Truly Irresistible American Cuisine.

[MiguelCardoso]

First, I must thank you for all the pleasure, intelligence and downright truth-telling you've given me with your writing and captivating personality. Your generosity in participating in this session doesn't surprise me (although your opinions are invariably surprising in the best way), as I've always admired how you treat your readers: kindly but with no condescension, as if we were good friends sharing a lovely lunch. With you, one never feels left outside, as is so common, the impression being that you've said all you had to say and aren't keeping more personal considerations for those you love and trust.

Sorry, but I had to get that out of the way, Mimi!

My question is in the form of a mental experiment. Imagine the whole of humanity depended on your success in the following task:

A group of six unknown visitors, each one from different corners of the globe and all of them entirely ignorant of the great variety of food which is served in the U.S. (the whole caboodle of homes, restaurants and other purveyors and producers), wishes to try four or five dishes (or ingredients or products) which, whilst perhaps not unique, can truthfully be said to be American.

If they like them, the planet will be saved. If not, well, it will still be saved but suffer horribly for a few days. It's up to you to choose the four of five American things which, independently of the various nationalities and cultures of the tasters, would most probably be appreciated. Extra points would be awarded for anything they've very possibly never tried before - though it's not a condition.

To make things even more difficult, suppose that they're slightly prejudiced (though without justification) regarding American food, which they suspect is fast-foody, sugary and industrially made.

What would you serve - presuming that, whatever you chose, would be made with the utmost perfection by whoever did it best? (No need, therefore, for indicating particular cooks or restaurants).

Anything edible - be it a peach or an elaborate recipe - is allowed and, remember, it doesn't have to be uniquely or originally American: just acceptable as something that could be said to be part of the American experience of eating and cooking.

I know I'd be hard-pressed to answer the same question about my own country (Portugal), so feel free to pass if it's too much bother!

[Mimi Sheraton]

Hi Miguel,

What a nice way to ask a very intriguing question! I am fast-replying so you'll know I'm not ignoring you...I want to give some thought for a day or two. Please stay tuned. It's one of the most interesting questions about food that I've ever been asked.

[Mimi Sheraton]

So Miguel, I've thought about your question on and off since reading it and first I must say that even if I fail, and the planet surives after a few horrible days, it won't be so bad because the planet has been surviving lately with more than a few horrible days. Try years!

I do not think I would choose food that deals with the visitors' prejudices as that might rule out, for example, the best apple pie made with either a lard or butter crust and Northern Spy apples because it is sweet that's what they think we eat.

So, first and foremost, there would be Louisiana gumbo - seafood with okra, or if okra were not available, a duck, oyster and andouille gumbo thickened with file powder..The Louisiana cuisine is our best original

regional cuisine, and a natural fusion long before that terms was invented.

Next, as a product and preparation, a steamed Maine lobster of at least 2 pounds which true Mainers realize is where real flavor begins to set in (despite shibboleth about larger lobsters being less tender) served hot with melted butter and a wedge of lemon. Many Europeans prefer cold lobster cold with mayonnaise and while I like that, I think the hot steamed version is very American and far more flavorful. As a starter, if I may be permitted to cheat, I'd serve a cup of very hot, just-made clam broth, pure and straight...that to me is strictly American and the very essence of the Atlantic seashore, to say nothing of being the distillation of all of my childhood summers in Brooklyn-by-the-Sea.

I have never known a European or an Asian (but not Chinese) visitor who has not raved about our steak - porterhouse or T-bone, for me - even though I have had Charolais in France and Kobe in Japan that I think even more remarkable so I would serve the best I can find - Niman ranch as at "V" steakhouse, or the best sirloin at the Palm. Two weeks sampling beef in Argentina left me conflicted..I wanted to love it, but kept reaching for the salt and chimichurri.

Believe it or not, I would serve a real U.S. hamburger - not a fast-food patty - to illustrate where the derivative came from and what the echte should be..thick, rare, a good bun, ripe tomato and onion and coarse salt and freshly ground pepper on the side to be layered in at will and maybe even Heinz ketchup.

Although based on a German creqtion as is the hot dog, the presentation and condimenns are all completely American and seem to have an instant appeal to the youth of almost any country, as comfortable and practical as blue jeans and sneakers..I'm thinking too about Austin-style barbecued beef...

Chicken pot pie, for sure, lard crust, hand-torn pieces of white and dark meat (not cut into cubes with a knife), small white onions, chunks of carrot, some fresh, tiny peas and ordinary champignon caps quartered vertically, all in a sauce that is basically a veloute..cream sauce with chicken stock as part of the liquid. I'd also add chopped parsley.

If I may add to your quota, I would include the apple pie as described, a la mode, with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream and in season, huckleberry (not blueberry) pie.

And could there be so churlish a visitor as to not love strawberry shortcake, when the berries are local and succulent and not the hollow, white Driscoll travesties from California, the state that in more ways than one, I consider a wasted miracle.

And for a simpler dessert, a newly harvested McIntosh apple grown either in Mass. or NY.

[MiguelCardoso]

Wow, Mimi!

What a delectable, truly universal feast!

I do believe - honestly - you have found a recipe for world peace!

Thank you so much!

Miguel

[32rueduVertbois]

Mimi,

Did you consider and reject southern fried chicken? And do you think that porterhouse or T-bone might need an Idaho baked potato, or maybe side orders of fried onions and creamed spinach, in order to be appreciated fully? Finally, is there no room for an ear of corn with butter, salt, and pepper? If not, I say slip it in alongside the lobster anyway, and make excuses later.

32

[Mimi Sheraton]

I will not answer your question until you tell me more about your screen name..you and I know what it means but how and why did you choose it? I've been wondering about that for quite a while...

[Rien]

One of the great perils of list making is the implicit rejection of the unchosen. A reader can make the mistake of assuming that because something isn't there, it has been disdainfully cast off. Though I don't think readers here are going to fall into that trap, there's the more positive side - a certain sort of pride that leads to lobbying. Someone asked about southern fried chicken. One could also ask about southern food in a more general way. Picking up on your comment that Louisiana has one of the best and most natural "fusion" cuisines in America, I'm reminded of the recent eGullet Q&A with Rob Walsh on another American "fusion": Tex-Mex. Did you consider Tex-Mex when making your list?

In some ways, it's a natural choice since it has arguably been - perhaps along with Americanized pizza, hamburgers, and hotdogs - America's most successful culinary export. A German friend that visited me in Los Angeles only wanted to eat Mexican food and drink Corona, an exotic luxury back in Munich. Of course when I took him to authentic Mexican joints he was befuddled; where is the real Mexican food?

Though you mentioned California's squandered miracles, your selections also stayed pretty close to the Eastern seaboard or the omnipresent phenomena of beef. One could argue that "California cuisine" is America's biggest contribution to haute cuisine. How did it - or other bastions of natural abundance such as the Pacific Northwest (or the Hudson River Valley) - figure in your selection?

Sorry for such a lengthy question - I'm trying to pack in an entire conversation!

Thanks for joining us!

rien

[russ parsons]

And could there be so churlish a visitor as to not love strawberry shortcake, when the berries are local and succulent and not the hollow, white Driscoll travesties from California, the state that in more ways than one, I consider a wasted miracle.

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mimi, while i have to concede that most californians would agree with your assessment (we'd probably blame prop 13), i have to ask why in the world you would epect a strawberry that had been trucked from salinas to manhattan to be anything but tasteless?

[trillium]

Though you mentioned California's squandered miracles, your selections also stayed  pretty close to the Eastern seaboard or the omnipresent phenomena of beef. One could argue that "California cuisine" is America's biggest contribution to haute cuisine. How did it - or other bastions of natural abundance such as the Pacific Northwest (or the Hudson River Valley) - figure in your selection?

Sorry for such a lengthy question - I'm trying to pack in an entire conversation!

Thanks for joining us!

rien

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I'd like to add my thanks as well, it's great to have you here.

rien, you expressed very eloquently what I was wondering myself... the west coast didn't seem to be represented, except in mention of the dreadful strawberries trucked across the country ... Meyer lemons, Dungeness crab, all those wonderful berries from the Willamette valley, wild halibut (cheeks!), sand dabs and salmon ... where do these figure in?

regards,

trillium

[Mimi Sheraton]

I was asked to keep my selection to four or five choices and, in fact, overstepped that. I do love fried chicken but figuredf there were many counterpoarts in other countries (most especially Germany, Austria, China and even Japan) so it would not seem so surprising. Nor do I consider California cuisine a cuisine..more like a presentation..Dungeness crab does not hold a candle to its Chesapeake Bay cousin...Calif could grow better strawbnrries and probably does for Alice Waters..its the dreaed Driscolls that I scorn. Also, in general, where the species are the same, I prefer fish from the Atlantic to those from the Pacific, salmon included if wild and not farmed. And, no, I did not consider Tex-Mex among my 4-5 choices.

[Mimi Sheraton]

mimi, while i have to concede that most californians would agree with your assessment (we'd probably blame prop 13), i have to ask why in the world you would epect a strawberry that had been trucked from salinas to manhattan to be anything but tasteless?

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Russ..what I meant to answer is that it is not the trucking that's the main problem, it's the strawbrries that they grow. If they grew better ones, they could keep on truckin'

[russ parsons]

without wishing to belabor the point, the two questions are inextricable. what i was trying to say is that any strawberry that is able to withstand transnational shipping is almost by definition a strawberry that is not worth eating. therefore, the problem is not california, but the rest of the country, which is not pulling its weight in growing strawberries for their local markets.

[Mimi Sheraton]

Many regions, such as ours, do just that but not being blessed with the Calif. climate, our seasons are shorter than our passions....and by the way, why don't you review my memoir for the LA Times...In it I say that Spago has terrific goulash....isn't that worth telling readers about?

It;s called Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life..let me know if you need a copy. Thanks for taking part in this..nice to talk to you.

[32rueduVertbois]

To understand the screen name is to know why it was chosen, no? For the poulet roti, for the gigot, for the fois gras, for the escargots.... No mystery here.

[Michael Ruhlman]

Every decent soul ought to have the chance once in his or her life to visit 32 Rue de Vertbois. It's magic.

[phaelon56]

the problem is not california, but the rest of the country, which is not pulling its weight in growing strawberries for their local markets.

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I live in an area (central NY state) which, if forced to rely on locally/regionally grown berries, would have a strawberry season of about 2 -3 weeks in length and the rest of the year we'd be forced to do without. I agree that the Driscolls are horrible but still try to make do on occasion with them by marinating them to add some juiciness. It's an illusion of sorts but sometimes the color and taste are still desirable, even though lacking.

[Mimi Sheraton]

Also, if we stuck to only regional, local provendor, we New Yorkers would never have lemons, limes or oranges..Calif., would not have Maine lobster and who would ever have pineapple? No one seems to mind wasabi from Japan and much is made in LA of fish flown from Tokyo for sushi, so what are we really talking about here?

[Mimi Sheraton]

To understand the screen name is to know why it was chosen, no?  For the poulet roti, for the gigot, for the fois gras, for the escargots....  No mystery here.

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Not really, no. It happens to be my favorite address in the whole world, as you well may know, and I am interested as to who is so similarly fixated. And don't forget the creamed morilles and the salmis of hare or the potatoes roasted in duck fat.

[russ parsons]

mimi, you have a book out? (seriously, i've looked at it and it's very good; congratulations ... and i did review the bialy eaters, which was incredible).

i don't mean to harp, but i do think that this is an incredibly important point that is at the heart of so much of what is wrong with food these days. sometimes this gets dismissed as more airy-fairy california cuisine stuff and that's a shame.

it's important to recognize what travels and what doesn't (and what the costs of that travel are). wasabi, a dried root, ground into a paste, will ship easily. even fish, as long as it is handled right, will ship fairly easily. a great strawberry, which is the very definition of fragility, will not. if you insist on buying strawberries when they are going to have to be shipped, there will be a farmer willing to grow them. and they will be something like the current favorite Camarosa--a strawberry-like fruit that will bend forks.

if you want, you could probably have them air-freighted, but even that probably wouldn't be enough to protect a great strawberry (i once had a farmer next-day me some fraises des boises ... they came in an elaborately protected series of boxes ... and they still had been smashed to jam).

personally, i am quite happy to pass up maine lobster most of the time (why not when I've got dungeness crab?). but even when i do get it, i would never dream of assuming that it would give me the same experience as eating it at a dockside place up north. by the same token, i may eat bialies and bagels in southern california, but it is always with the knowledge that they are probably not going to be as good as the ones you get on your block in manhattan.

[Mimi Sheraton]

Of course there is something in what you say about some things that ship well and some that do not...But I still find it hard to believe Driscolls are the best that can be produced...For the record, on imported wasabi, I meant roots, not powder, not that that is a big point..You may find the bagels and bialys you get acceptable if second-rate substitutes, which I understand, but strawberries and tomatoes that we get from Calif. are not...Nor are they from Mexico....It's not just a Calif. thing..

[Mabelline]

Edit to apologize, I did not see this was a Q&A.

Edited September 30, 2004 by Mabelline (log)