Sprinkle it (just a little bit)

Should we ever find the means to live in outer space, I will have one major dilemma to overcome. Do you know that it’s impossible to sprinkle salt and pepper onto your baked potato or other food of choice? Due to zero gravity, the salt and pepper would simply float away seasoning the air in a celestial dust of flavor.

This factoid shook something up for me, namely how obsessed I am with the act of “sprinkling”. In an effort to not litter outer space with drifting oregano particles and parmesan cheese flakes, I would have to make major modifications to my method of eating and cooking.

Let’s start with ice cream. The ice cream parlor is one of my favorite sprinkling locations. Back in the day, we only had chopped nuts and the proverbial “sprinkle” to top our sundaes. But now anything that contains sugar is fair game like M&M’s, powered coconut, and chocolate chips. I like how some places have gone the extra step by crushing candy in advance just for your sprinkling pleasure like Snickers and Oreo cookies. New options every day are being created such as yogurt chips, pistachio meat, hulled sesame, caramel shavings and “peachy penguins”, leaving the expert sprinkler with endless enjoyment.

There is something very satisfying about the act of sprinkling. Think about the last time you made pizza. Isn’t the favorite part when you sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the dough? Or how about the anticipation when you sprinkle cheddar over crispy tortillas knowing that it will soon melt into mouth-watering nachos?

Or maybe it’s how you aren’t tied down to a specific measurement - you can sprinkle as much or as little as you want based upon your style of cooking. For instance, when I’m in an adventurous mood, I’ll sprinkle extra oregano into my tomato sauce. Or when dining alone, I’ll sprinkle in about a half bottle of garlic powder. But no matter how my sauce comes out, there is nothing that beats the finale of a sprinkle of parmesan over the final dish.

Plus, sprinkling allows people to individualize their personal eating experience. At my house, garlic power, oregano and parmesan are regularly left on the table for guests’ sprinkling pleasure. Pizzerias are famous for this. Have you noticed that now they also leave out oregano for you? Starbucks has picked up on the counter-sprinkle option. When you go to pick up your latte, not only can you sprinkle sugar, but nutmeg, cinnamon, chocolate or vanilla.

But at fine restaurants, they do the sprinkling for you. Chefs will sprinkle chives, red peppers or other colorful spices around a completed dish. At first I thought that this was for aesthetic purposes, but if you watch the food channel, you see the great charge that chefs get from making that final sprinkle, as if it's the last stroke of a great painting. Emeril is famous for this and has turned the sprinkle into a household name. “BAM!”

In my home, we have used the “bamming” of the sprinkle to entice my two year old to eat. I found that if you sprinkle cheerios over any new dish, he will eventually try whatever food is put in front of him. Actually, Alan was the inspiration of this blog posting, because today I found him sprinkling cinnamon on the floor followed by a “yum!”. I used this as a “teachable moment” and began sprinkling cinnamon on apples and bananas. (“Bam!”)

The medical field is also capitalizing on the sprinkling effect. Do you know that you can sprinkle fiber onto your food now as well as a spice that will protect you from food-born bacteria like E. coli and salmonella? With researchers and marketers inventing new ways to enjoy sprinkling, I’m sure they’ll come up with a way to defy gravity. So maybe there is hope for me after all in outer space?