Do you eat to live or live to eat?

It's probably a little cliché, but have you ever asked yourself... Do I live to eat or do I eat to live?

The other night I was having dinner with three of my friends. We had a simple meal that night: Grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. Ha ha! Yes, I brought the soup. If there's one thing about me that everyone knows, it's that I can't cook worth a darn.

The four of us are sitting around, eating, chatting, laughing. The usual stuff. Somehow the discussion turned to foods and which ones were our favorites. I had been suffering from a headache that day, so wasn't really contributing to the conversation.

My friends began discussing and exchanging stories about the variety of food that they had tried while on past trips. I must say that their favorite place to have a meal was Japan, hands down. Lol.

Finally, given that I had been so quiet throughout this chat, one of my friends looks at me and asks, "When you were in Japan, what did you eat?"

I had visited Japan some years ago with an exchange program for other disabled youths. It was a two-week trip that had us mainly residing in Tokyo, except for our first few days. We first went to a bird park and camped out a bit. Okay, maybe it wasn't "camping" in the true sense of the word, but when you've got a traveling air mattress, a floor to sleep on and an outdoor facility for showers... It's camping!

Thinking on my friend's question, I had to really stop and think. After several seconds, I laughed and said that I honestly couldn't remember. This got a good chuckle out of everyone. I smiled, shrugged and said, "Sorry. I think of that line my mom told me. I don't live to eat, I eat to live."

A good statement, wouldn't you think?

I don't know what else to really say. I couldn't care less about my next meal, as long as it's warm, filling and has some protein.

Of course, I seem to be the minority, as I have many other friends who are always scouting for the next new place to have lunch or dinner. I'm not like that. In fact, I could probably go to Romano’s Macaroni Grill and do a create-your-own-pasta every night and be happy. Lol. Yes, I'd probably get tired of it after a couple of weeks, but this shows that I'm a little...boring, when it comes to food.

Do I ever wonder why this is? Not really. However, if I had to guess, I'd probably attribute my lack of interest for food on that fact that while growing up, my mother cooked all the meals. We couldn't afford to go out to eat. The most we ever did was a dinner once a year at a restaurant to celebrate my grandma's birthday. Naturally paid by other relatives.

The bottom line is, I'm a simple person who has simple tastes. Literally.