Milking It

When I was in high school, I briefly was involved in a film club where we watched the Wong Kar-Wai film 'Chungking Express'. In it, there's a character who repeatedly buys canned produce with a particular expiration date. For him there were sentimental reasons. For me, the existence of an expiration date leaves me hesitant to buy a lot of food products. Somehow such foods and I don't co-exist, and you wouldn't think this would be the case considering how long I stick with the foods I eat.

You'd think that I would easily consume all of these items before they go bad, but somehow it doesn't work that way. I partly blame the way they price things. Take the milk. When I was buying that on a regular basis, they would always have a deal where you would get two gallons for one. I would try desperately to drink or otherwise use it all before it was too late, but try as I might, I couldn't get through it all in what little time there was to do so.

This happens with other items such as meat and eggs. Anything that requires any kind of difficult preparation and also which goes bad is a double whammy, and a sure thing to sit around until I have no choice but to throw it out. I just can't buy that stuff, because when you know what's going to happen in a particular situation, it's just crazy to allow yourself into it. After plenty of dearly bought lessons, I finally have figured out that among other things.

What might be wise is to investigate alternative versions of perishable foods. I recall a large family from my childhood that used powdered milk. I know there are powdered versions of other things, and presumably none of them go bad. I already use powdered creamer in my coffee, and I know I have no objections to that on the grounds of tasting bad. Yes, maybe I have just found something here- something that will let me have some of these things that I have previously avoided for reasons of practicality. Maybe this is the turning point for me.