Shrimp & Grits...

...And salmon! Yeah, shrimp and grits! WooHoo!! Shrimp and grits are a low country blah blah fucking blah! LOOK! Every damn food show from here to the Sahara has done something on shrimp and grits. Most shows run to some restaurant in North Carolina because the place is known for it's shrimp and grits. Good for them! Honestly, do I really need to get in-depth about this dish? Hell fucking NO! So why am I even showing you this? Besides it being a quick and incredibly delicious dinner, it has to do more with why I made the dinner in the first place. And that reason....is the homeless.

CAUTION: Before we go any further, I have to warn you about what's gonna be said. I am gonna say some shit that will seem really insensitive about the homeless. In fact, it's gonna sound mean and make me seem like an asshole. OK, I can be an asshole sometimes. But I'm not some sick fuck running the streets at night beating up hobos like in the movie A Clockwork Orange.

What I'm gonna say may make me sound bad, but it's all going to be my honest reaction from seeing what I saw. If you think that may be too much for you, now is a good time to hit the Back Button. Otherwise, read what I have to say and draw your own opinions on what I'm telling you.

Last weekend, I happened to watch a show called Secret Millionaire. Basically, they take a rich person and throw them in a "bad" part of town for a week to show them how us poor folks are living. When the week is up, they come back and cut a fat check to all the people they ran into. That's your basic set-up.

This episode had a lady staying in Venice Beach for the week volunteering around town. Since Venice has a pretty high homeless population, most of the places she helped dealt with the homeless in one form or another. One of the places she helped out was the Bread and Roses Cafe.

This place was set up to feed the homeless in a restaurant style, with the volunteers bringing them their food to the table. That sounds cool, right?

The next couple things I saw are the points I had issues with.

As a young lady who managed the cafe was explaining the cafe's goals, they were showing behind the scenes footage of the place. They showed a shot of the kitchen line and a cook was sauteing some shrimp and god knows what. After a couple seconds, it hit me. I said "Was there shrimp in that fucking pan?" I hit rewind on the dvr, and sure enough, it was shrimp!

I started thinking "I'm working, I got a roof over my head, and I'm not even eatin' fuckin' shrimp!" I couldn't believe it! "Is that how we do it here in Cali? Even bums are dining on seafood? Goddamn!"

So, I start the show back up and something else gets to me. They show someone seated in the cafe', and he asks a lady "Could I get the vegetarian plate?" Again, I had to pause it. "Wait a minute! Vegetarian plate??? Mutha Fucka you got a choice??? What the fuck???" For real, I couldn't believe they had a choice in this shit! "You gettin' some free food! Take what the fuck you can get and be happy!"

I was too deep in the show to not see the end, so I watched the rest of it. The next day, I bought the stuff for that top picture and enjoyed my shrimp. Yeah, there was a part of me saying "I gots some shrimp too mutha fuckas!" Sad, I know. But it was delicious.

Now, before you call me the devil's son, let me explain why those things got to me the way they did.

First, the shrimp. To me, shrimp is special. Seafood is special. It's not something I buy very often. Even when I go out to eat, I don't usually order seafood, partly because of the price. To see it being given away really took me back a step. After I really thought about, I started wondering if that place was buying that shrimp or if it was donated. If it's donated, fine, no problem. But it they are paying for it, why waste the money on shrimp? Why not buy more meats or starches, things that can stretch farther and feed more people? I really do hope they aren't paying for that seafood.

Now for the "vegetarian plate". I think this honestly bothered me more than the shrimp. I'm pretty sure most people have heard the saying "Beggars can't be choosers". And that's what I thought of seeing that. I wouldn't go to a friends house, get offered a plate of food and be like "I don't eat that, You got something else?" If you are fortunate enough to get a free meal, you get it, take a bite and say "This is so good. Thank you" and go about your business. But when you have few options to begin with, how are you gonna get picky? That part still bugs me.

Lastly, I want to shed a little light on my view of the homeless. I don't look down on the homeless. I try not to look down on anyone. I know that I'm one unfortunate accident away from being there myself. Life is tough and extremely unforgiving. I'm lucky enough to have what I have and be able to do this. I've never had to live on the street, but I have been without a permanent residence for  an extended period of time. Bouncing from motel to motel, crashing at friends places when I could.

So why post this? I think I needed to get this off my chest. I think part of me wants to see if I'm the only one that has the same perspective on this. What I'd like to say in closing is that everything said as I was watching that show, that is what I was feeling. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm not. In the end, it's probably not even gonna matter because this is just one opinion on one tiny little blog.

Feel free to leave a comment and voice your opinion on this.

J. Miller