell me what happened.

The ship was docked in Nassau. I was hanging around it. One of the crew asked me if I'd like a ride in a lifeboat. I said yes, thinking he meant around the harbor. I found out he meant a ride down the side of the ship. I got a free lunch out of the deal so it wasn't all bad.

I would love that, I'm sure! I love boatrides, but not on big ones, because you can't feel the water moving. On sailing boats or like that. In L�deritz (a place along the coast of south west Africa) there lives this kind couple in their 50's. They sailed around the world twice in their life time, and I always go to them, and ask them for a ride in their boat. And they're only too glad to get out in the open sea again, and it's just wonderful. When the tide is high, and you stand right at the front o the boat, clinging onto the railings, it's like flying every time the water hits the boat.

Oh Wow! Riette, I love to sail. I'm going to see if I can come up with a sailboat to go sailing with you.

NO! ARE YOU SERIOUS??? That would be magical! There's nothing I would like more! But only if it isn't too much trouble, really. IMAGINE!

We have a couple of huge lakes and sailboat dealers abound. It shouldn't be hard I'll work on it.

Just don't BUY the boat, for heaven's sake! We could hire one together.

Riette, I was thinking of talking the dealer into letting us take the boat out. If we play our cards right, we might get to watch sunset on Lake Travis from the deck of the boat.

You honestly think you're going to find a dealer who is going to let two people like US take his boat out for a little spin? I'm sceptical! But if you managed it, I will offer you very humble apologies.

Riette, stranger things have happened. At that time of the year, competition is fierce among boat dealers.

Alright, I shall remain positive, and if it doesn't happen, we'll hire a little rowing boat, and pretend it has a sail.

Riette, I can guarantee that it won't be that bad.

I don't really care how bad it is. I don't like comfort all that much anyway. As long as it's fun.

Riette, It will be a lot of fun, a very good time.

That's all that matters! I was going to say that at anyway you'd have your comfortable bed to return to afterwards, but you don't! ha-ha!

Riette, It's Comfortable, anyway.

I would not know!

Not unless you've been here by proxy, Riette.

How does THAT work?

You appoint someone to come in your stead Riette.

Okay, if that's what you want. �Sobbing broken heartedly�

Riette, That is definitely NOT what I want, and you know it!!

Hello, Riette, How are you this morning. I sent you email just now.

I got it, thanks. Did you get mine?

Yes, Riette, I just got it. Or I just read it.

What did you think of my recipe? Want me to try and help you make it when I'm over?

Riette: I'd love It. But there was no recipe in the email.

There wasn't? I'll have to try again. Where will we find the snake, do you think?

Riette, we'll go to the rattlesnake jubilee in Lometa.

And steal one? Don't you think the snake will get just a little pi$$ed off with us?

Riette, they sell snakes at the jubilee.

frozen pizza

chocolate, chocolate, chocolate coffee, coffee, coffee *sigh*