Born in the Wrong Place

       Tom and I were in Chicago over the weekend, and had the pleasure of dining at both of Rick Bayless’s Mexican restaurants there – Topolobampo and Frontera Grill. You may recall that I tried one of his vegetable recipes (for sweet potatoes) earlier this month.
       Two things were particularly interesting, from a vegetable standpoint, about visiting his restaurants on this trip. First, on our visit to Frontera Grill, Chef Bayless sat down at the next table over for his own meal, and I got the chance to eavesdrop on much of his conversation. It was not about vegetables. Second, although I had thought a visit to his restaurants might give me more insight into interesting side dishes, vegetables were not a key part of any our meals.
       Rather, our dishes were almost all about meat, poultry and more meat – goat, duck, lamb, beef, etc. I’m sure there were peppers and onions and such in the various exquisite and complex sauces served with each dish. But “free-standing” vegetables seemed merely to be garnishes – a handful of watercress or lettuce, a slice of onion or radish -- there for color or accent, but not enough to be even one of seven recommended servings a day.
       And then I got to thinking about a friend, whose nephew is starting to do some volunteer work in a village in Guatemala. He is excited about the months to come, but apparently is also in a state of vegetable (and fruit) deprivation. The villagers tend to eat a lot of rice and beans, without a serving of lettuce, carrots, broccoli or asparagus to be seen.
       Which got me to thinking…
       Why couldn’t I have been born in Mexico or Guatemala, where I could have been relatively free of Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and the like haunting the side of my plate?
       I’ll bet I would have enjoyed the weather in either place more than I did during my childhood in Canada too.

       It's just not fair.