I want to know the method by which the random dishes are chosen. Is it a dice roll on a master table of “every conceivable dish that makes sense?” Because a table like that would be massively skewed towards “hodgepodge” dishes which have infinite variety. Good luck ever getting something simple and specific. Lots and lots of salads and soups. If there are a quarter million combination of Whopper ingredients there must be billions of variations on a garden salad.
If it’s more like, “get a random dish that a fine chef is preparing right at this moment,” that sounds more interesting and varied.
Remember, the main objective for wish-granting fairies, genies, leprechauns, demons, etc., is to fuck you up.
You want infinite variety? You’ll get boiled fish for the next thousand days, each meal involving a minor tweak that does nothing to disguise that you’re getting boiled fish for a thousand days.
You want your eight favorite delicious meals? Oops, the only cook we’ve got available manages to consistently overcook the meat,drown the vegetables, leave bugs in the salad greens, and burn the pastry.
I think 8 dishes should be per meal (8 breakfast, 8 lunch, 8 dinner). But I still would have to pick variety.
Hmm, what would my 8 favorite cuisines be and what would I miss if I couldn’t get one of them?
Indian: muttar paneer, naan, tandoori chicken, curries, tikka masala
Italian: pizza, lasagne, lotsa pastas, cannoli
Tex Mex: tacos, fajitas, tamales, especially love me some barbacoa
Chinese: Coconut shrimp, sweet and sour chicken, wontons, soups
American: steak, fried chicken, sandwiches
French: Quiche, crepes, coq au vin, croque monsieur, many more
Greek: Gyros, spanakopita, baklava
Brazilian: Skewered meats delivered to your table, mmboy
No pad thai, sushi, or hummus for me. Would I be allowed fondue? IIRC the Swiss invented it, not the French.
It’s very hard to imagine that I could pick 8 x 3 of my favorite dishes and not one day end up pining for something. Heck, I still haven’t even tried turducken.
Never eat the same twice. I make more than 8 dishes fairly regularly now and I get tired of them. I’ll put up with an occasional dish I may not like to get the variety.
I’d send that fairy packing! Bottom line is that after the first day, you have zero choice in what you are going to eat for the rest of your life. Leaving it up to “yesterday me” to decide what “tomorrow me” eats is as bad a choice as leaving it up to a stranger.
Eight meals forever for me. I like trying new things, but given the choices here, I’ll stick with tried and tested meals.
My father spent the last few years of his life eating dinner by rotating between the same two restaurants. Without more than one or two exceptions per year.
It’s great that you were the first to respond, because I was actually thinking of you when I came up with this question (in a thread some time ago, you came down firmly in the “eat to live” camp, whereas I’m in the “live to eat” category, and for some reason your comments stuck with me).
I’m surprised at how many people would take 8 meals without hesitation. Less surprising are the questions to try to further define the rules. (This is the Dope, of course people have questions.) Let’s see what I can do to refine the situation:
The 8 meals are EXACTLY the same every time. No different chefs, no “one day I’ll have a burger with melted cheddar, the next day melted Swiss.”
Let’s say that the 8 meals in rotation are all once a day for your main meal, presumably dinner. If you choose that option, you can have a simple breakfast and lunch every day from a limited range of foods, but nothing exciting. So maybe every day you can have cornflakes, toast, oatmeal, and/or scrambled eggs for breakfast, and for lunch you can have a tuna sandwich or pb&j and chicken noodle or tomato soup (or if you hate those choices, substitute something you like).
Yes, this is what I had in mind. Every meal would be something that an expert chef would prepare for a discerning diner - or at least, something that a lot of people would give a thumbs-up to. No danger that your random meal will consist of uncooked pig’s liver sprinkled with Rice Krispies and a side of chopped mustard greens mixed with ketchup. One meal might be the featured selection from a Michelin 5-star restaurant; the next might be what a loving grandmother (and good cook) from Cincinnati or Bombay or Florence is serving her family when they visit. The next might be Fenway Franks with macaroni salad and caramel apples.
Yeah, twenty-five years ago, “yesterday me” would’ve probably chosen an assortment along the lines of a Reuben and a pizza and a steak salad and an everything omelet and bagels and lox and chips and salsa, and leave a slot for Passover seders, and toss in a hot dog with mustard and onions, but now…
After heated discussion around Casa Silenus, the final decision is:
She gets the 8 dishes, I get the infinite variety, and we invoke our wedding vows which clearly state that each may eat off the others plate (no lie!).
And like people pointed out- there could be repeats then. You might get a McDs Cheeseburger one meal, and a gourmet CB running $20 months later, right? But never two Mcds cheeseburgers.
You could get Pepperoni pizza several times over the course of decades, but each one different?
Ok, let me see:
Disneyland Fried chicken, Rib steak, Cobb salad, rainbow roll, Cheeseburger, Bacon & eggs, Baked Mac & Cheese, Margherita Pizza. Each with starch, salad & dessert.
Hmm, both could work- But I think I will go with variety.
I unhesitatingly choose the endless variety, but it is with regret. No small measure of joy in discovering a new delightful food is the anticipation of being able to have it again.
It seems to me that even with endless variety, one still might still enjoy some things again, just in different incarnations. I mean if you can only have steak once, then salmon, then pork shoulder, then rabbit, etc., eventually you’d be eating slugs, Snow leopard and skink. If that’s not the case, then even in an endless rotation, you could have, say, pasta with alfredo sauce. Then on another day, chicken alfredo with pasta on the side.
Just think how many different versions there are of just lasagna!
The suppositions suggested by DrDeth and Aspenglow are consistent with what I had in mind when I posed the question. On drinks: regardless of your overall choice, the SDMB fairy will allow you Kona coffee, pekoe tea, fresh water, and orange juice as desired at all meals. If you are on the 8 repeated meal plan and want alcohol, you can choose which wine/liquor/beer/mixed drinks to repeat. If you are on the endless variety plan, you will be served interesting beverages with your meals (both alcoholic and non, no requirement that you drink alcohol if you don’t want to) but don’t fall too deeply in love with that watermelon-lime juice or Beaujolais, because you will never have that EXACT one again. (A watermelon cooler or a different Beaujolais, sure, but never the same one).
Heh. I guess one side benefit of either choice is that you can quaff your G&T or merlot to your heart’s content every day without any damage to your liver. Both plans sound pretty good to me on that score
8 meals would be about 4 more than I’m currently eating.
With all my food restrictions (low salt, low sugar, low red meat, low dairy, etc.), I’d carefully design 8 optimal meals and stick with them. Endless variety would necessitate meals that would be very unhealthy for me.
Better even than “unaffected,” perhaps - if you are currently experiencing health issues directly tied to what you eat or don’t eat, you’ll get better, because from the standpoint of your physical well-being, the diet will be perfect: all the nutrients you require, the optimal number of calories, and no negative impact from too much salt, alcohol, fat, etc.
Would I be allowed fondue? IIRC the Swiss invented it, not the French.