What Is Your Representative Eating?


You are looking at my breakfast, well part of it. I have it just about everyday. It's quick, tastes really good and is healthy. It's oatmeal with vanilla rice milk, maple syrup, walnuts, and dried cranberries. Usually I have a little bit of fruit juice, a soy sausage, a banana and a cup of coffee too.

Not only do I love to talk about what I'm eating, but even better is finding out what other people are eating. Remember this post, where I created a new ice cream flavor for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi? Lest there be any misunderstanding, this was not at her request. She doesn't know who I am, but she inspired the recipe.

Well, I've recently found that there are other people out there pondering what our Representatives are eating too. Check out this post from TheHill.com. Rep. Mike Simpson from Idaho loves potatoes! Talk about eating local! I didn't see anything about my Representative. I wonder if he loves cranberries? Southeastern Massachusetts in the House! Gotta represent! You can read here to find out about the foods being offered on The Hill.

I just found these articles recently, but The Culinary Inquisition seems to be a regular feature where we can find out more about what people like to munch on. Read here to find out who loves Snickers. Interesting that he considers it hearty like a meal. I wonder if that ever plays out in how he votes on food related issues? I guess I shouldn't speculate...

And this is slightly off-topic as far as food is concerned, but I just noticed that Dow, the chemical company, has advertisements running on TheHill.com. That doesn't quite feel right to me, but I guess I don't know enough about the entity that owns the website and its policies. Do companies that lobby hard run ads here? I wonder. Interesting...

Anyway, the point of this whole post is this. I just learned that our House Representatives will have new foods to choose from starting in December. I read here that Restaurant Associates won a 17 million dollar contract and will be making some changes to the menus. The article reads in part:

In the Members’ Dining Room, sustainable, local ingredients will be used to craft three-course state-themed meals served on American-made china.

“The changes will be sweeping and exciting,” said House Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Daniel Beard. “After two years of evaluation, RA emerged as the contractual victor because they are determined to considerably enhance the dining experience of all our employees.”

The changes are a part of the broader Green the Capitol Initiative, which aims to make the House carbon-neutral by the end of the 110th Congress.

Food waste is responsible for half of the waste produced by the House complex, Beard said. The goal of Restaurant Associates is to reduce significantly the estimated 250 tons a month of waste produced by food services.

I wonder what the first state-themed meal will be? Which state? Stay tuned. I'll be looking into it.



I am thankful that NaBloPoMo will be over this week!



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Comments

What a gorgeous breakfast. I have trouble finding plain old oats here, but I do make sure to get them shipped in. I love oatmeal :)
Nance said…
I wonder if they will be making portions smaller in order to limit food waste. With obesity being considered a national epidemic, it wouldn't hurt a few of the Fat Cats in Washington to go on a diet. Seriously, portion control is certainly a place for every restaurant to start. I'm amazed at the size of entrees wherever I eat. They're intimidating and unnecessarily large. (In the US, in my experience.)
Anonymous said…
yeah i used to take back half of what i got served in the us... unless i was really hungry or it was really really good :)
Lisa Johnson said…
sognatrice - Wow! I never thought of oats as being hard to find. I guess you just never know.

nance - Portions really do need to be smaller here, but I think that is how many places justify the prices. If you get a real portion size, that's probably a third or maybe half of what we normally get, but they are not going to want to cut their prices in the same proportion.

mosilager - For dinner, I usually divide my meal in half, get a doggie-bag and make another meal out of it. Then I have room for dessert too! ; )

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