Move over Tums.

Much has been made about Kamala Harris cooking skill –— knife skills and comfort in kitchen environments have spawned numerous think pieces. After four years of ice cream and angel hair pasta, chefs VIPs in the food and beverage world are clearly excited about the prospect of having a foodie in the White House.

This is in sharp contrast to his rival in the presidential race, Donald Trump. A. germaphobic A fast food aficionado, the former president’s best-known culinary exploits include ordering fast food for Clemson football players and enjoying a well-done steak slathered with ketchup.

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Theoretically, there can’t be two presidential candidates who are diametrically opposed when it comes to food. And recipes Cooking with Kamala and Trump “I love Hispanics” taco bowl don’t tell you much about that person; they tell you more about a carefully crafted political persona.

To get to the person behind the persona, I decided to eat exactly like Kamala Harris and Donald Trump for two days in a completely unscientific experiment based entirely on masochistic first-hand experience. And yes, that meant looking at four McDonald’s sandwiches in one sitting. We will get there.

Breakfast

Trump breakfast: Diet Coke

Trump prefers to skip breakfast and typically fasts for 12-16 hours a day. As a coffee drinker, I found it very difficult to get by on the caffeine of her beloved Diet Coke all morning. It was a hazy start to the day, even after dropping a third before 9am.

Harris breakfast: raisin bran with almond milk

For Harris, breakfast is similarly ambiguous. He often eats “over the sink”, sticking to the classics Raisin BranI prefer almond milk instead of regular milk. Like Trump, he’s giving up coffee, but his drink of choice is green tea, which gives me a similarly small sip of caffeine. Both diets made me fully aware that even if two cups a day were heart-healthy, coffee was winning the battle with my body; I am chemically dependent.

Snacks

Unexpected overlap in Trump and Harris’ diets? Doritos. Both of them goodness As for snacks, nacho cheese flavored chips.

Lunch

Trump’s lunch: overcooked steak smothered in ketchup

When lunch time came, I was looking forward to a well-done steak with ketchup; although I don’t like ketchup and prefer to cook most meats medium rare. With only maltodextrin cheese powder and suboptimal caffeine levels in my bloodstream, I cooked the piece of beef until it “curled off the plate,” as one former White House staffer described it. Ketchup was a much-needed safety add-on; because the well-done steak was so dry it would have been a choking hazard without the tomato-based lubricant. Enjoying the greens, I topped the steak with a side salad topped with Roquefort cheese dressing.

Harris lunch: curd rice

Harris’ lunch is where the two diets first truly differ. So far the snacks have been the same and the breakfasts have been similar. An Indian dish consisting of curd rice, rice porridge, unsweetened yoghurt, salt, pomegranate seeds and spices instantly brightened my day. Hearty, delicious, and layered with flavors of cilantro, green chile, cashews, and coconut oil, the dish resets my day as if the fast-eating Raisin Bran never happened.

Evening meal

Trump meal: two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, two Big Macs and a chocolate milkshake

Dinner was always going to be the Mount Everest of that endeavor. I was sitting in the McDonald’s drive-thru lane, sipping my sixth Diet Coke of the day (Trump frequently drinks up to 12). The cashier opened the pickup window and handed me my order: two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, two Big Macs, and a chocolate milkshake. “Do you need a napkin?” he asked. I thought how kind of him to assume that more than one person was eating this dish.

I came home, opened my four sandwiches, and sat down to eat what Trump has been known to consume in a day. single seating. I knew speed would play a role in whether I could successfully eat such an extreme amount of food, so I did it methodically, channeling Chestnut, Kobayashi, Black Widow, and my 18-year-old self. As I took the last sips of my chocolate drink, I wondered whether I should turn off all the lights and lie down, or go out into the world and get into a fistfight. Both felt right.

Harris dish: okra over white rice

Dinner on my day of dining at Kamala Harris was quite different, though almost as heavy. Gumbo is one of her favorite dishes, and I made mine from scratch — a roux, broth, spice mix — that took me nearly two hours, which felt authentic to Harris. She finds peace in cooking Sunday dinners, so it made sense to quickly go through breakfast and wolf down a delicious but easy lunch. I had saved time and space to have a hearty bowl of gumbo over white rice. The New Orleans regional specialty, loaded with chicken, shrimp, Andouille sausage, celery, onion, herbs and spices, filled me up. I can’t wait Kamala Headquarters leaving an official gumbo recipe.

Sweet

Harris dessert: bourbon pecan caramel cake

Trump’s dessert was included with dinner, but Harris’ dessert arrived a few hours after I digested the heavy gumbo. Just like Joe Biden, Harris loves sweet treats. Since she is a caramel and chocolate fan, I enjoyed the warm bourbon pecan caramel cake with chocolate drizzle. And a bath and a cup of chamomile tea to unwind.

Post

A day of eating like Kamala Harris was confusing at times, but it all came together to leave me feeling full, happy, and rested. A day of eating like Donald Trump left me feeling beaten, dehydrated, powerful, and oddly accomplished.

Every day seemed to start with a busy morning schedule, where breakfast continued to be a hindrance rather than a source of joy. By 1pm, both the Harris and Trump diets left me feeling the same; I was a little hungry, a little tired, and strongly opposed to the idea of ​​a light breakfast.

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While Trump’s final dishes were consistent in regionality (or lack thereof) and flavor, Harris’s were wildly different: Raisin Bran, Doritos, cottage cheese, and okra cover a wide gastronomic swath. It’s a high-low mix, like in David Chang’s tasting menu. There was no punch in any of their food. The curd rice was creamy and salty, the okra was herbaceous and spicy, while the sweet and tea brought sweetness and floral notes. The day was an exercise in power struggle, and although it started off a bit rocky, it ended calmly.

Trump’s dinner was an act of aggression and accomplishment, and although I couldn’t decide between darkness and a fistfight in the immediate aftermath, I eventually went to sleep that night. The next morning I was hungover in a way that I thought only alcohol could inspire. The 50-plus ounces of Diet Coke I ingested, plus a few days worth of sodium, gave me the same feeling as a half-liter of $8 boxed wine the next morning. I took my usual walk around the neighborhood at 8 a.m. and searched my calendar to see if I needed to cancel any meetings before taking a half-day of rest. I couldn’t shake my headache for three hours and swore I would never again eat four McDonald’s sandwiches in one sitting unless it was really, really funny.

A day in the life of Donald Trump

• 2 Big Macs

• 2 Filet-o-Fish sandwiches

• 58 ounces Diet Coke

• 1 bag of Doritos

• 1 overcooked eight-ounce steak with one ounce of ketchup

• 4,468 total milligrams of sodium

Conclusion

No single food preference defines a person; Ketchup on a well-done steak shouldn’t signal that someone lacks knowledge, and curd rice shouldn’t signal that someone is an elitist. When the set of preferences is brought together in this way, the picture becomes clearer.

If I were to play a little word association game it would look something like this:

• Kamala Harris: hot, diverse, random, hot, business

• Donald Trump: brave, salty, cheap, accessible, frat boy

Am I describing the person or their diet? I’d bet both campaigns wouldn’t mind 80% of the word associations (“bro kid maybe, but who else but 19-year-old jocks eats more than a single Big Mac at a time?”). Most importantly, this two-day dinner ultimately underlined some political commonalities for Harris and Trump: the supremacy of nacho cheese Doritos. That’s probably all we’ll get.