Exceptions

For 20 days, minus a few days in Vegas and one unfortunate event with a box of San Diego strawberries, I have eaten only local foods. Will and I were shopping at the farmers' market and from local bakeries, carefully reading labels, paying close attention to where our foods were grown and produced. Everything was going great.

Well, everything was going great until about 5:45 on Friday evening when everything fell apart.

It started at the independent movie theater where I decided to order a popcorn. And then, against my better judgement, I went ahead and ordered a Coke. You know. What's a movie without popcorn? And what's popcorn without an ice-cold Coca-Cola?

Michelle offered to buy the Coke for me so that I wouldn't technically be purchasing a non-local beverage, but since the rule is not to ingest anything non-local, I just went ahead and bought the stupid soda so I wouldn't have to choke down the salty, buttery popcorn without a refreshing beverage.

(But at least I was supporting an independent theater, right?)

(We saw The September Issue, by the way, which was throughly entertaining.)

After the movie, we met up with friends for a girls-only wine night at a local wine bar, where happy hour consisted of jalapeño mac & cheese, tiny bowls of olives, cream puffs covered in chocolate and caramel, gossip, a bit of dancing, and, of course, flights of wine. I did my very best and selected the flight that had the most local tastings--but none of the flights contained solely local options. I am pretty sure I drank some wine from Argentina and some champagne from Germany.

(But at least I was supporting my local wine bar, right?)

I say: sometimes good times require making exceptions to rules.

Comments

[Hope]

Rules are meant to be broken! Especially if the breakage is delicious.

[The Maiden Metallurgist]

My husband and I were thinking about eating locally but in our neighborhood (Chicago's south side) we have a hard enough time finding fresh produce let alone local produce that we chickened out. I think that an occasional cheat is better than not trying at all.

Plus you don't want to be one of those people who goes out and talks only about what they can't eat and ruins everyone else's time!

[Jen]

jalapeno mac and cheese...OMG! Yum.