What I Would Eat Wednesday

I saw this post over at Janetha's blog awhile ago (lovelovelove this blog!) and it totally inspired me to write this post.  She used to eat all sorts of crap but changed her eating habits...but still likes the nasty stuff and lists her top ten faves.  As you all know, I love me my food...but it doesn't all have to be highbrow stuff.  In fact, sometimes the more ghetto the better.  I totally subscribe to the 80/20 formula - if I eat properly 80% of the time, 20% of the time I can enjoy myself and not be thinking about the fat/carb/protein ratios!  It's all about balance, right?  Food is one of the biggest passions and joys in my life so to deprive myself of the things I love is unthinkable.

So...what are my top ten foods I would still eat if calories and health weren't an issue?  In no particular order...

1.  Pizza

Out of all the things on this list, pizza is the one that I could eat most often.  Cheesy hot deliciousness.  The place Hubs and I frequent has a really good pizza called the Barcelona which is spinach, feta, garlic, onions and chorizo sausage...to die for, and my absolute fave.  Hubs' favourite is a good ol' Hawaiian...I'm not a fan of pineapple on pizza but in a pinch, it'll do. Ha!

2.  Sushi/Sashimi

I love sushi.  LOVE IT.   Probably top of my list of foods that I love to eat.  The unfortunate thing is that Victoria doesn't have any really great sushi restaurants.  There's some OK ones, but I've been a bit spoiled by the great, great Japanese restaurants in Vancouver...and because Hubs is a trained Japanese cook, he knows his way around Japanese food.  We always make sure we hit up at least one sushi place when we hit Vancouver.  My personal favourites are either chirashi sushi (bowl of sushi rice with assorted seafood on top) or negitoro roll (tuna with green onion). 

3.  Chips, Cheezies...Basically Any Salty Snack Food

Did I ever tell you guys about our bad food box?  It's a banker box that we stash all our naughty foods, and on any given day that puppy is filled to the top with all sorts of chips and sweet sin.  Every week we peruse the chip aisle at the grocery store, looking for our next hit of crunchy goodness.  The only time we ever bust out the bad food box is Saturdays (we store it in the garage), and then sadly on Sundays, it goes back to it's rightful place.  Hubs used to have to hide it on me, but it's like some kind of unwritten rule that on non-cheat days, you can't go into the box.  Personal favourites - Smartfood and sour cream and onion chips.

4.  Cheese - Any and All

Ahhh.  The downfall of many a diet.  And it totally sucks that I'm intolerant to dairy, because cheese is definitely a weakness of mine.  It's funny...because I used to despise cheese as a kid.  Couldn't stand the smell or taste, but we didn't eat a lot of cheese as a kid.  This may be a sweeping generalization, but because my parents were immigrants, they weren't brought up on cheese in China and didn't like it...thought it smelled like old socks.  I remember eating MILD cheddar and thinking it was too much.  Luckily I've seen the error of my ways and love all cheeses now including the strong stuff, but particularly havarti, goat cheese and port salut.

5.  Fries

Who doesn't love a good fry?  Seriously.  And even if you hate McDonald's, you gotta admit that their fries are pretty awesome.  I used to be strictly a ketchup kinda girl, but I've come around and like some thick brown gravy on my fries as well.  Vinegar is good too.  Actually, all three at once is even better.  OK, drooling now.


6.  White Rice

As a proper Chinese girl, I grew up on massive doses of white rice.  Rice at lunch, rice at dinner...no meal was complete without a scoop of the white stuff.  When I was about 15, I read that white rice wasn't the best thing to eat since it was refined carbs so decided to tell my mom that it was bad for us.  I was bold as brass, and threw it out there one day during dinner...and boy, did I get told off.  How could I, a silly teenager, question the food that sustained generations and generations of Chinese people before me?  The gall!  Well, now that I'm grown up, we eat only brown rice but a secret part of my heart still longs for white rice.  My dad feels a meal isn't complete without it, so when we have our Xmas family dinners I have to make a pot of it for him...and well...I maybe add in an extra cup so I can have leftovers.  My favourite white rice concoction is soy sauce, sesame oil with a splash of rice vinegar all mixed into a big bowl of white rice.  Sodium, fat and refined carbs...YES!

7.  Instant Noodles

Speaking of refined carbs...instant noodles are another one of my favourite bad foods.  So totally bereft of any nutritional value, but oh so good.  I don't even boil them...I like to put the noodles and seasoning package into a bowl, throw some hot water on it and let it sit for an hour or so until the noodles have absorbed all the liquid and are kinda mushy and super salty.  Don't judge me.

8.  KFC

Our favourite treat as children...after a long day of working out in the garden, the last thing my parents would want to do on weekends is cook.  Call up the Colonel!  We always loved eating our KFC with a big bowl of white rice to counteract the saltiness.  And I do really like their macaroni salad too.

9.  Hot Dogs

Mmmmm...meat in a tube.  Hubs and I regularly crave hot dogs, and they make the cheat day rotation on a fairly regular basis.  Harvest All Beef dogs are the best.  We even chose hot dogs as our meal of choice on the night of the Stanley Cup Final game.  I know, I know...it wasn't a cheat day, but we wanted to celebrate with the Canucks if they won or commiserate with them if they lost.  OK, I'm still not over it so I'll just stop now.


10.  Tim Tams

Have any of you guys tried these things?  These are a new addiction...I bought a pack on a whim a few months ago and these things are to die for.  They're kind of like Twix, but you can get regular, caramel filled or dark chocolate.  I love the caramel one as it's kinda chewy.  Hubs has fallen for them too, after resisting the call of the Tim Tam and laughing at me that I was so in love with these things.