UP FRONT/COMMENTARY: An ode to real food, out of doors

The growing popularity of food trucks around the region proves the dictum of summer eating: Everything tastes better outdoors.

Stop to think about it. You order a tamale served in a paper tray with a plastic fork and the usual accoutrements. You stroll down the parkway devouring it and your taste buds are alive, even as you’re swatting away flies and inhaling car exhaust — two things that don’t usually happen when you’re sitting inside at a restaurant. But the tamale tastes wonderful and the reason is because all those other elements are assuaged by the cool refreshment of eating outdoors.

Or it’s like when you’re camping and roasting weenies on a stick over a campfire. Your mouth is watering in anticipation as that sausage sizzles but just as you think it’s done, the thing slips off your stick and into the ashes of the campfire.

You scramble to fish it out of the fire, stabbing it with your stick and trying to brush off most of the ashes and dirt. You’re mildly successful. But instead of throwing it out you nestle the blackened log into a soft white bun, add mustard and onions and pickles and stuff it into your hungry mouth. Oh what a taste sensation. You would swear it’s the best thing you’ve ever eaten in your life.

It’s all because food just tastes better outdoors, no matter what the circumstances.

I’m thinking about this law of nature also as I graze on the fresh, raw vegetables out of my garden. I’ve eaten everything fresh-picked — onions, Swiss chard, carrots, beets, zucchini, tomatoes, peas and beans. Why bother cooking when real food tastes so good right off the vine? I don’t even mind a little dirt on my veggies and I’ve been known to unintentionally munch on an earwig or two. As they say, bugs just add protein. Or, as my mother would say: “A little dirt won’t kill you.”

The point is, the season for enjoying these outdoor culinary delights is swiftly drawing to a close. So grab a napkin and a bottle of water and head outdoors to eat real food the way Mother Nature intended it to be eaten — dirt, ashes, bugs and all.

And, in case you missed it, the last Lewiston Food Truck Night of the season is set for 5-9 p.m. Tuesday at the Nez Perce County Fairgrounds at 1229 Burrell Ave., in Lewiston.

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.