I Don't Like Spam!

As I sat eating a tin sardines, (skinless, boneless, water packed) the other day, I got to thinking about some of the foods I will not touch as an adult. Foods, that as a kid were staples of my diet. Now I know there are some folks who turn their noses up at sardines. I live with two of those kind of people. My husband and daughter have been grossed out by my sardine and saltine cracker eating. I usually eat them when no one else is at home. Sardines are a great source of protein and are low in calories as long as they are packed in water, not oil.



So what are some of those "foods" that I ate while growing up? Vienna Sausages. In the south vienna is pronounced vi-een-er, not vee-anna. The list of ingredients is kind of straight forward:



Chicken, Water, Beef, Pork, Salt, Corn Syrup, 2 Percent Or Less: Spices, Natural Flavorings, Dried Garlic, Sodium Nitrite.



I guess the scariest ingredient is the sodium nitrite. It is a preservative that keeps meats pink even after they have been cooked. Of course as a kid I didn't know about such things. I just knew that my daddy was eating vienna sausages and saltines so of course I wanted one.



Another "food" was Potted Meat. The ingredient list is far scarier for this one:



Beef tripe, beef hearts, chicken, partially defatted cooked pork fatty tissue, water, salt, mustard, vinegar, dried garlic, sodium erythorbate, natural flavoring, sodium nitrite



I don't want to analyze these ingredients at all. Potted meat was usually eaten on a sandwich. Colonial white bread, potted meat spread on one slice of bread, mayonnaise spread on the other and placed together. If you wanted to be healthy you could put a piece of zero nutrients iceberg lettuce on the sandwich. You could eat the potted meat with saltines if you wanted. Hmm, there is a pattern developing here. Saltine crackers go with everything it seems.



Some of the other things I don't eat now that I'm a grown up are, fried pork rinds, bologna, Spam, dried beef and regular hot dogs. I actually love hot dogs. Nothing better in the summer, but they have to be Hebrew National, all beef, 97 percent fat free.


I'm really not a picky eater, let's just say I'm choosy.