The True Green Eggs and Ham
By: Brent Evans
The peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the all-time best food.
As my teeth clamp down, my lips touch the soft white bread. I smell the strong aroma of the peanut butter, the slight smell of the sweet jelly, and the smell of fresh bread, thinking to myself about how it was about to taste in my mouth. While tearing away the first bite, I get a bit of sweet taste, then beginning to chew; I get the thick peanut butter taste with the sweet taste of the jelly and the soft bread. After having a few bites, I decide to take a couple gulps of milk to help wash the peanut butter down. While holding the sandwich, a clump of jelly falls from the underside, slides over my pinky and plops onto my plate.
Over time there has been a lot of so-called the �best food ever to be created.� Through time we experience a lot of different foods and tastes. A lot of times we grow out of foods or into foods, but there is one that no matter how old or how young, people still love to eat. This would be the great and only peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I think about the Dr. Suess book that was loved by all the children and still remembered by the parents as one of the best book of all time, �Green Eggs and Ham�. I believe if you turn that into a real world scenario, you would be talking about the wonderful peanut butter and jelly sandwich, since after people try it, they will eat it anywhere, and they will say that they love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I then think to myself of how long it has been since I have fixed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and how it seemed so easy to grow out of fixing the most convenient and best tasting food of all time. However, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are so loved that they have received their own nickname, PBJ�s, that when spoken of, one knew what you were talking about. Now after thinking for a few minutes about how long it had been since I had one, I realize it had been years. Then I thought, "Why did I wait so long to eat this sandwich that was so great that you didn�t have to force children to eat it?"
I couldn�t believe that instead of eating this healthy-inexpensive sandwich, I had decided to go waste my money on all of those overpriced meals at fast food restaurants. I could have at least saved money once a month by choosing to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at home.
Then I thought back to when I was little, where in the summer time I would play outside a lot, but when I became hungry I would hurry inside to make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I would then go into the living room and sit on the coffee table, which was right in front of the TV, with normally two sandwiches in my lap on a paper plate, watching nickelodeon. At the same time, I could hear the children�s voices, through the opened living room window, having a wonderful time. Although, I did not care that I was missing out on the fun, since I had a PBJ focusing on me and my mouth focusing on it.
Remembering how simple life was when I was younger and how little or no stress I had, I see that even though life is more complex now and that I have a greater stress level, one thing stays the same. This would be that both I in the present time and I in the past can still appreciate one of the smaller of the greatest things, the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.
Thinking of how I am going to school to be a chef, I start to question myself about where I will stand in the future on eating the easily prepared peanut butter and jelly sandwich versus some of the exotic foods around the world. I then decide that it would be foolish to compare the two against each other, since it was not fair towards the exotic foods. I mean, there is not a food one that can fit the needs and taste buds like the PBJ, considering most exotic foods you can not get your child to eat. It hit me. I now knew how I would stand on this topic in the future, and that would be that I would fix and prepare the best meal for my children and family and that would be the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. With doing so I know I can count on satisfying my whole family�s taste buds, even my own. This is why the peanut butter and jelly sandwich should be looked upon as the greatest food ever and as the mirage of green eggs and ham, because people do eat them anywhere and love them.
� Brent Evans 2003-2004 | All Rights Reserved