Althouse: Scott Adams helps you eat vegetables — "using a knife to change the psychology of the experience."

April 13, 2016

Scott Adams helps you eat vegetables — "using a knife to change the psychology of the experience."

"A big part of what I’m doing is changing how you experience the food, as opposed to its actual taste."

47 comments:

CStanley said...: I made carrot "noodles" last night. Been thinking of getting a spiralizer but decided to try it just using a vegetable peeler and it worked fine, except hard to get the final piece of the carrot.

The result was absolutely delicious- I steamed the ribbons, added butter, sea salt and pepper and fresh rosemary. I wanted to eat the entire bowl and forego the main course (which was a perfectly nice pork tenderloin.); 4/13/16, 9:07 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: using a knife to change... how you experience the food, as opposed to its actual taste.

I would think the honey would change the actual taste.; 4/13/16, 9:15 AM
Anonymous said...: Seriously? Does he think he's discovered some new truth or gem of knowlege about the slicing, dicing and eating of vegetables?; 4/13/16, 9:16 AM
Expat(ish) said...: Gravy helps.

-XC; 4/13/16, 9:17 AM
M Jordan said...: I didn't get it. He cut things up, added soy, salt, and pepper, and ate them.

What am I missing?; 4/13/16, 9:19 AM
Anonymous said...: The guy thinks he can manipulate his readers into seeing him as some guru of sorts. His insights are not impressive in the least.; 4/13/16, 9:20 AM
Mark said...: Not sure what this proved, other than dumping soy sauce on things can improve their flavor.

Cut celery root into squarish shapes makes it taste better than rectangular shapes?
This is proven to be true because he says it is?; 4/13/16, 9:21 AM
policraticus said...: What a shoemaker.

He needs to either stabilize that cutting board with a damp side towel, or invest in Band-Aids.; 4/13/16, 9:22 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Worked on me.; 4/13/16, 9:24 AM
Karen of Texas said...: Worked how, Professor? Are you craving fresh, raw veggies? Btw, white sweet potato (Hannah) is wonderful raw. Also Japanese sweet potato, the "purple-y" one, can be used to make mock chocolate chip cookie dough.; 4/13/16, 9:29 AM
Whirred Whacks said...: Question for our hostess:

If you had to choose between having only one site to go to from the following pair for the rest of 2016, which would it be?

Rex Parker or Scott Adams; 4/13/16, 9:40 AM
Darrell said...: The Professor can't taste anything, so it's come down to playing with her food. Curly ordered two rotten eggs and a slice of burnt toast because he had a tapeworm and that was good enough for the worm.; 4/13/16, 9:42 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: The Althouse Trinity: NYTimes, the New Yorker, and Scott Adams.

Not a bad bunch...; 4/13/16, 9:47 AM
Mary Beth said...: I would think the honey would change the actual taste.

Peas?; 4/13/16, 10:04 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Mary Beth said...

Peas?

Of course; 4/13/16, 10:09 AM
Curtiss said...: That must have been very subtle manipulation. I suppose if I find myself in a Whole Foods Store this evening buying celery root, I'll know that ...; 4/13/16, 10:34 AM
Paddy O said...: "the slicing, dicing and eating of vegetables"

Nobody was talking about vegetables before Scott Adams!!; 4/13/16, 10:56 AM
Brando said...: "Nobody was talking about vegetables before Scott Adams!!"

You might even say Scott Adams pushed back against the PC nonsense against vegetables at a time when most people just believed whatever the mainstream media said about them.; 4/13/16, 10:58 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Whirred Whacks said..."Question for our hostess: If you had to choose between having only one site to go to from the following pair for the rest of 2016, which would it be? Rex Parker or Scott Adams."

As long as it's limited to this year, the election year, I'd have to keep Scott Adams.

But you do know the 2 blogs I'm most likely to read AND blog. I do read at least a couple other blogs but am less likely to blog them (for disparate reasons).

I mostly read articles in newspapers and magazines... and court cases. Lots and lots of court cases.; 4/13/16, 11:15 AM
buwaya said...: Vegetables -boil them, its the only way to prevent cholera.

On more important news - that really matters -
The USA's biggest coal company, Peabody, declared Chap. 11 this morning.
Citing regulatory challenges.
No kidding.
The US will become Venezuela in its own way.
At that point you all will be growing your own vegetables, because you will have to, that is if the government lets you.
And, at that time, consider the matter of cholera and dysentery vis a vis vegetables.; 4/13/16, 11:19 AM
Howard said...: The avocado trick is much better if you add a dash of vinegar. In fact, they all work better with vinegar. Get naturally fermented organic apple cider vinegar and call it pro-biotic. To enhance even more, get inulin-packed sunchokes with vinegar and get pre- and pro-biotic action goin in the colon.; 4/13/16, 11:23 AM
Howard said...: Amanda is a verbal yeast infection; 4/13/16, 11:25 AM
Paddy O said...: "You might even say Scott Adams..."

Indeed I might just say that!; 4/13/16, 11:33 AM
Brando said...: "Indeed I might just say that!"

What I like is that Scott Adams says things I wish I could say out loud. I talk about knifing vegetables and everyone calls me PC; Scott Adams doesn't care about being PC even though four years ago he was pretty PC about vegetables. He's going to make vegetables great again.; 4/13/16, 11:36 AM
John Althouse Cohen said...: Good video, except the sound effects are so fake they're distracting. When he rubs the cauliflower on the cutting board, it makes a scraping sound that's implausibly loud and out of sync with the video.; 4/13/16, 11:43 AM
Paddy O said...: The problem is we don't know how Scott Adams will actually eat his vegetables. He's just trying to appeal to the folks who are tired of being told how they must eat their vegetables. It's well known that Adams prefers fruit anyhow.; 4/13/16, 11:46 AM
Curious George said...: "Howard said...
The avocado trick is much better if you add a dash of vinegar. In fact, they all work better with vinegar. Get naturally fermented organic apple cider vinegar and call it pro-biotic. To enhance even more, get inulin-packed sunchokes with vinegar and get pre- and pro-biotic action goin in the colon."

Better is lemon juice.

Last night's dinner: Avocado, basil, garlic, pepper, salt, and lemon juice. Blend and mix with brown rice fettuccine. Amazing.; 4/13/16, 11:49 AM
Brando said...: "The problem is we don't know how Scott Adams will actually eat his vegetables. He's just trying to appeal to the folks who are tired of being told how they must eat their vegetables. It's well known that Adams prefers fruit anyhow."

The problem is he keeps changing his opinion on vegetables, as though he's never given much thought to them or even knows what a vegetable is. Then he started referring to apples and pears as vegetables, and when a reporter asked him about it he said she must have been on her period for being so unfair to him.; 4/13/16, 11:51 AM
Anonymous said...: Howard,
You too seem to think that you've discovered something that no one else already knows. But who knows, maybe you know your way around a colon better than the average person.; 4/13/16, 11:56 AM
traditionalguy said...: Fresh Lemon juice does as good as his Soy Sauce. The salt is added at will.

Thanks for this post, Professor.; 4/13/16, 12:15 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: And don't forget the Dilberito. (wikepdia); 4/13/16, 12:26 PM
JHapp said...: Another sign of living in that bubble, clueless about how the little people have been eating all these years. And nice oven.; 4/13/16, 12:35 PM
RMc said...: I'm not eating those vegetables and I'm not voting for Trump. So there!; 4/13/16, 12:52 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Good video, except the sound effects are so fake they're distracting. When he rubs the cauliflower on the cutting board, it makes a scraping sound that's implausibly loud and out of sync with the video."

And he makes a big deal out of eating the stuff -- off camera -- but we never hear the kind of mouth crunching sounds that are typical of TV commercials.

I take this all to be part of his master persuasion.; 4/13/16, 1:02 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: I say it's Spinich!; 4/13/16, 1:02 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: CStanley said...Been thinking of getting a spiralizer but decided to try it just using a vegetable peeler and it worked fine, except hard to get the final piece of the carrot.

I have one of these Amazon: Spiral Slicer and it works pretty well--it's much smaller than the hand-crank spiralizers and a bit slower, but if you're not using one too often the space and $ savings are worth it.; 4/13/16, 1:30 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Points off for not working the phrase "pure applesauce" in there somewhere, Professor.; 4/13/16, 1:33 PM
Paco Wové said...: "The USA's biggest coal company, Peabody, declared Chap. 11 this morning.
Citing regulatory challenges."

Following just days after the AG of New York, while crowing about his collusion with other Democratic Attorneys General to trample the First Amendment, cited New York's harassment of Peabody as a model of government practice.

Unexpectedly! As some would say.; 4/13/16, 1:45 PM
CStanley said...: Thanks Hoodlum, I'll check it out.; 4/13/16, 2:27 PM
Beldar said...: Okay, Prof. Althouse: You're just trolling us with this Scott Adams stuff.; 4/13/16, 2:35 PM
Eleanor said...: If you have a KitchenAid mixer, you want the attachment that peels vegetables and spiralizes at the same time. It's ridiculously expensive, but it's easy to set up, and it will spiralize just about anything. The grandkids love "zoodles". Zucchini made into noodles. Sautee the zoodles for a couple of minutes in some olive oil and add some marinara sauce. And sweet potato curly fries. It can just peel, too. I did a 5 lb bag of potatoes in a couple of minutes.; 4/13/16, 2:35 PM
FullMoon said...: Rumor today is Megan Kelly is meeting with Trump's team. Scott Adams weeks ago predicted an interview would happen as a be a brilliant persuasion technique.; 4/13/16, 5:00 PM
Dr Weevil said...: I still remember how disappointed I was when I first saw a picture of Beldar, and saw that he has a full head of hair. I had pictured him as a bullet-headed bald guy, like Don Rickles only taller.; 4/13/16, 5:37 PM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: Who'da thunk it! Cut up a vegetable, rub on salt and pepper, and eat.

Actually, an old stunt. Seen it done before with a tomato.

But soy sauce on aguacate and camote crudo? Now that is WEIRD! Borderline abuse of food.; 4/13/16, 6:55 PM
Known Unknown said...: The cauliflower might be a bit more palatable because you're not shoving the big spongy thing in your mouth to eat all at once.

But this video is kind of dumb.; 4/13/16, 7:36 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: Oh the dreariness of distance from the East coast. There is something in between vinegar and soy sauce that some of you fly-overeds may have even heard of. It's called balsamic vinaigrette. Not only that, but if you get lucky, you might even find it flavored in a whole variety of ways. Cinnamon pear, maple, honey ginger. Healthier than soy and not as sharp as straight-up vinegar.; 4/13/16, 7:37 PM
Leigh said...: My cooking class chef taught us that people especially prefer food cut in the shape of triangles, so I started cutting all tomatoes for our salads this way. My statistical sampling is small but, at least for me, it worked like a charm. This Scott Adams video reminds me of other small battles I had in the kitchen with my son when he was young. When he was able to comprehend commercials on TV, he began demanding Coke, Mountain Dew, etc. -- because "all the other moms" let their kids drink it! So I would offer him "gourmet lemon water." Inexplicably, it always did the trick. But one day, he said, "Mom, can I have some gourmet lemon water, except only with the gour and no may, this time?" That request stumped me, I have to admit. "You know I'm a bad cook and besides, the recipe allows for no deviations," I told him; that worked, too, for years and years.

Three pro-tips for parents and grand parents:

1) no child can resist eating -- or at least tasting -- any food stuck on the end of a toothpick.
2) make your own healthy Reese's peanut butter cups. Just melt carob chips in a sauce pan, and then quickly and stealthily stir in the good and healthy but hideous looking peanut butter that you bought at Whole Foods (the kind that has that thick, icky layer of oil on the top) and a tablespoon or two of wheat germ. Add more carob chips or peanut butter, to taste. Pour roughly one inch of the concoction into each cup-cake paper cup that you've already put in a muffin pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight, and bam! You will be THE modern-day Adelle Davis. Your child will actually brag on you to his friends who will, in turn, beg their moms to make homemade Reese's cups. And those moms, in turn, will grow to hate you. (If you make popcorn in a pan instead of microwaving the fake stuff in plastic, tell no one.)
3) make sure your child never sees any commercials until he's at least 30 years old.; 4/16/16, 3:45 AM