In an oblique way I am also reminded of thoughts that many folks who cook in the modern Western Farm-to-Table idiom have --- that something "fresh" (and picked from the garden or fished from the sea just a few minutes ago) is ALWAYS better. It is not so. I have mentioned before how dried or preserved ingredients are NOT necessarily poor substitutes for the spanking fresh ingredients, and that they often are ingredients in their own right, and that substituting the spanking fresh ingredient for the preserved ingredient DOES NOT WORK in many recipes which call for the preserved ingredient.**
** As just one example, if one tried using fresh squid or cuttlefish in certain Chinese-type soups where dried cuttlefish is called for, one would get a pretty repulsive soup, and those who have never used dried cuttlefish before but envision the soups as being made with fresh cuttlefish/squid ("fresh must be better") might be unable to comprehend why such a soup might be edible in their minds.
