Tater Talk

There are SO MANY foods I no longer eat very much, and one of them is the mighty potato. I don't forgo it willingly but simply too many carbs for the current version of me.

Good — The premise of all things are interesting is put to the test today. Topic one is the potato in all its wonder and glory.

Very Good — Could you pass the arsenic is about the unlikely synergy in this wonderful world of ours. All the animals and plants seem to do their part and many of the jobs we would never volunteer for.

Roasted potatoes always look GREAT!

Promised & Delivered

Last week I went down the rabbit hole of AI. It was a story I wanted to tell. When it was complete, I pruned it THREE TIMES and still ended up with entirely too long of a story. I promised at the end, next time would be light and short. Less than half the length this week and I hope you can smile, learn a bit and just enjoy. Secondary promise — I will avoid posting things of that length or at least split them in half! Eight minutes and two topics remain the goal — hooray for brevity.

Something Else

Each of my posts includes a light-hearted poll. One of my loyal readers, Anne K admonished early on that none of the answers I offered worked for her. Thereafter every poll I do includes an option (5) Something Else. A combination of just silliness and validation your answers are anonymous and mostly for readers viewing pleasure. My goal, with each poll, is at least one light-hearted option. My AI poll (in the post “Checkers, Chess & Go”) included Allen Iverson as one possible answer. That option, in turn, reminds me of one of my newer Substack interests titled “Both Are True”. Alex Dobrenko who writes Both Are True happens to have squatted on a wonderful way to articulate that thought. It is comedic personal essay. Most of all it is the Substack Newsletter title I wish I had thought of most. Make a mental note this week to pay attention to all of the myriad times you are amidst a discussion or face a decision. I think, you will find, both are true applies quite a lot more than you expect. This is the perfect time to recommend Alex as he wrote a tirade against AI (encouraging people, presumably like me to stop talking about AI — he didn’t say it so nicely) and is a fan of Allen Iverson (an unusual reference to AI). Both are True. See what I did there?

Potatoes are Interesting Given the Chance!

Several years ago, when I faced my diagnosis of Type-2 Diabetes, my long-term love affair with the potato came to an end. As I marched ever closer to the new light of Plant-Based eating, I still secretly love potatoes. While I buy Japanese Sweet Potatoes, I only eat them in thirds as my body can’t handle them. I am far from the average American anymore who raises the potato to the highest pedestal as the most popular vegetable in America! Americans eat 120 pounds (54 kilograms) per year.

Potatoes are a great food. Carbohydrates are only a factor for a subset of the population who needs to count them based on their medical condition (like diabetics). There is nothing wrong with eating potatoes! While sometimes, my posts caused some readers to be not so happy about some detail of foods I talk about, today is not one of those.

Eating 120 pounds of potatoes per year is not, in itself, an issue. Of course, the devil is in the details. It turns out Americans favor their potatoes as 35% of the potato crop is turned into french fries, 28% is used for fresh, and 13% goes to chips! So about half of the potatoes we eat are french fries or chips. Kind of like eating cling peaches in heavy syrup instead of just eating a peach.

Today is not a lecture. As a guy who checks labels all of the time now, one of the most depressing serving guidelines ever is the number of chips in a serving. I’d rather have a pencil stuck in my ear than eat 8-9 chips. I promised not to go down the rabbit hole tonight. I will only share that frozen hashbrowns and tater tots are not foods worth exploring how they are made as I have witnessed the process — humans and industrial food! Instead, enjoy them in moderation as a perfect side to corned beef hash! The bonus in ordering them is to feel free to salt them liberally. Sodium is the least of your worries!

What’s New, Scooby Do?

Rejecting the opinions of the time, the trek to ‘discover’ the New World of the Americas was transformational. Since today we are talking taters, imagine a world without these foods, all of them thanks to the explorers. While there are more, this is quite a list of key elements in so many of the world's cuisines. I especially fall victim to associating tomatoes with Italian food. Nope, started in North America I am afraid. What’s significant about this list to a ‘seeker’ like me? So much of what we believe and assume is wrong until we delve a little deeper. Potatoes, chocolate, and tomatoes seem like tough foods to not include on our plates. I think people sometimes associate potatoes with Ireland but poverty and abundant carbohydrates as the means to transform the residents of Germanic lands into a broadly larger people and eventually bring war and conflict to Europe for centuries. I think my food joys would suffer greatly without the items below. How about you?

potatoes, tomatoes, corn, beans, squash, chili, cacao, and vanilla — Thanks Americas — my hero these days is quinoa of South America (a magical plant that happens to be a complete protein — everything you need to keep the engine running)

Here’s a thought experiment. When I went to the dark side and embraced mostly plant-based eating I dwelled on all of the wonderful things I would be eating less of. Now, squarely on the other side of the pond, it is unimaginable to drop the list above from my eating habits. For me, food revolves around complementary seasonings that transform the mundane into memorable. No chilies? No chocolate? No corn? No beans? No squash (where art thou pumpkin pie)? No vanilla (the majority of all baking and cookies become also-rans)? While I soldier on and largely avoid them, life without the potato for many would be a slog.

Potatoes as Misery & Dynasty

If you wish to ‘jump the shark’, take a look at this view of the modern world through the eyes of a potato from Smithsonian Magazine. Yep, that eyes thing was a pun. Armies travel on their stomachs and carbs feed the horde. When we hardly knew ANYTHING (that is quite recent), a plant that could grow underground meant the efficiency of output was unlike wheat, corn, rice, and sugarcane. Gravity is the enemy of all things that grow on stalks. Any appreciable growth takes its toll and leads to droop and rot. I’ve exhausted my tater chat. I hope you enjoyed it.

Can Nature Save the Day?

If, per my thesis, this is the best time ever to be alive we must have guardian angels built into the system of some sort. I recently listened to a report about the weird bacteria of the ocean and what they are capable of. Too much iron or too much arsenic and we are toast. Rice is a great staple of life and I will never fully kick the habits despite the challenges of carbs. Here’s a short podcast I listened to that tells an unlikely story of creatures that eat the stuff we will not or cannot. They are part of the cooperative and interactive cleaning crew of the planetary biome.

Could you Pass the Arsenic?

One of the wonderful treats for me is wild rice. Traditional harvesting is common in the Midwest and especially in the Land of 10,000 Lakes (it’s closer to 17,000). Something is gonna kill you so fretting over everything can turn you into a basket case. Wild rice is wonderful, it just happens to be high in arsenic (as does other forms of rice — don’t fret, rinse it).

Metals of all kinds and especially the ones we refer to as ‘heavy metals’ are bad for you. While your body needs a bit of everything, the thresholds are quite low. I have been exploring the consequences of a remarkable AI project authored by DeepMind called AlphaFold. The biggest takeaway from the moonshot effort to map all of the animal and plant kingdom proteins is the diversity of life on the planet. We are special, us humans, and making one of us seems to need a mix and match of about 28,000 proteins. That is a lot! However, our connection to everything (often preached by sharing how much DNA we share with a sponge) is even more remarkable. DeepMind documented the folding and hence the 3-D structure of 200 million different proteins. Thanks, AI!!! This whole ecosystem (biome) on this planet seems to have thought of everything! Even the stuff we need to be rid of like too much iron and arsenic in the oceans is taken care of by anonymous and innocuous bacteria that have emerged to consume stuff like arsenic. Amazing!

The Poll & Music

If I could have had more options today I CERTAINLY would have included Gratinéed after reading the description of the 7th best way to make a potato from the aptly titled “How to Cook a Potato”. However, as a rule of thumb, words with carets, accents, umlauts, and the like are not so convenient to include in my Substack Editor.

Why is #7 the best you might reasonably ask? Almost every “better” option either required unusual equipment or techniques or seemed to lead to a real mess. Click the link (it will not bite) and read #2. When I got to the point in the recipe where a stack of books was required my eyes watered from the laughter. If you serve these, unless your guests have some semblance of the effort involved you will be left in a pool of resentment.

If, after today, you’ve had your fill of potatoes, check out either of the Newsletter recommendations from today. Both are heartfelt and make you smile. But take a chance and listen to the musical choice before you exit. For those of you sure I’m about to spin the easy-to-predict potato song, guess again. For those of you who just want to hear The Contours anyhow, here you go from the movie Dirty Dancing with Patrick Swayze.

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What’s Next

While I am inconsistent, I sometimes tease my next post. This occurs when I am getting ahead of schedule. To enjoy the rites of summer and the beginning of a new class, planning is required. Next time the title is “Biomass”. It is going to be WAY MORE INTERESTING than it sounds. I was sent scurrying to this topic by readers who pointed out the errors of my premise in a previous post. I am not the type to issue retractions due to a mixture of age and stubbornness. There are a helluva lot of living things on this planet. You might be amazed at how many there are!!!