Food Jags

Last night I had a Stouffers French Bread Pepperoni Pizza for dinner. I don't think I've had one of those since college, but it was dinnertime, I was at the grocery store and I was hungry. When I sat down to eat the pizza all of these memories from college came rushing back full force. It was a bit overwhelming.

I "suffer" from food jags. Pretty soon I'm sure there will be some pharmaceutical to combat food jags (with a totally gross warning like "may cause oily discharge," but for now, I don't mind them that much.

Never heard of a food jag? A food jag is when someone (usually a child) eats the same thing over and over again. Here's an example: I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread every day of my senior year of high school except for (a) the day after any major Jewish holiday when my mom would send me with left over corned beef and iceberg lettuce on white bread with mayonnaise and (b) when fish-on-a-bun or chicken-on-a-bun was on the cafeteria menu. Here's another example: When I moved to New York City and had my first office job, I ate "deli sushi" and a bag of dirty potato chips for lunch Monday - Thursday for an entire year. Here's another example: Stonyfield Farmss Low Fat Strawberry Yogurt, for breakfast, most days of the week, for as long as I can remember.

Can't find Stonyfield Farms here. I've been eating Activia (and by the way, it works!).

So, one of the side effects of Food Jags is what I experienced last night - because I ate a certain food almost exclusively for a defined period of time it is very easy to associate a certain taste with a certain time or place. In fact, it's almost impossible not to. For example, I only drank Pepsi when I was crashing at my college boyfriend's place and now whenever I accidentally get Pepsi somewhere it is as if I am IN his old apartment.

Like I said, I don't mind food jags so much. I'm sure someone out there would love to analyze why I am prone to them, and I have my own ideas about it, but for now, I relish the memories of the places I've been through the things I've eaten.

Side Note: Someone NOT prone to food jags: SMS. If we have pizza for lunch one day and I suggest it for dinner the next, he looks at me like I've grown a second head. He thinks it is absurd to eat the same thing 2 days in a row. He's more evolved than I am!