Carrot Top

Mmm. I decided to stay away from identity politics and food in that moment, Rancho Gordo. Could be I'll give you some more excess verbiage to respond to with time. Actually I might just find what I removed and add it back on. Yeah, that's it.

It's all very interesting. A huge drama of life. All boiled down to one ingredient in a recipe. Fantastic. (Edited for excess verbiage signifing nothing much but a tumble of words. )

Yes, which in my view makes it particularly important to 'get it right.' The immigrants certainly know the difference between the two products. Gourmet should have explained it correctly to the rest of us. ← Mmm. Fair enough, Jaymes. You are asking for a higher level of care shown than I've seen performed in most professional arenas except perhaps in that of the scholar (so in that way I don't expect to see it), but it's a good quest to be sure. Then of course we can get into those areas of who is the right source to look to for true authenticity in some cases. Earlier when Rancho Gordo wrote this: a memory came to mind of a post in an internet forum where authors of regional cookbooks were being discussed and a native Mexican came out swinging against Diana Kennedy saying that she often got it wrong. I also thought that Rachel Lauden might be someone who could be included in the list above of authors/scholars who might be contacted for formal and knowledgeable information about regional Mexican food.

Yes, I know what you mean. I love children's literature but once took a class where the focus of the professor was to ensure that we knew that "Puss in Boots" was actually a Marxist tale hidden within a children's story. I practically had a conniption in that class as she blathered on. If you like food history books you might like "Food in History" by Reay Tannahill. She starts at the very beginning (pre 10,000 BC) and just keeps on truckin'. Chock-full of really fascinating stuff and told with occassional wonderful bursts of wry humor.

I guess if it really mattered to me (the answer to this) I'd probably look through other current issues of Gourmet to see how often it happens that "ideal" or "authentic" ingredients are suggested with notes for substitutions if that ingredient is not available in the area, as opposed to how often it happens that the more common ingredient available nation-wide in most grocery stores is simply featured with no footnotes. If it is standard practice in most instances, then this definitely could have been an "error" in fact or knowledge base. In the spirit of the tone of the issue though, which is that of people who move somewhere new who continue to prepare their foods from the countries they left behind but in a new place where all the "authentic" ingredients are not always available in all locations they may move to, I would think the spirit of the issue and the spirit of the actuality (of having to make do with what does exist in terms of ingredients) of being an immigrant in a new land is being followed. Is the purpose of the recipe and the stories attached to these recipes (or really, it's the other way: the stories with the recipes attached! ) to show the truth of the native recipe as it stood "then and there"? Or is the purpose of the stories with the recipes attached to show the truth of the recipes as they stand "now and here"? This matters, I think. I don't particularly care about being "right" because of the "authenticity" of this food or that, or because I really give a hoot about how perfect the editors or writers of Gourmet perform their important tasks, but do care in a way about being right because of the importance I attach to the truth of an immigrants' experience. The immigrant experience is being spotlit here. The people come first. The food follows them, and adapts (as they do in many other ways) to the place. .............................................. I also believe that the target group of Gourmet readers may be different than it was some years ago (though how many would take a bit more focus for me to figure out, and I don't really care all that much, so . . . ). The Gourmet that used to be primarily a higher-income journal is now more broad-based. Let's put it this way: we used to live in a culture where we had some "gourmets". Not a lot, just some. Now we live in a culture where everyone and his neighbor is a "foodie". We are a land populated by foodies. Foodies exist in all of our economic groups, but exist en masse in our aspirational middle-class. The aspirational middle-class is the one that is striving in manners and matters of social knowledge to reach the upper middle-class but has not done so in economic terms yet. It seems to me that Gourmet has expanded its focal readership en masse to this group. It would have been silly of them not to - it just seems to make sense. And being aspirational does not equal being in the place where the aspirations are leading to - it means taking on manners and ways of things not yet really affordable or managable, yet where the "look" is important.

Could be. I tend to hope for the best. It's true that I'm often proved wrong. It's a Full Moon tonight, Rancho Gordo. I can't stay here right now and argue for I must go out and merrily howl at it. No authentic tamales for me tonight but rather terribly unauthentic Italian American Stuffed Shells for supper. (Per the munchkins request. )

My own feeling on this is that Reichl and her crew are both culturally knowledgeable and editorially savvy. So I would not be surprised if the question had been raised and the decision made to write it as it was written, based on studied assessment of their audience. I've rarely seen tamal masa harina in the average grocery store in any of the places I've lived all over the Northeast and Southeast yet tortilla masa harina is very common. I guess it's a matter of choice. I'd rather go to the source. It is of course a matter of choice and I would have to agree with you that the source offers authenticity in a certain sense, though even that authenticity has not been in many cases exactly stable over time, as there is no Ur recipe that was born with the world that I am aware of, but moreso recipes develop and change over shorter or longer periods of time due to outside influences affecting the specific region. Personally, I would rather start by knowing the source and enjoying that, then watching what happens when people travel in their quests for different lives in different places. I have no greater respect for anyone than I have for the adaptive immigrant. There are many people who do not have the income to go to the source even though they might like it, though. Travel in search of the authentic is for the most part an upper-middle class pleasure and privilege.

It was like that BB but probably it's gotten worse. Now that you've gone there though, the fame can only continue, the tourists only flock more. AB&B is the era now. After Bush and Busboy.

I'm not sure those recipes are "unfortunate". They are new and adaptive to the environment they are living in. Clifford Wright posted a link to his updated site in the "food on the internet" forum and in his introductory post he wrote Now he may have been speaking of traditional or historic regionally based foods when he wrote this (and I thought it a beautifully phrased thought) but it seems to me that it can be applied as equally to the foods that immigrants make in the places they emigrate to. These foods are not lesser, they are new, different, adaptive, and make home feel like home in a strange place, and they are as wonderfully mixed-breed as most of us are. Many places do not have tamal masa available and do have masa harina available. Our cuisines spring from availability, as they should. Oh I dunno, Pontormo. I don't think the cover quite entirely played only to hearts and flowers drawn in Bic pen on the edge of a blue-lined geography test study sheet. I daresay a Latina might have had the same reaction of enjoyment. I enjoyed the mix of there-come-here-to-live-and-eat. It's real. I think it would be fantastic to see more of this. Italian-American perhaps, the home foods of Italian immigrants to the U.S where there still are differences shown? Regional Chinese or other Asian-American other than what we see in restaurants? What is interesting is that the cookery(s) that this issue covers is restaurant-based as well as being home cooking-based. I'm not sure in this moment that I can think of any other supposedly cogent cookery that includes this sort of regional variations that display themselves as well and solidly as these have in the restaurants of the United States. Curious, too, to wonder why.

Probably not. The really scary country stores always have handwritten "weighing station" signs posted. Sometimes I used to wonder if it was only game they weighed but maybe the odd tourist that happened to end up in the wrong place, too. And I forgot to add home-made fried pies tossed haphazardly in a flat cardboard box sitting at the end of the checkout. Which apparently only come in apple, as I've never in my life seen another flavor sold.

Well, it may take itself far too seriously (and I do know what you mean and am against dreary weightiness myself) but Gastronomica gave me a good laugh this afternoon. As you know, I tried to order a subscription and after more than half a year with phone calls attached did not receive a single issue so cancelled it, asked for a refund, and the day after received my first issue. I thought I was done with it. Hadn't re-ordered not from dislike but more from having too many good books and magazines already hanging around, easier to get to and indeed swamping me. Today I got my second issue. If I work this right, I can order it then cancel it for the rest of my life maybe, while still receiving issues. I'll take a look at it later and see if I see what you see, SB.

It sounds like what was a special-interest publication to start with is aiming to be even more special-interest. Is the journal of food and culture becoming the journal of food, culture, and politics? That song from Mary Poppins is coming to mind. "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down . . ." Not enough sugar in the recipe for the medicine to be palatable perhaps. Particularly for readers who have to get waders on and a big stick to walk with before approaching academic-style writing.

It is made in a hoop but not a needlework one. Good idea. Caring for boxes of fresh produce takes work, and work might take away from the porch settin'. There used to be one within eye's sight of my front yard when I lived in Howellsville, NC, where everyone was a Howell. Their specialty was fighting cocks for sale. Now you're reminding me of beer joints in rural West Virginia where you might meet some pretty damn sprightly seventy year old women dressed to the nines in tight black leather drinking beer, snorting snuff and flatfooting like tiny hurricanes. You sure that wasn't Uncle Hank? I wish you would. Do it now, before it all disappears as it has in so many other places. I'd do it myself if I didn't have children to rear. They tell me you can't just put them out to pasture like horses when you want to travel and do things. A pity.

This is also helpful in terms of actually getting carrot and celery sticks nibbled on rather than not, for they're always ready.

The Twain article was most commentary-worthy, SB. Particularly so, I thought, in terms of how he thought of his country's food and how "we" (generalized) now think of our country's food. Also interesting to note the foods that really no longer are generally available, that he felt so strongly meant home to him. It's not too late. Time is a flexible thing. (I would consider doing it, but my time is completely filled right now waiting for Top Chef to come on then thinking and talking about it for the rest of the week. )

A refreshing review of Rattatouille. From one of those college students. You know, one of those smart kids. Tied to no allegiances as yet and not boosting for buddies or career blue or brown nosing. I do believe I'll be looking for this fellow's critical writings in the future.

I was going to suggest this, but I have been beaten to it, I see. I will add, however, for the pastry impaired, that the freezer section of most grocer stores holds Pepperidge Farm puff pastry in the shape of little cups, which are perfect for this. ← Yeah. Well. I'm not sure I want to admit this but I had a dream nine days ago about this very same thing (post 39). Except mine was party-sized, for a crowd. Now I have to wonder if all this is a figment of my imagination. Brenda herself, all the answers here, and most of all Busboy.

Just out of curiosity, Brenda, what was the price of the can of snails? And whatever it was, do you think it was worth it?

Casey will never live down that onion episode, and it's hard to believe it was real and not somehow a set-up for the audience's entertainment it was so drastic a thing. Someone mentioned earlier that Tom wrote in his blog that the reason for her slowness was that her knife was dull. And all I can think of when reviewing that thought was why on earth she was sunbathing while her knives were dull. (Searching for the right smilie face to insert here and there isn't one.) On the other hand, Hung's knife sure wasn't dull. I still think that given the fact the knife was dull she might have accomplished more by going gestapo on the onions rather than going for style. Just let out a martial arts "kia" and attack. Perfection might not have been attained but the job would have been done - and the vital criteria in this challenge was timing. But a dull knife - that's sort of like walking into a tennis competetion with a broken raquet or entering a horse with a weak leg in a race. A shame this happened. ...................................................... I woke up this morning and realized that Top Chef is indeed, all about philosophy. It might be about cooking skills too, but it's about philosophy most, to my mind. Good philosophy, bad philosophy, whatever. Top Chef rocks on a philosophic level. So I'm replanning my party for next season around that idea. We will all wear pointy philosopher's caps and rather than merely try to pick winners or losers will attempt to come up with the most cogent philosophy that fits the show. If we have to actually talk about real people in the process, that is merely an important task in the intellectual process, so we will indulge in it with trepidation but full cattiness. Can't wait. Maybe we'll even blog about it to increase our feelings of self-importance.

Mmm. I have, Kougin Aman, but it was a long time ago. My MIL (who had been born and raised in Italy) farmed her garden one summer day for snails in one of her attempts to show me ways of food that I'd never seen as a young-ish sprout at the time. It was a tremendous amount of work (as many of the wild foods she prepared were). The final result was snails in a tomato sauce. I respected her knowledge more than I admit to respecting the taste or texture of those snails. It was good knowledge for her to have, just for the pure knowledge value or alternately for knowing how to find something to eat when there might not be a Kroger or other grocery store nearby. .................................... I've heard that the taste of land snails can be dependant (as most living things are) on what they consume, what vegetation. My own preference (to date) is for marine snails, which I've had in France both in restaurants and once, bought from a basket at a seafood shop and took home and cooked (steamed, white wine, garlic, herbs, butter). I'd thought I'd also heard that the type of land snail eaten mattered a lot, so checked it on wiki, and found some info. Might check a better reference later. ...................................... The best snail story was written by MFK Fisher of course, about the meal where Papazi made snails.

The Amateur Gourmet's Top Chef and 80's Movies Underdog Theory.

Mmm. Edging away from the oven that does it all, there are several more tips. Store your truffles with unshelled eggs in a closed container in the fridge. The eggs will absorb the aroma. If you have to hold your truffles for longer than a week, put them in brandy to cover. The brandy will also absorb the truffle aroma. One last one from my daughter. You can use cut celery stalks, the end, to create a leopard-patterned tint in your hair using whatever color hairdye you prefer. I haven't seen this yet, but sooner or later, who knows. It may happen. Apparently she thinks it would be a nice touch to have leopard-printed hair as a design accessory to the truffles she intends to learn to cook with soon afterwards.

Use your oven effectively. If you are going to cook one thing, add more things that can be used later. Here's a rather extreme example: Roast chicken, smoked ham, and beef all at the same time on one level; with potatoes, acorn squash and beets on the other level. A three and a half pound chicken usually takes about one and a half hours. Same with the other meats (if prepared to do so) and the veggies will take one hour up to one and a half hours (depending on size). Nothing here is terribly fussy in terms of timing, so nothing will be terribly off except for the chicken so that is the thing that must be watched and timed best. Chicken can be seasoned with herbs, lemon, garlic, whatever. Smoked ham can be put in a pan with a handful of mixed dried fruits and a bit of wine or ginger ale or broth or water. Beef can be bought cubed small for "stew" and mixed with whatever one wants to braise it with or if one is not aiming for haute cuisine but just wants a quick easy home meal, Lipton onion soup mix and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup can be blended and poured over it. Potatoes simply scrubbed and poked. Acorn squash washed, cut in half, a bit of butter and maple syrup inside it. Beets washed and wrapped in foil. Pull the veggies out after an hour if they are ready. If they aren't then leave them in for the full hour and a half. Pull all the meats out after an hour and a half. First night's dinner can be the chicken with baked potatoes and acorn squash. Next night's dinner can be the ham with fruit, briefly reheated or even microwaved. Next night's dinner can be the braised beef (always better after allowing the flavors to meld, anyway!) with some noodles or served over extra baked potatoes, with a salad made from the beets. Extra chicken can of course be used for chicken sandwiches or even crepes or whatever, during the week. Extra ham the same, or devilled ham. Extra braised beef makes great sandwiches or it can used as a base for shepherd's pie. If you put in extra veggies they can be made into other things also. Potatoes = Twice Baked Stuffed Potatoes or Home Fries. Acorn Squash = Roast Acorn Squash Bisque. Beets = Pickled Beets. So from one oven at one time comes three dinners plus, basically. (Veggie-watchers who measure meals as written, please know that of course any other veggie can be added to the meals when served, of course. A simple salad, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, whatever. I'm not advising avoidance of veggies with this simplistic written menu. )

Make extra basic tomato sauce and freeze it then add to it to change its personality when utilized. Ground beef browned and added with a quick toss of cinnamon, thyme, cayenne and ground cumin is one of my favorites, to make pastisio with - for the personality/flavor is quite different than the usual. During times when I hated to cook (which have been more often than one would imagine and have lasted longer than one would guess but that is because the idea of cooking somehow was tied into a deep betrayal that had occured in my life, one which the taste could not be easily spit out) yet had to cook day after day for my children, I would take this "trick" one step further and use Ragu meat sauce as the base for the extra seasonings to make pastisio. Pastisio is almost a truc in and of itself, really. So easy yet so savory and warming.

Sara is an exceptionally quick learner. She might turn out to be the dark horse in the competition. (I know I said I was going to stay away from this but chappie's comment cheered me up so. )