Rinsewind

Lord knows there are plenty of gigantic portions out there, but the one that was most surprising to me is at a gas station/general store/mini-restaurant called the Buss Stop (yes, two ss's) in the tiny town of Garfield in NW Arkansas. I was driving through on a miserable hot summer day, saw the sign for ice cream, and stopped in. I ordered a large soft-serve (you know, thinking Dairy Queen large). I was handed a cone with literally 12 inches of soft serve on it. There was absolutely no way to eat the thing before it melted. I guess it is their "signature dish" if you will, but seemed mostly a really good way to have a joke on the tourists. To be fair, the woman behind the counter did tell me before she made it that it was really big, but I wish she would have given me dimensions! On those occasions when I'm in the area now, I order a small.

I prefer made from scratch (well, most of the time-- I do confess to the occasional weakness for Cap'n Crunch or Kraft Macaroni and cheese...). I love to cook. BUT I grew up with a mom who loathed cooking, so I pretty much grew up on convenience foods. Getting to know some good cooks and living in France while a college student opened my eyes to what good food really is. It took a while to train my tastebuds to prefer things with less salt, less sugar, fewer chemicals. Honestly, if that's what you grow up eating, fresh food tastes... weird. I work full time, and manage to get a dinner made without convenience foods on the table most nights, but I do admit to the occasional frozen lasagne or even doctored Hamburger Helper. It didn't kill me growing up, so I figure once in a while won't hurt. I am one example of the product of a household where there were no adults who liked to cook. Don't discount the influence of advertising either. We are constantly bombarded with ads that tell us how much fast/easier/even *more* tasty (and inexpensive) prepackaged actually is. It took me a while to figure out that a cake, made from scratch, really doesn't take much longer than a mix, and generally tastes a whole lot better. Kids are particularly susceptible-- I've got a four year old and a one year old. The one year old cheerfully eats vegetables, fruits, all kinds of fresh food. The four year old, though he watches 30 minutes a day of television, still manages to see enough advertisement that he wants the food he sees advertised. He also gets a lot of industrial food at daycare, and now prefers it to my cooking. Why? It's *meant* for an unsophisticated palet-- sugary or salty, crunchy or bland, it's easier for him to like.

There's an excellent book by Laura Shapiro entitled Something from the Oven-- basically a history of home cooking in the 50's-- concentrating on popular cooking figures of the time. Sandra Lee reminds me a lot of a woman named Poppy Cannon, about whom Shapiro devotes much space. Basically, a woman who couldn't cook (but could write) who tried to convince the American housewife that doctored processed food was just as good as the original. After reading Shapiro's book, I went on eBay and found one of her cookbooks, Can-Opener Cooking (I think that was the title) just because I had to see for myself. Very similar to Sandra Lee. Shapiro's thesis has to do with the home-economics industry (see her first book Perfection Salad), with the added influence of the prepared-foods industry. She suggests that popular writers were damaging home cuisine by convincing women that doctored stuff is just as good the real thing-- something that insults the intelligence of the American public. She goes on to talk about the advent of Julia Child and Betty Friedan. An interesting book. I have watched Sandra Lee several times, and am appalled by the food. However, from an anthropological/sociological point of view, I sort of see her as a dumbed down version of Martha Stewart for the middle class suburban mom (well, of a certain type anyway). Martha is certainly an interesting phenomenon in and of herself, but if you "Martha Stewart Living" out of the Hamptons and put her Cedar Rapids, Iowa (no offense!), bring down the economic and educational background quite a bit, and you get Sandra Lee. Rachel Ray? Annoying, but do watch her occasionally for fast meal ideas. A different market, I think.

Hear, hear! (or is it here, here...) Coming from the north (Michigan) where the Dairy Queens closed for the winter, I was delighted to find when I moved to Oklahoma that they were open all year. Sadly, over the last ten years or so, all of them have closed in my town (Norman). I have to go home to visit my parents in the summer to get a Mr. Misty cherry float. Yum! They do, however, make some pretty kick-ass snocones down here though. Lord knows it's hot enough down here to eat them regularly. Not quite the same as a slurpee (which is also quite tasty), but with many more available flavors. One local stand has about 200 different flavors of snocone. Still working my way through them all...

Cake batter. Many's the cake that I've baked just so I could eat some of the batter before baking it. Yes, yes, I know about the raw eggs and all that-- at least I refrained when I was pregnant with my kids! And my family actually isn't that wild about cake! But hey, they love me at work...

I suppose I should answer that since I'm the one that said I would rather have Cajun. Firstly, I'm not terribly big on vegetables. I've been working on that one for twenty years, but I come from an Irish household where everything had no spice and was boiled into submission. We never had any fresh fruits or vegetables, and it's taken me quite a while to acquire a taste for them. I have learned to like many different cuisines, mainly in self-defense (also why I learned to cook!) I have had some cuisines which would, at least in some dishes, qualify as vegan-- some Indian dishes, for example-- which I think are quite tasty. But my experience of vegan cooking has been with friends who cook a certain way because they are vegan, not because they come out of a cultural or regional cuisine which is vegan. Because of that, I have eaten a lot of bland, boring, or unidimensional (as in spicy, but like vegetables just covered with hot sauce) vegan food. That's not to say that interesting vegan food isn't out there, I just haven't had any real experience of it. On the other hand, *everything* I have had from Cajun and Creole cuisine has been at least interesting, and usually delicious. To me, something that comes out of a tradition has had a chance to develop into a real cuisine-- rich, often complex, refined. Cajun (and Creole) cooks start with what they have available and have built it into a great cuisine. My experience of vegan cooking is that the people cooking it were often more concerned about what they were going to leave *out* than developing something out of what they *had.* My apologies to any vegan cooks out there who feel they are part of a tradition, and/or are good enough cooks to make something really tasty and complex. Want to have me over to dinner??

Trying hard to figure out who would be who regarding the supposed "Fox political bias" in this scenario. ← Fair enough. Hadn't seen the show before these two episodes. Anyone know if this was the first one to focus so much on food? Certainly there's plenty out there in print and visual media that deals with the subject of food as exotic vs. familiar. Just never thought of it in terms of "reality tv" programming before! And nope, didn't know there were other threads! I'll go find 'em. Thanks!

I would certainly agree that the Cajun woman was a far more compassionate, respectful, and caring woman. That's part of what I was wondering about-- is there a message behind choosing a sympathetic person for the Cajun woman, and the stereotype of the shrill liberal vegan California control freak for the unsympathetic character? And how is food central to the different regional cultures and do we associate it with certain personalities? As for Fox not being on the more conservative end of the available network stations in terms of news reporting, I'm afraid I disagree. It is my perception that, at least on the 24 hour news channel, the commentary is quite conservative compared with CNN or MSNBC. Is it Rush Limbaugh? No, of course not. It's more mainstream. But it is owned by a notoriously conservative man, and I think that shows. I live in central Oklahoma, and our locally owned paper (Daily Oklahoman) is much the same. Is it bad to have a range of networks from conservative to liberal? Of course not. There's a wide range of opinions out there, and different networks can serve different audiences in their news reporting. As for studies showing FOX isn't on the more conservative end of the spectrum, I would be interested in reading them if you have the references. I'm certainly willing to change my mind about the above opinion. Having said all that, I would take Cajun food over vegan any day of the week.

I grew up there, and still go back several times a year to visit the parents. Food in Ann Arbor can be a bit pricey-- it's gone pretty upscale in the last decade or so. In the downtown area (centered around Main Street) there are some great places to eat, but they can be slightly costly. Your best bet is to go for lunch. Kana: Pacific Rim just off Main on Washington (I think, could be Liberty) was started as KANA, a mom-and-pop Korean place that used to be by the medical campus. The son took it over and renamed it to Pacific Rim. It is more upscale Korean/Asian Fusion. The Real Seafood Company on Main is great, as is Middle Kingdom, just across the street (get anything with silver needle noodles). Connor O'Brian's is a nice Irish brew pub, also on Main. There's also two decent Italian-- Palio's is northern Italian while Grazie's is more southern. All are on Main. The best Jewish deli west of NYC is in Ann Arbor, called Zingerman's, on Detroit Street near downtown. Expect it to be crowded, but the food is to die for. There's also some ethnic restaurants clustered around Kerrytown and the Farmer's Market. This is near Zingerman's on Fifth Street, just north of downtown. Near campus are some cheaper places. They tend to turn over more rapidly, so I'm a little less sure of what's still there, but on South University there were some decent eats, including Hur's Campus Cafe, which is/was Korean. Also the Bagel Factory near South Univ. and South Forrest. There was a great Chigago hot-dog place called Red Hot Lovers which is just off South U. Also, I believe on Division St. between campus and downtown is a nice place for Middle Eastern food called Jerusalem Garden. Pretty inexpensive. There's probably a current resident out there that can give you more info, but there's a start!

I am somewhat embarassed to say that for the last two weeks, I watched a FOX network show called Trading Spouses. Can't even remember how I stumbled across it, but was intrigued by the cuisine and culture oriented match up: California Vegan (and fairly militant about it) trades with Louisiana lives-on-the-bayou-and-eats-'gators Cajun. Even though this is FOX and one suspects that many, if not most, of the reactions are staged, did anyone see this and have thoughts about program? The California Vegan woman was portrayed as a somewhat whacko control freak (with a kind but put-upon husband), while the Louisana Cajun woman was portrayed as rather rustic yet fairly sympathetic (with a kind but stupid husband). Given the conservative nature of FOX, would you deem this cultural show-down as a slam against Vegans? Liberals? Californians? Two ridiculously one-dimensional stereotypes of regional cultures and cuisines thrown together for explosive potential and ratings only? Admittedly, I did find it an interesting theme that did at least capture how important culturally-bound foodways can be. Then again, I might have been the only one out there watching it...

Bread. Cream. Shrimp. Could certainly live without: Raw tomatoes. Olives. Sardines. And I lived in Provence for a year. Go figure!