Hey there potato face!

Between the poles of vegan, omnivore, and Atkins, exist many gradations on the spectrum of dietary principles and preferences. There are pescatarians, fruitatarians, freegans, those who only eat free-range/grass-fed/organic/humane/sustainable meats (this is the realm I've begun to enter, with a few lapses here and there), and plain old vanilla vegetarians. I knew a girl in college who seemed to subsist on bread alone--a panivore? panitarian? Then there is the friend of a friend who consumes according to the principle: "I don't eat anything that has a face." So my question for him is, if your potato smiles up at you with a knowing grin, then what?

If you're me, then you smile sweetly back and crunch that smirk in two. Sounds brutal, but it was oh so tasty. I encountered this little tater at a "por kilo" restaurant in São Paulo, where you select your food from a buffet spread and pay by weight. Por kilos are my favorite way to eat casually in Brazil because I like to try just a tiny bit of everything. In the photo above, I lay my cheeky potato friend lovingly on a bed of arugula, accompanied by a mug of pineapple juice blended with fresh mint. Yum!