Basmati rice isn't too bad...organic lentils? I like lentils quite a lot, but whenever you pay that xtra ridiculous amount for something organic or (even worse) from an organic/herbalist food store you are getting SERIOUSLY ripped off AND made a fool. It's no wonder a lot of the new age-ish types don't get haircuts and wear the kind of clothes they do: if I paid the kind of money they do for all natural, organic exotic herb and root enhanced stuff, I couldn't afford jack $hit for fashion or worthwhile hobbies either!
Why do I say this? I went into an herbalist store one day two weeks ago to get some seaweed to roll sushi in, not knowing what to expect. As soon as I walk into the door of this natural foods store I hear weird recorded hari krishna chants and wonder if the FBI will have me listed just for walking into this place. The clientele I observe: (1) a homely looking spaced out woman in her 30's with a pony tail down to her butt, (2) a really fine looking jogger type chick that probably bathes herself in 20 different lotions before and after getting out of the shower that probably had a dad that could literally pave the city streets with gold and a boyfriend that made $10 million in stocks before age 20, (3) a slightly over 50 grey haired guy that looks like the human incarnation of a moonshine and hash hangover that woke up one morning and saw a Willie Nelson album cover photo and decided that look just might suit him, (4) and a 16-19 girl that looked likely to have just changed her name to Orchid after having been thrown out of her parents' house for them uncovering her stash of weed (so strong it could knock out a herd of elephants) for the tenth time. Anyway, I walk down the aisles and see roots, bulbs, stems, leaves, seeds, dried flowers, parts of flowers, parts of parts of flowers, etc. presented for every possible form of consumption imaginable: teas, sauces, seasonings, candied, pickled, stewed, canned, encapsulated...for nearly every aspect of nutritional enhancement and/or curing of dozens of ailments. "Interesting," I thought "one could pick up anything for anything here, eat well, and live healthy." Then a look at the price tags: $15 for a variety of tea, $5 for a tiny package of an obscure variety of dried mushroom, $7 for a bag of exotic rice similar in size to those costing $1.10 at a grocery store, and my item, a 40 pack of toasted seaweed sushi roll wrappers, for $20, upon declining to pay that much I find a similar pack at a local asian market for $4. And to top that off, a rack at the end of the aisle loaded with all forms of herbal nutrition advice and legal/political propaganda written by people you wouldn't want your son or daughter to even know to exist, let alone get within 1000 feet of.
Healthy cooking and living, reading exotic philosophy (when taken with a grain of salt and in small doses), and occasionally taking up a different outlook can be great for you mentally and physically, but like drinking or kinky sex you can go too far and really get into stuff you don't want to experience or other people to know about.
