Saturday, August 14, 2010

Bagels and Pizza and Noodles - Oh My!

Boston cream donut...

It's usually just a random longing here and there - ping! Doink! Zzzzzzzzzzzzing!

Dumplings. Cannoli...

Fleeting thoughts that I immediately tuck away like shoving a sock back into an overflowing drawer. Just. Shove. Back. In. Hmph.

Pizza, bagels, Chinese foooooooooooood!!!  

Pizza, bagels, and Chinese food equal this Brooklyn girl's holy food trinity. I am absolutely done for if cravings for them kick in. During my years away at school in upstate New York, I would long for those three "food groups" - and plan where and how to consume all three within the first 24 hours back in Brooklyn. With venues for all three within two blocks of my house, executing that plan was not difficult. Ignoring that need was not possible; it is deep and primal, an innate need.

Now that I am gf? Totally screwed. 

Most of the time, I am able to just block out the existence of gluten-y foods. After years of being gluten-free, I instinctively avoid walking by venues that sell the foods I love and miss - the pizzerias, bakeries, and bagel shops that emit the loveliest of smells.This, in turn, helps keep thoughts of them out of my brain.

But 2-3 times a year, I lose it. I am just unable to stop the flood of food longings from washing up on the shore of my mind. Normally, I can't accurately report why this happens, what triggers them. This time, I have an inkling.

Two words: Street fair.

(More) back story: I am in the process of packing up the majority of my belongings and - housing situation uncertain - moving them into storage. Given that I am in Manhattan and the particular "man with a van" I contacted wanted a minimum of $200 to move my mere 10 boxes, I opted for three crosstown cab rides (at $10 a pop, a $170 savings, thank you very much) instead.

On my second trip, the two streets leading to the storage facility were blocked off by a street fair. After unloading my things, I decided to walk through the fair en route home. I grew up in Bay Ridge, home of the 40-block Third Avenue Festival, Ragamuffin Parade, and innumerable smaller street events held year 'round. (A Norweigan Day Parade? Sure, we have one of those. St. Patty's Day Parade? You betcha).

So I like a little street fair - reminds me of my youth, of home. I decided to walk through, take a look at the jewelry, the $10 dress selection, the shish kebab stand, the sausage and peppers truck, the...

That was it - the sausage and peppers did me in! Another old school iconic food that I miss like nobody's business. It was a quick trip from there to obsessing over the pizza, bagels, Chinese food, and everything else I can't have. En route home I cursed as I spied the chocolate glazed donut of a Dunkin' Donuts ad on the side of a phone booth, whimpered as I passed it.

... and then? It was over. A couple of days of feeling the lack and loss, but then - like the stifling heat - it broke.

How do you deal with the cravings?







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