Monday, April 20, 2009

Guilty Pleasures

Image and write up courtesy of Amanda

Guilt is a shifty construct--it of course comes with the weight of judgment. The implication that you ought to be doing something better, avoiding something more diligently, including something more regularly in your diet. Hitched to the word "pleasure", it becomes almost cute, possibly forgivable, a lesser transgression. No one is proud to confess simple guilt, but most people take a cautious pride in revealing their "guilty pleasure."


Perhaps, we admit our love of Justin Timberlake in hopes that our friends are also secretly his fans. And, there's a chance that your thing is nowhere near as dreadful as someone else's--you love to slather peanut butter on pickles and cram them into your mouth as fast as they will fit? Sure, that's a bit questionable, but at least you're not the one who celebrates the third Friday of each month with a microwave chicken dinner. And oneupmanship can also come into play--each confession setting the bar of grossness higher. There's street credibility to be earned in boasting the nastiest habit, the oddest taste, the most hilarious drinking story, the biggest social gaffe.

So then--what's your culinary guilty pleasure?

6 comments:

  1. Well, I am thoroughly ashamed to say that I can't refuse the siren call of a bag of chips. The whole bag in one sitting. Sometimes in a sandwich, sometimes as soup garnish, sometimes in a salad if I'm looking to assuage my guilt a notch. I haven't yet resorted to putting them in my bibimbap, onigiri, or curry yet, but who knows what tomorrow will bring...

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  2. I love Justin Timberlake! And I would join Juliana in her chip devouring guilt-free. But a microwave chicken dinner? You mean like a lean-cuisine kinda thing? Eww.

    Speaking of processed foods, I don't know if it counts so much as a guilty pleasure, or is merely a comfort food trigger buried deep in my genetic code as a Canadian child of the '70s, but I have an annual craving for Kraft Dinner. I will prepare and eat a whole box by myself, and am then good for another year - like a powdered cheese flu-shot or something.

    On a more regular basis, come BBQ season I absolutely cannot eat a burger without processed cheese. I now buy the individual slices because I fear that I would eat an entire brick of Velveeta in one sitting if I allowed it into my home. The French in my life are horrified.

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  3. Powdered cheese flu-shot! Ha! Probably better for you than the actual vaccine.

    : )

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  5. ...and it gives me an unnaturally healthy glow!


    (embarrassing typo in previous entry...)

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  6. Embarrassing enough typo to delete? I love it!

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