My food memories with my cousin Zaheen are fond and varied.   Last night I went to his wonderfully stylish Lower East Side apartment for dinner, as I do almost every week, where we easily decided upon our favorite meal from childhood.  It was both of our first solid foods as babies, a staple of our family for thousands of years back and, quite frankly, the fastest and cheapest possible option.  Rice and dal.

I just finished watching The Future of Food on my computer because that’s how I watch TV (get the link to watch it free on Hulu from our Facebook fan page) and, horrified of course at the harsh realizations of American food culture and its effect on its people and those in other countries, took some time to think about how much of that nonsense may or may not be in what I eat.  From 1990 to 2003, sales of organic food rose 1200% and has risen steadily since.  I’m neither hippie nor orthorexic, I buy organic when I can and don’t really sweat it when I can’t.  But that is an undeniably large increase in percentage.  You’d think we were protecting our health and well-being or something.