Ah the world is a crazy place. Things go on there all the time that seem strange indeed. Here is an example. What is cheese flavored, comes in a bag that has the Palestinian colors and a picture of Arafat on it and costs only five cents? Why it is the new Arafat potato chips. These tasty morsels are taking Egypt by storm. The Palestinians like them because they get 25 pisaters for every 50 packages sold. The correct name for the chips are Abu Ammar and they are out selling all other brands of chips by a wide margin. The chips are made by Al-Jawhara Co. for International Industries.

On the streets of New York City one can buy,. what looks like a Rolex watch for only ten dollars. But how can this be? It can't. Upon closer inspection of the watch you can' t help but notice that Rolex is spelled Relex but the the 'e' is written in such a way that it almost looks like an 'o'. By the way, New York City is a great place to find almost anything that can be eaten from anywhere in the world. This is possible because New York City has many ethnic areas inside of it. If you go to China Town you can buy many items that just aren't seen anywhere else. It took me a while to get used to seeing ducks and chickens cooked with the heads still on and hanging in the shop windows that way. Another thing that for me, as a westerner, I had to get used to was the site of people eating steamed squid with those tentacles hanging out of the buns as they chomped away. Then there is Little Italy with its tangy aromas of tomatoes and sausages being fried in a garlic sauce. There is nothing like it. But there are many other ethic communities in the city that feature good eating from Poland, Germany, Thailand, Japan and a myriad of other lands. Besides the restaurants one can find shops stocked with items from the home land.

Commercially packaged food certainly has helped the world solve, what used to be, a great problem, food spoilage. But what are some of the things that are listed as ingredients on the packages? Here are just a few of the lesser known ones from some ice creams:

BHA(butylated hydroxyanisole) A chemical used to preserve food. Unfortunately it might build up in your system, no one is sure.

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose - Chemically modified plant gum used for thickening; emulsifier.

Microcrystalline cellulose - Nothing like having a little wood in your diet. This is wood pulp turned into a gum and used as a filler without calories. I like my wood in furniture. If you want to use some wood in a box to hold the packaged ice cream I have no objection.

Polysorbate 80 - More chemicals. A stabilizer and moisturizer.

Sodium carboxymethylcellulose - Chemically modified plant gum that stops crystallization.

Vanillin - Chemical that tastes like vanilla. Gee Wiz lets have some vanilla beans please.

Xanthan - This, believe it or not, is made from bacteria grown usually on corn. Its a thickener. Those little bacteria devils do a good job. Why don't they just list bacteria as an ingredient, oh I forgot, no one would buy it.

We all know that the tobacco companies have to put warnings on the cigarettes that they make. But what about the people who make breakfast cereal? There is a sort of war going on between them for market share and most believe that putting copious amounts of salt into their product will hook you on the product. Sound familiar?

Is our food getting stranger? I think I would have to say yes, after all, we have things like square tomatoes that were altered for easy shipping, different strains of genetically altered corn, potatoes, squash, soybeans, papaya and Canella. Not to mention non food crops like cotton and flax. What is the next step in food production, is it the development of food right from the lab? I have to say that sometimes, if I am forced to eat at fast food establishments, which isn't very often, some of the food already tastes like it was from the lab, especially the shakes. One day I tried an experiment. I went into one of the popular burger joints and ordered a burger. I took everything off of it and tasted it without the bun I must say that I have never tasted cardboard but I think if I did it would have tasted just like that burger.

The funny part of it is that our food is becoming unwelcome in some areas of the world as are our seeds. In places like Europe they don't want genetically altered crops to contaminate the other crops. But we are going to have the last laugh here, because no matter how careful they are, we will eventually contaminate everything. I think it is just too hard to control the altered crops from spreading their altered pollen and seeds and it is bound to slip into Europe in some way. The real problem is that the world has gotten too small. I am not talking realistically, the Earth didn't shrink, but people are traveling everywhere. In the old days you would live and die without going more than 25 miles from home. Today traveling is done by almost everybody. Some people only travel around this country but many others are coming and going all over the world. I myself don't travel as much as my friends but I have been to Europe three times. I wonder if any genetically pollen fell off of me when I was over there? Just kidding my friends in Europe!

Maybe the best way to eat food is to take out all the preservatives, irradiate it, and eat it within the allowed period. Irradiated food seems to last long enough that it could be quite useful. For those of you who are touchy about eating food that radiation has been used on, all I can say is, yeah me too.

Well I guess this is enough rambling about food and its contents for today.