Because We Know It’s All About the Food

“How’s the food.”

It’s the most common question I’m asked during my stay at the Health Science Centre’s Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. Or as I call it: Chez EMU.
And it’s good. It actually is. Okay, the pork is awful. It’s like blubber.

But for the most part, it’s been yummy. I know, weird way to describe hospital food. It’s come a long way since my hospital stays in the 1990s. Dried beef. Pre-chewed chicken. With a medley of mystery veggies.

One of my primary worries coming into the EMU was the food because I’m Celiac. I thought, great, ten days of rice toast for breakfast.

Nope. Waffles! Every morning. GF breakfast cereals. Gluten free sweet potato tots. I swear, I’m eating so many carbs, I’m going to waddle out of here. But who cares – because I didn’t have to cook.

I used to love cooking. In Edmonton, where there an abundance of gluten free products, I was in my glory making beet salads with chicken cordon bleu; beef stew and French bread; and lasagna with garlic toast.

But when I returned to Manitoba, I lost the love for cooking.

Who doesn’t love chocolate ice cream that tastes like mousse?

And when that happens, somehow shoving two chicken breasts in the oven is a task. Dinners are easy when all you do is throw a slab of beef in to cook. Or toss some pasta in a boiling pot of water.

And I countdown to the weekend – when my husband cooks for me. Orange Thai stir frys. Chicken stuffed with cheese and bacon. And his specialty: homemade gluten free Ruebens. Our trade off is fair – when one cooks, the other does the dishes.

I love watching him in the kitchen. Experimenting with beef. Talking to chicken breasts. While stabbing them with a toothpick. He’s come a long way from the night he tried to woo me with salmon steaks and kernel corn.

But there’s something about not having to cook. It’s like sitting in a restaurant. Okay, maybe not, but it’s similar.
You wait. You get a tray. You lift it up, and OMG! Orange sherbet. Sweet and sour pork. Carrot soup.

The Health Science Centre has wooed me with their food.

And they deliver three times a day. With a wet-nap.

And they do the dishes.

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