Ikea meatballs, mystery sauce and jammy red stuff…

 

…is really not too bad!  Or is it sheer desperation that you are escaping the furniture maze?  No! I think they are actually quite tasty!  Is this confession akin to admitting you…gasp….eat at McDonald’s?  

It’s funny, now that I have a toddler, I am re-discovering all these places (I have eaten at McD’s twice in 16 months).  Places I would not ever normally set foot in because: it’s a chain, it’s fast food, it’s loaded with salt, it’s loaded with sugar, it’s loaded with fat, they aren’t nice to the animals, there are 800 cows in my burger, etc…  But I used to love those places when I was a teenager.  

There used to be only one McDonald’s in Athens when I was growing up.  It was in Syntagma.  I was totally “connected” then as I was dating a guy (you know who you are if you are reading this!) who had a car.  In school the next day, I could casually drop into my conversation “Umm, ya, so we stopped by McDonald’s last night”.  Ahhh, I kind of miss the days when being cool was as easy as being able to get a ride to McD’s.  And when people used to use the expression “cool”.  I’m not that old, really.  I just sound like I am. 

Are you judging me right now for this seedy confession?  Ya?  Well I have two words for you Thomas Keller.  Need a few more?  Here you go IN-N-OUT his favorite burger joint.  Ok, so they hand cut their own chips in the shop and they use chunks of premium beef.  Ya da, ya da, ya da.  But we can’t all live in Napa Valley and be…you know perfect!   

Having L in my life means I have re-assessed lunch venues.  By all means, we love the posh deli or the organic cafe or the seasonal restaurant (especially if they are nice to us when we show up with our gigantic bugaboo).  But we are also willing to try out the persona non grata of the foodie world.  Yes, they are part of the fabric of the foodie realm.  

No, I am not Gwenyth (Paltrow), my daughter isn’t named after a vegetable - or is it a fruit?  And I am not feeding her only organic, biodynamic food that I planted myself in soil using my own compost from the vegetables I grew myself.  Am I going in a circle here?  I believe she can have some junk food every now and then.  My daughter that is, not Gwenie!

So after spending 1 hour plant shopping at Bauhaus.  My schwiegermutter (is that really how you say mother in law in German?  Because that is what I am trying to say), my 16 month old and I went to have lunch at the Ikea that was adjacent.  By the way, Ikea did have an organic chicken dish with steamed rice - so I could have gone for the healthy option.  But you know what?  I don’t drink.  I don’t smoke.  I don’t do recreational drugs.  So - well I have to do something conceivably bad!  So I had the meatballs!

They give you something like golf sized 10 meatballs, fries, a mystery sauce and lingonberry jam.  It all kind of works.  Obviously it works, they have been selling those little meatballs…well I don’t know for how long actually but probably since Ingvar Kamprad started selling his affordable flat packed furniture.  It was fun, I feel reckless.  

I know, I need to get out more.