The Food Network Conundrum or..eating versus watching or..what WAS all that about?

staceya

It is so interesting that many of us watched the food network during some of the worst times during treatment, when we had not watched prior or have not watched it much after treatment ended??
Thinking fond thoughts of you all,
Stacey

sweetblood22

I found that strange and like torture.
I was in the minority with that. I stopped watching during treatment because it was torture to me to view everything that I couldn't eat. I just recently started watching and enjoying the Food Network again. I am going to say it took me a whole year before I started watching some food programs again. Just a few. Now I can watch all the shows and I am okay with it. That probably took 15-16 months to get me to that point. When I was totally peg tube dependent for all those months a food commercial could make me cry, never mind a whole cooking show. Now I can watch and look at it and take away ideas.

rozaroo

sweetblood22 said:

I found that strange and like torture.
I was in the minority with that. I stopped watching during treatment because it was torture to me to view everything that I couldn't eat. I just recently started watching and enjoying the Food Network again. I am going to say it took me a whole year before I started watching some food programs again. Just a few. Now I can watch all the shows and I am okay with it. That probably took 15-16 months to get me to that point. When I was totally peg tube dependent for all those months a food commercial could make me cry, never mind a whole cooking show. Now I can watch and look at it and take away ideas.

Food Network
While I was having treatment I was addicted to that channel.All I did was watch any programme related to food. Now I rarely view that channel as they are not featuring any of my favourite chef's. I am tired of watching Iron Chef & cooking competition's all day! We would still have people for dinner when I felt up to it. Hubby would order in & I would make a shake with fruit etc. I missed dining out the most.For me it was all about the social aspect of it.

Hondo

rozaroo said:

Food Network
While I was having treatment I was addicted to that channel.All I did was watch any programme related to food. Now I rarely view that channel as they are not featuring any of my favourite chef's. I am tired of watching Iron Chef & cooking competition's all day! We would still have people for dinner when I felt up to it. Hubby would order in & I would make a shake with fruit etc. I missed dining out the most.For me it was all about the social aspect of it.

Food Channel

Mostly because in our physical body we are not hungry due to treatment but in our mind we are starving to death. I always found that when I can’t have something that is when I want it the most.

Good post, thanks
Hondo

Skiffin16

DVR
I even recorded them so I didn't miss any, LOL...especially the BBQ ones. Would sit and watch them for hours, dry drool imaginarily running down my face...;)

JG

SASH

FoodTV
I watched daily during treatment. Pulling recipes off, picking places I wanted to eat, try foods that I thought sounded good. I even made up 2 lists, one of restaurants that were featured on the shows and another of foods I wanted to eat again. All while not being able to swallow.

I even had a picture of a corned beef sandwich from Katz's deli as my desktop background for a long time during treatment.

Everyone thought I was crazy, but it gave me incentive to go through treatments and am now eating almost anything that I want.

sweetblood22

SASH said:

FoodTV
I watched daily during treatment. Pulling recipes off, picking places I wanted to eat, try foods that I thought sounded good. I even made up 2 lists, one of restaurants that were featured on the shows and another of foods I wanted to eat again. All while not being able to swallow.

I even had a picture of a corned beef sandwich from Katz's deli as my desktop background for a long time during treatment.

Everyone thought I was crazy, but it gave me incentive to go through treatments and am now eating almost anything that I want.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!
Katz's on E Houston in NYC? I miss it so......... I'd be drooling right now if I had spit.  I can see it in my head right now. Huge corned beef sammich. I once went back to NYC and took a friend that had never been out of this extremely small town I live in. This girl had never seen or been on an escalator. Any way we went to the deli and she was staring up at the menu and she said she didn't know what any of that stuff was and couldn't she just get a ham sandwich?? I was pretty mortified.

My dad was born and raise in the lower east side. My great gram owned a 5 story walk up on Market Street.

abbimom

funny isn't it
I went through my treatments at 21 years old and didn't know how to cook. Well I learned during my treatments and cooked for everyone. I found it helped to be around food even though I could not eat it.

delnative

abbimom said:

funny isn't it
I went through my treatments at 21 years old and didn't know how to cook. Well I learned during my treatments and cooked for everyone. I found it helped to be around food even though I could not eat it.

I did that
I developed a thing for "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" when I couldn't eat.
Part of the reason was that just down the road from Johns Hopkins, where I was being treated, there's a place called Chaps Pit Beef that was featured on the show.
I vowed that I would make it through treatment and one day would eat at Chaps. Now and then, when I'm in Baltimore for a checkup, I chow down.

--Jim in Delaware

CajunEagle

delnative said:

I did that
I developed a thing for "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" when I couldn't eat.
Part of the reason was that just down the road from Johns Hopkins, where I was being treated, there's a place called Chaps Pit Beef that was featured on the show.
I vowed that I would make it through treatment and one day would eat at Chaps. Now and then, when I'm in Baltimore for a checkup, I chow down.

--Jim in Delaware

Well
During treatment, I used to hide Bon Appetit magazine under my mattress. It had a gorgeous fold-out on Cheeseburgers.



Larry

sweetblood22

CajunEagle said:

Well
During treatment, I used to hide Bon Appetit magazine under my mattress. It had a gorgeous fold-out on Cheeseburgers.



Larry

Center fold.
Lol. Food porn....I love it. Lmao

soccerfreaks

Food Porn
I became addicted to Anthony Bourdain's show, probably as much for his delivery as anything else, but to be honest, along the way, watching him, watching other food shows (Top Chef, Iron Chef, etc), I picked up things about how to cook correctly.

For one thing, I became fascinated with the notion of small portions done very well. I still can not eat a number of things, and those I can eat, I can not eat a lot of it/them at one time. So I became enamored of the idea that one could make small portions that were delicious and go from one to the other.

I also learned about patience. I was never a big fan of the pigout shows, but watching Bourdain, for example, I noticed how they ate slowly and savored every bite. As the oldest of six kids, I grew up in a completely different environment. There was very little talk at our table, as all were eager to finish the first round and get to the second before it was all gone.

My brother, VP for an extrusion company, told me, in fact, that he had to learn to slow down: he would scarf down his food at business meetings while others were talking and nibbling, and he would be done while they were still just getting underway .

So that helped too.

I will occasionally watch some of the others and even come up with ideas for something I can eat (I translated a chili cheese hamburger into a Pepperidge Farm thin slice of white, topped with burger, covered with beanless chili and smothered in cheese, with onions and mustard, and somehow made it work).

I'm still not 100%, but watching those shows gives me encouragement and ideas (and yes, it is my personal porn). I also get inspiration from people in here. I often ask Sash what he is eating and when he describes something I haven't tried, the competitive juices flow and I have to go after it, almost always successfully.

Anyway, I still watch them. Not as much, because they are all repeats for me now , but if I see a new one, I will grab on to it to see if I can learn something.

Happy eating, folks!

Take care,

Joe

Skiffin16

soccerfreaks said:

Food Porn
I became addicted to Anthony Bourdain's show, probably as much for his delivery as anything else, but to be honest, along the way, watching him, watching other food shows (Top Chef, Iron Chef, etc), I picked up things about how to cook correctly.

For one thing, I became fascinated with the notion of small portions done very well. I still can not eat a number of things, and those I can eat, I can not eat a lot of it/them at one time. So I became enamored of the idea that one could make small portions that were delicious and go from one to the other.

I also learned about patience. I was never a big fan of the pigout shows, but watching Bourdain, for example, I noticed how they ate slowly and savored every bite. As the oldest of six kids, I grew up in a completely different environment. There was very little talk at our table, as all were eager to finish the first round and get to the second before it was all gone.

My brother, VP for an extrusion company, told me, in fact, that he had to learn to slow down: he would scarf down his food at business meetings while others were talking and nibbling, and he would be done while they were still just getting underway .

So that helped too.

I will occasionally watch some of the others and even come up with ideas for something I can eat (I translated a chili cheese hamburger into a Pepperidge Farm thin slice of white, topped with burger, covered with beanless chili and smothered in cheese, with onions and mustard, and somehow made it work).

I'm still not 100%, but watching those shows gives me encouragement and ideas (and yes, it is my personal porn). I also get inspiration from people in here. I often ask Sash what he is eating and when he describes something I haven't tried, the competitive juices flow and I have to go after it, almost always successfully.

Anyway, I still watch them. Not as much, because they are all repeats for me now , but if I see a new one, I will grab on to it to see if I can learn something.

Happy eating, folks!

Take care,

Joe

Anthony Bourdain's
One of my favorites also Joe....

FOOD PORN, LOL...love it, especially the thought of a bare nekkid cheeseburger centerfold, with golden toasted buns...

JG

ekdennie

food network
for me it was motivation. I would watch to remind myself what I was fighting for. I would watch to dream about those foods I would want to eat again after treatment and healing were over. I still watch, not as much as during treatment when it would be on all day everyday and I would record what I might miss while at treatment! of course I was going through treatment while they were showing all of those yummy holiday foods!

dennis318

ekdennie said:

food network
for me it was motivation. I would watch to remind myself what I was fighting for. I would watch to dream about those foods I would want to eat again after treatment and healing were over. I still watch, not as much as during treatment when it would be on all day everyday and I would record what I might miss while at treatment! of course I was going through treatment while they were showing all of those yummy holiday foods!

Heard of it all
Love it Food Porn!!!Ha Ha.....Slow Morning, Snow here in Tn, Cold...The Cake station is my favorite, followed by what not to wear....the scheduling is a little off on this i think. All I wanted was my first steak to chew and swallow, it takes me a good hour, I was always the first to be done...now the last, Choking is the scariest, but I have learned to cough it up if it gets stuck. Hey, there's a will there's a way....Bon Apetite'...Dennis

adventurebob

Oh food
I'm vegan but couldn't stop thinking about bacon cheeseburgers the entire time through treatment. As soon as all the taste buds are firing I'm going off the wagon for a day and making the messiest burger ever. I might even wash it down with an ice cold beer and finish up with a slice of hot apple pie and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Oh man, I'm getting excited just writing about it. Such sweet torture.

Bob

Skiffin16

adventurebob said:

Oh food
I'm vegan but couldn't stop thinking about bacon cheeseburgers the entire time through treatment. As soon as all the taste buds are firing I'm going off the wagon for a day and making the messiest burger ever. I might even wash it down with an ice cold beer and finish up with a slice of hot apple pie and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Oh man, I'm getting excited just writing about it. Such sweet torture.

Bob

Imaginary Drool...
Watch out Bob, I think I sense some imaginary drool forming in the corner of your mouth....

JG

staceya

Skiffin16 said:

Imaginary Drool...
Watch out Bob, I think I sense some imaginary drool forming in the corner of your mouth....

JG

I definitely was one of
I definitely was one of those watching the shows and making lists for "Later!"

I can eat many things now to a degree, but cannot wait to taste meat or chicken..
A 5 guys burger and fries had just opened up before treatment and I had a few while I could.
It was strange to see the ability to eat and taste certain foods gradually disappear.
(Gradually, of course is relative..it was in about 2 weeks...)

I have now graduated to (who's WAS it?) favorite meal of chef salad and french dressing.
I remember when they first posted it, if I would ever be able to eat that again...

How do you all feel about scallops?? I would rate them 10 out of 10 on the ever popular
"slide down the throat factor"
Stacey

GraceLibby

Food Porn
I was addicted to Man vs. Food, just astounded by the amount of food that man could put away in one sitting. I watched a ton of Anthony Bourdain as well. I wanted nothing more than a big fat reuben once I had the opportunity. Funny, I haven't watched Food Network or had my reuben yet.

Skiffin16

GraceLibby said:

Food Porn
I was addicted to Man vs. Food, just astounded by the amount of food that man could put away in one sitting. I watched a ton of Anthony Bourdain as well. I wanted nothing more than a big fat reuben once I had the opportunity. Funny, I haven't watched Food Network or had my reuben yet.

First to the above, I love seafood and scallops are tops on my list....

Reuben's, LOL, Dawn (Sweetblood) was on a Reuben kick a week or so ago...I' couldn't stand it, I had to go out and load up on the fixins. They are great all toasted with melted crusty cheese when fixed on the George Foreman..

Best,
John

adventurebob

Skiffin16 said:

Imaginary Drool...
Watch out Bob, I think I sense some imaginary drool forming in the corner of your mouth....

JG

Each day brings me closer to having real drool. That will be the bacon cheeseburger day.

Bob