The Magic of Tofu

 2 consecutive posts with "magic" in the title...seems like I'm resorting to deseperate measures to try to get the stock market to turn around, but there's still no bottom in sight after Putin invaded Ukraine, and inflation problems abound in the market, gas problems are at all time highs (remember when oil was trading at negative 37 dollars in April 2020 right after the pandemic? That was a good time to go on a road trip.......

Last weekend, MJ and I went to one of our favorite restaurants in one of our favorite cities.....Chicago. We've had the dry chili pepper chicken dish many times there, but we changed up the menu this time with a slight substitution: chicken to tofu. Flawless transition, didn't miss any of the dry chili taste we came for, and at the end of the meal we felt guilt free. The waitress serving us gave us a quizzical look when we also ordered the Mapo tofu (this was a Chinese restaurant after all and I don't think she was used to people ordering 3 dishes without meat in them), but the U.S. and the world in general seems to be warming up to the idea of having less meat consumption. I've always liked tofu, especially the way my mom cooks it with with chives, but I never appreciated its ability to replace meat as a staple protein. Ironically, I grew up in the state with the highest production of soybeans (Illinois), but I was always too obsessed with meats like chicken, beef, and pork to give tofu its proper due. Now as MJ has transitioned to (almost) completely vegan, our refrigerator is consistently stocked with boxes stacked on boxes of tofu. Now armed with a Tofuture Tofu Press (listed as low as $9.99 on Amazon!) it's actually a pretty satisfying feeling to press all the excess liquid out of a regularly packed square of tofu and get the compact, firm texture that my taste buds at least can pass off as a meat substitute. I find that many vegan products, be it Impossible foods, beyond burgers, and a bunch of Whole foods vegan brands, use soy as the meat substitute as well, 

Actionable advice? Maybe buy soybean stock? I wouldn't bet the farm on it with the way the market is now, and given the drastic 80%-90% value in the stocks of Beyond Meat and Oatly just in the last year, maybe hold off. Or maybe just hold off on getting stock advice from me, who foolishly held on to stocks even after the Federal Reserve announced a tightening plan in November, when the market peaked and has been steadily going down since, trimming a lot of portfolios violently. Oh but Lockheed Martin (defense stocks) and gold has been going up! 

Speaking of Chicago, I've mentioned this before, but I lament my inability in younger years to appreciate the splendor and gem right in the middle of Lake Shore Drive that is the Art Institute of Chicago. The area around it is full of beauty including the Bean on one side, Lake Michigan on another, fantastic architecture of the Chicago downtown, and then the newly developing South Loop area (including Soldier Field on another). And that's before you even walk in, rivaling the environment of the likes of the Met (Upper East Side, Central Park), the Whitney Museum (the Chelsea district in Manhattan), the Getty Museum (set atop a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean). MJ and I stared at the giant mural painting of Paris on a rainy day, by Gustave Caillebotte, a famous painting that I've seen many times before but never cared to examine more carefully, wondering if we had gone past that road in actual Paris. If the movie "Night at the Museum" had a spin-off (it had an ill-fated sequel already) to "Night at the Art Museum), it would be a delight to have it set at the Art Institute with the characters from Edward Hopper's Nighthawks explaining what they were doing in the restaurant, the American Gothic dentist and his wife giving interviews while holding the pitchfork, and the parkgoers on that one Sunday on the Isle of the Grande Jatte (by Seurat) wearing their fancy clothing and having a monkey on a leash (that was a little jarring and weird, to be honest). I think my appreciation of the museum likely reflects my transition to a more refined taste of liking more sophisticated ideas and concepts like art, music, movies, and other entertainment for their literary/artistic merit rather than just for the very human instincts I try to placate by consumming action films, comic books, etc. And maybe the tofu also reflects my refined taste, in a culinary way! But then again, later that night after the Art Institute I also watched UFC mixed martial fights where men competed in savage, violent hand-to-hand combat against one another, so who knows.