Two letters I will never send

[nishatalitha]

Dear New Zealand Healthy Food Guide

My parents gave me a years subscription to your magazine for my birthday last month.

I have trialled one recipe from the October issue (the lamb mince pasta thing), and found it to be rather bland and tasteless, even with added spices. My flatmate turned the leftovers into a pasta bake the following night with the addition of many more herbs and spices and a topping of mashed potato.

The November issue arrived today. After carefully reading all the receipes, I have found two that I would be prepared to use. One is advertising for salmon and half the appeal of the recipe is the salmon. The other might work as a base for a summer salad.

I appreciate the effort that goes into creating a variety of recipes that people of all ages and complicated dietry requirements can eat. I understand that this can mean that the recipes, while nutritionally healthy, are otherwise bland and uninteresting, and that some people prefer them that way.

However, for those of us who have a variety of herbs spices in their cupboards - and actually use those herbs and spices, might I suggest that you offer a list of herbs and spices at the end of each recipe, for the people who are willing to experiment? While my flatmates and I have about twenty or thirty herbs and spices in our cupboard, I know that many people do not have the same amount, and as such, I suggest the following as basic additions to recipes:

-basil
-oregano
-rosemary
-cumin
-curry powder
-ginger
-pepper
-garlic

Regards
nishatalitha


Dear Mum and Dad, particularly Mum,

I know that you love me dearly and geniunely want me to be a happy healthy fufilled person. It is unfortunate that you also want me to fit into the stereotype of what a woman should look like and want me to lose weight. I appreciate that - in some respects - you may have a point.

However.

Mum, I share a love of cooking and food with you. We have been known to bond over interesting recipes in magazines such as Cusine and Dish. I have been raving to you about how awesome the Annabelle Langbein cookbook I bought this year is, and the only reason I knew that existed is because I saw it at your house.

As such, I have to wonder why you thought a years subscription to the New Zealand Healthy Food Guide was a suitable birthday present choice for me? It is certainly better than the scales you gave me last year. However, a food magazine that is three quarters articles on living and eating in a healthy and economical fashion and has no recipes that I can delight in (and very few that look okay enough to try) is not something I believe belongs in my kitchen.

We frequently use four or five herbs and spices (excluding pepper, garlic and ginger from that total) in a meal. New Zealand Healthy Food Guide does not even have one or two in a recipe. A lack of them in a recipe is distressing.

To be fair, I would have appreciated it much more when I was a student and on a very tight budget. As you said, the school you work at is beginning to use the magazine. Does that have something to do with the fact that you are preparing students to go and live (and cook) in the real world and these recipes would work on a tight student budget?

You know I have not been a fulltime student since 2004 and that I have worked in an office since mid-2005. I currently work fulltime in a law office and am reasonably well paid. We can afford to indulge in our distaste for premade pasta sauces and ready-made meals.

While we do not have as many bottles of chutneys, marinades or sauces as you do, our cupboards are comparable, given the differences in our ages and incomes.

I am a food snob. Who do you think I learned it from?

Your loving (but not grateful or obedient) daughter