It's been ages and ages, I realize, but I never intended to let this blog die. I've just been in the midst of writing up my dissertation and job hunting. I'm going to be defending my thesis in a couple of months, likely in late January/early February, so that's been my main focus for a while now. I haven't gone on any really interesting trips since the last time I posted, and while I have been cooking some and have been to some awesome restaurants (most notably Eleven Madison Park last May!), I haven't been doing nearly as much foodie stuff lately. The most interesting thing I've done food-wise lately was cook borscht (which turned out really well, admittedly) and to try out Soylent. If you aren't familiar with the product, it's basically a drink designed to replace food -- it's balanced so that if you consume nothing but, you still fulfill all your nutritional and caloric needs without needing to cook or prep anything.
But Jennifer, you say -- you LOVE cooking! AND eating delicious new things! Why on earth would you replace food with something like that? Well, for one, I love to try new things. And I really like the *idea* behind it -- making it easy to get all your nutrition from one source in a relatively inexpensive manner (~$2.30 per bottle right now, cheaper in powder form) seems like a good idea to me. And if I'm ever going to replace food with something else, now is the time -- like I said, I'm in the middle of writing up my thesis. I'm *busy* and when I'm not busy I'm frequently *tired* and don't feel like cooking up something complicated. If you compare the frequency at which I've been cooking for the past six months ago to any other six month period of my life since moving into my own place (albeit with roommates, but also with a KITCHEN) during my junior year of undergrad, you'll notice a SHARP drop in how often I've been doing so and a SHARP rise in take-out and super-simple instant type dinners which require minimal effort. Also, it's named after a famously cannibalistic product which I find, frankly, hilarious. Know thy audience, I guess.
Anyway, they recently updated the product so that it's no longer just in powder form -- originally you had to mix it up yourself whenever you wanted it, but now it comes in conveniently pre-made bottles which I can grab on my way out the door if I'm in a hurry. They're 400 calories a pop, so in theory you can drink 5 bottles a day to get your full 2000 calories, but I maybe have one or two a week at most, when I'm tired and hungry or in a hurry to get somewhere and need food fast. Good for a quick breakfast or snack. I bought a 12 pack a little over a month ago and recently received my second one last weekend.
Taste-wise, it's kind of like a cross between unsweetened soy milk and those last liquidy dregs of oatmeal that collect at the bottom of your bowl, in that it's got a bit of thickness and texture. It tastes fine. A bit bland, but really, I like soy milk, and that's the closest thing to it, I think. Thick soy milk with a hint of oatmeal. Fine for a bit, for a meal here and there, but if I lived off the stuff I would get cravings for actual flavor pretty fast.
Anyway, that's all for now, this was meant to be a quick life update mainly. No promises for future update schedules because right now my dissertation writing is the most important thing.
