Slow Food

I only eat 2 meals most days, yet I spend a decent amount of time cooking.

While this hasn’t always been the case (I’m looking at you Meathead Mullan), I view cooking these days as a practice in self-expression, creativity, play, and love—none of which are things I want to rush, shortcut, or skimp on.

In leaving my bodybuilding era behind and evolving into the world wandering, chess playing, plant tending, cat caring, cycling iteration of me who pens these Whimsies, my cooking philosophy has developed…

From slapping together a disparate combo of protein, carbs, and veggies…

To learning and adapting recipes—processes—that yield cohesive dishes…

There’s been marked shift in how I cook: from fast fuel to slow meals.

Even if I’m preparing leftovers, I won’t just fire stuff into the microwave for a few minutes, kick back, and call it a day. Instead, I’ll use the oven or a pan and aim to revitalize the old food, adding a new flavour dimension or two if I can.

The reasoning behind this care, attention, and time?

Well, food is integral to our health—mental, emotional, and physical. There’s reams of science supporting the notion that your are what you eat… And the body keeps the score. I’ll bet my bike that we’ve only scratched the surface of knowing how impactful what we consume is on our biology and physiology.

Which is why I prioritize eating fresh, high-quality, flavourful, local-as-often-as-I-can foods over packaged, processed, imported-from-across-the-planet ‘food’ that’s devoid of nutrients.

And while I have no way of proving this, I believe there’s an intangible, healing, nurturing energy infused into food when you cook with love and care, imparting flavour and longevity into the dish you’re preparing.

For these reasons, cooking slow meals from a few fresh ingredients is a piece of my personal philosophy that I won’t compromise on, and prioritize.

As for why I’m sharing this with you?

I hope to make you stop and think about how you approach food, such an essential, unavoidable component of your life.

I also believe that how do you one thing is how you do anything.

So if you’re settling for low-quality ingredients and fast, easy options…

Where else in your life might you be compromising?

With love from the forest,

~ Alexander Mullan