Why I'm doing this

I realised that this blog will take some time to get rolling, and I'm going to need to do something to keep everyone interested until the suggestions start rolling in. So I decided that I should write a bit more about the motivations behind this project.  And forgive me as it may get a bit long winded.
I turned 30 last week (Thursday to be exact) and last night was the party for it, thankfully I was not hungover this morning.  Now when talking with a friend of mine I found out that he thought that what I was searching for was going to be my last proper meal ever.  This is not the case,  this search is for the "last meal" that will go through my colon. I'll have the surgery, they'll take out the colon, and in return I'll have bag on the outside of my body doing most of what the colon was supposed to. It'll take some time, but in theory within a few months after the surgery I will be able to properly eat a meal. There will be a period where I will be going through a liquid only diet, a bland diet, a low fibre/low impact diet and in time I'll go back to solid foods and proper meals. I'll still have a bag attached to my stomach for when my body is done with said meal (there is no real delicate way to put it).

So if the change to what I can eat is only temporary, then why am I doing this?

 For me Ulcerative Colitis has been a disease of "whens" not "ifs".  I've been on two drugs almost the entire time, Salofalk and Prednisone. We have tried other courses of action. Last year I was on a drug called Imuran, which put me in the hospital as the drug caused me to develop Pancreatitis.  A  couple of months ago I was on Remicade, the first dose of this drug gave me Serum Sickness, when we tried it again I went in anaphylaxis. With the failure of both medications it leaves me with Prednisone.  And Prednisone is not a pretty drug.
 Let's say I attempt to stay on Prednisone and I manage to keep the disease under control and my colon lasts another 10-15 years, I will develop diabetes and osteoporosis from the long term use of Prednisone. During this period the risk of me developing colon cancer shoots up dramatically, and my colon would get removed due to cancer. If I stay the course I'm on now, and continue with my medication regime.  My medical life become a series of "whens".  "When will I develop diabetes?". "When will I develop osteoporosis?".  "When will I develop cancer?".  And after all of that I will still each the inevitable "When will they remove my colon?".  Ultimately this is my choice in the end.

There is a difference between knowing something is going to happen and being ready for it, and quite simply I'm not ready for it.  Which is why this blog and my search for this "Last Meal" exists, it's a form of therapy to help get me to that point.

 When I was a kid I wanted to be a chef. And in the end I got there, I worked in restaurants, I graduated from culinary school. But I realised it wasn't the being a chef that I was in love with it was food and cooking. In fact working in a kitchen made me miserable. Except for the first restaurant that I got a job at.

I remember being in high school and working as a dishwasher in a small restaurant. And at the end of the night I had to sweep and mop the kitchen.  But at the end of the night there was a specific smell, it was a mix of all of the herbs and spices that the Chef used that would accumulate on the floor, and in sweeping them up they would mix together and fill the air. That would have been 13-14 years ago. A couple of years ago I went into small grocery store and I can't explain it but as I was walking through the store there was the exact same smell in the air, and I was flooded with memories. The wait staff that was there, specific CDs that the chef would play when it got busy. The restaurant doesn't exist anymore, and that makes me a little sad, as they were like family and not only did it mark a period in my life, but it helped me define who I am today. There are dishes and sauces that I learned there that I still make from time to time, and when I do that it's the same rush of memories and feelings.
What I'm trying to say is that with food there are memories, the two are forever linked.  This blog is as much about the emotions and stories that are tied with food, as it is about the food itself. So I don't just want to know what I should have, but I want to know why I should have it.  And it doesn't necessarily need to be realistic.  If you were on road trip and you stopped at a diner in Kentucky and ordered a burger, and that the burger was the greatest burger you had ever eaten. I want to know where it was, I want to know what made that burger awesome, but most of all I want to know the story that lead you to that burger, and why you think I should go track that burger down.

Write me, tell me what I should eat and why.
And if any of you know Belle & Sebastian, I sent them a request through their website, tell them to check their mail.
Thanks
Jason
TheLastSupperProject@gmail.com

So another glass And a cigarette . . . Isabel Monteiro from Drugstore

Drugstore is a band I fell in love with. I bought their second album "White Magic For Lovers", based solely on a 3 second clip of music that I had heard in a commercial for HMV.  That album stayed in heavy rotation until Songs For The Jet Set came out. From there I tracked down a copy of the then out of print self titled first album.  

Drugstore, who took their name from the film Drugstore Cowboy, is a London based band with a multinational cast of characters led by the wonderfully talented Brazilian born Isabel Monteiro.  After their third album Songs For The Jet Set, and much to my disappointment, they went on a hiatus of sorts and seemed to disappear from the musical landscape. 

Things were quiet for 7 years, and then in 2009 there were rumblings from The Cave, and Isabel popped her head out.    That year saw a reunion in the form of a sell out gig at Dingwalls in London.  That reunion wasn't enough for the fans or Isabel.  The start of 2010 saw a search for new "Cowboys" to join Drugstore, and shortly after that another sell out gig at the ICA . 

As of right now Isabel and her crew are in the midst of recording a new album.  Which I and many other fans are eagerly awaiting.  I personally recommend the songs "I Wanna Love You Like A Man" and "I Know I Could" (from which the title of this post is taken from).

Isabel is not only the first contributor to my quest, but happens to also be the first person I wrote to.  Which seemed like a very good sign, so far I'm batting 1000.  Isabel keeps an online presence through Facebook, Twitter and her blog, Drugstore Anatomy. Visit them all.

The recipe is called Brigadeiro, it's a Brazilian dessert and just looking at the ingredients make me want it. Once I have pictures of the process and the final product I'll post them.

Isabel wrote:
"Sending you a super-basic recipe for a traditional brazilian sweet treat.
It's prob the 1st thing you learn as a kid, but it stays w/ you forever.
Every now and again, when I'm feeling cold and grey, I get a tin of condensed
milk and make a batch of 'Brigadeiro' - takes me right back to my childhood.
Hope you'll enjoy it. Maybe serve after meal, w/ coffee and liquors?
Recipe attached.
Hope everything's gonna be cool w/ you.
keep me posted.
love
x
isabel"

The closest thing I have to a liqueur in my house is a bottle of Jameson's, that should work. The recipe is as follows.

‘Brigadeiro’ (brigadier)

Recipe

Ingredients:

1 tin sweetened condensed milk

100g of dark chocolate

25 of butter (2 tablespoons )

Chocolate sprinkles or granulated sugar

Tiny paper candy cups

Method:

Combine first three ingredients in a heavy pot and stir constantly

over medium heat, bringing to a boil.

Continue stirring until mixture thickens enough to coat the bottom

of the pan.

Remove from heat and carefully scoop hot mixture out of pot into a

separate bowl to cool.

Cool completely.

Coat hands with butter and scoop out a tablespoon sized amount

into the palm of your hand. Roll into a small ball, roll the ball in

sprinkles or sugar and let rest in paper cup.

Makes about 40. 

By This Time Next Year. . .

By this time next year I will no longer have a colon.

My name is Jason, and I'm 30 in a couple of days.  I suffer from a disease called Ulcerative Colitis which is a form of IBD.  I will spare you all the details of the disease (they aren't pretty), but if you want to know more check Wikipedia.

I was diagnosed in November of 2008 and in the past two years I have exhausted all medical options.  The next step is surgery to remove my colon. Now despite the fact my colon doesn't exactly work all that well I have grown attached to it.  As such I have decided that I want to give it a "last meal" of sorts, however I have no clue what that will be.

I've decided to seek the advice of others, which is the point of this blog.  I will be writing to people that I think are awesome (musicians, chefs, authors etc.) and ask them for suggestions.  I'm hoping that over the coming weeks and months I will be able to fill this with suggestions, stories, picture and hopefully recipes.

Thanks

Jason