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Food in the time of a pandemic

haresfur

By haresfur
in Food Traditions & Culture

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liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

Don't ask me why I think only Jews and Scots eat barley.

 

It is eaten in China, too.

 

And many other places.

  • Like 1

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

Margaret Pilgrim

Margaret Pilgrim

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

@weinoo  both Scotch Broth and Mushroom Barley soup are nostalgia foods for me. I like to cook the barley separately (in light stock) and then add it to the soup just before serving. That way it doesn't turn the soup starchy and it is easier to control the ratio of barley to soup. I guess an overload of barley cooked for 45 minutes in the soup would be....Jewish congee. At least that's what it would be if my mother every made it. My favorite food on earth used to be Williams BBQ mushroom and barley casserole; industrial size  take-out in an aluminum baking dish. It was at B'way and 85th St, and closed many years ago. I don't know how they managed to cook the barley so perfectly, but it was never sticky, always distinct pearls. Being on lockdown is unfortunately making me want a lot of foods I'll never see again.

 

5 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

It's exactly what I do when making a soup that has pasta in it; cook the pasta separately and add it at the end.  

 

Jewish congee - I like the idea!

 

When I did a little more research into the barley conundrum,  I saw that it is used in cholent, making that a real rib sticker!

 IMHO you have to cook any starch separately before adding to soup.    Else -> crappy risotto.    

  • Like 1

eGullet member #80.

JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

 

It is eaten in China, too.

 

And many other places.

 

Eaten?  John Barleycorn must die!

 

  • Haha 3

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Eaten?  John Barleycorn must die!

 

 

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Eaten?  John Barleycorn must die!

 

 

I think he is the booze guy - so drank/drunk   Like saying I have a date with Jack   Common phrases

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Eaten?  John Barleycorn must die!

 

 

Yes, it is used in soups and congees made from mixed grains. It is also drunk, but as a form of "tea". Roasted barley is steeped in boiling water. It isn't often, if ever, used in alcoholic drinks. China generally prefers rice, sorghum or millet for those.

 

This is the roasted barley sold as 大麦茶 (dà mài chá) which means "barley tea".

 

20200324_122344.thumb.jpg.413a3c2414a5601f04f45cfb6346cdd0.jpg

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)
  • Like 4
  • Sad 1

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, weinoo said:

I actually enjoy the roasted barley tea - I think it's also a Japanese thing.

 

Doing my research, I found that it was certainly one of the earliest cultivated grains in the fertile crescent.  And it grows in lots and lots of places.

It gets plenty of mentions in Homer, IIRC.

  • Like 1

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

BeeZee

BeeZee

Posted
Posted

Sent my husband out shopping with a detailed list, he got to the store just before it opened at 6am. A couple of mistakes despite reviewing the list with him the night before...mostly due to his inability to actually look at something before putting it in the cart - bananas with split skin, bell pepper with wrinkled spot, package of boneless/skinless chicken thighs rather than breasts. We both hate the thighs, now I'm going to have to figure out how to cook them to make them edible for us. At least we are set for a week now.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" - Oscar Wilde

Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted

Just tried to place a grocery order. The earliest delivery is April 11. 

  • Sad 4

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Eaten?  John Barleycorn must die!

 

 

Right here (YouTube)

  • Thanks 1

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

curls

curls

Posted
Posted

Wanted to order seeds for my garden and the local seed exchange has been so overwhelmed with orders that they are steering customers to out of state seed exchanges until they catch up on their backlog of orders! Was able to order seed from West Virginia and New York. 

  • Like 2
heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Anna N said:

Just tried to place a grocery order. The earliest delivery is April 11. 

 

Yup - why I am braving Uber to store this morning despite the rain. Who knows what will be available but at least I can decide versus a "shopper" doing odd subs.

  • Like 2
heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, curls said:

Wanted to order seeds for my garden and the local seed exchange has been so overwhelmed with orders that they are steering customers to out of state seed exchanges until they catch up on their backlog of orders! Was able to order seed from West Virginia and New York. 

 

Perhaps we are back to Victory gardens - a good trend

  • Like 4
Margaret Pilgrim

Margaret Pilgrim

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Anna N said:

Just tried to place a grocery order. The earliest delivery is April 11. 

Hit the same wall this weekend, Anna.    All of the well-known services were denying new customers.    I finally found a smaller service that represents several dozen small, local grocers.   They accepted my order, were able to fill every request, gave me a delivery window of 5 hours, texted me several times re selection, had the order on my doorstep in 3 hours     I will anticipate more next order annd/but hope they are able to keep up this level of service, plus helping local merchants.

  • Like 4

eGullet member #80.

Darienne

Darienne

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, BeeZee said:

Sent my husband out shopping with a detailed list, he got to the store just before it opened at 6am. A couple of mistakes despite reviewing the list with him the night before...mostly due to his inability to actually look at something before putting it in the cart - bananas with split skin, bell pepper with wrinkled spot, package of boneless/skinless chicken thighs rather than breasts. We both hate the thighs, now I'm going to have to figure out how to cook them to make them edible for us. At least we are set for a week now.

Ed does all the grocery shopping in our household and it's always a surprise (sometimes delightful; alas, most often not) what he brings home.  Suffers from the same thing as your husband...don't look at the thing before you take it..against husband rules.  I use thighs in Mafé, an African peanut stew.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

BeeZee

BeeZee

Posted
Posted

thanks for the suggestion, @Darienne, I have made a version of African Peanut Stew in the past, I'll have to check the pantry. I know that I have neither yams nor sweet potatoes, but I bet I could improvise and use the dreaded c*rn as I have several cans...

  • Like 1

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" - Oscar Wilde

Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, TicTac said:

Borscht

Confession time: I have never had borscht. Strange because I’m a huge fan of beets. Was never changed to try it and I can’t explain that to anybody not even myself.

  • Like 3

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, BeeZee said:

thanks for the suggestion, @Darienne, I have made a version of African Peanut Stew in the past, I'll have to check the pantry. I know that I have neither yams nor sweet potatoes, but I bet I could improvise and use the dreaded c*rn as I have several cans...

 

One of my favorite chicken parts. I treat it like pork. Marinate/grill, slow cook and pull - point made

  • Like 2
chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Darienne said:

 I use thighs in Mafé, an African peanut stew.

 

I made that at the place I used to be chef in Edmonton. I had to work a bit to get people to try it the first time, but by then I had built a pretty good level of trust with the regulars (and after long years in retail, I'd gotten pretty persuasive). It rapidly became a staple on our soup-of-the-day rotation, which frequently made for a (pleasurable) surprise for African students/immigrants in the area.

Hmmm. I haven't had that in years, but I do have both thighs and sweet potato on hand at the moment. I could probably manage fufu if I really wanted to, but somehow seldom do... :P

  • Like 1

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

Darienne

Darienne

Posted
Posted
55 minutes ago, chromedome said:

 

I made that at the place I used to be chef in Edmonton. I had to work a bit to get people to try it the first time, but by then I had built a pretty good level of trust with the regulars (and after long years in retail, I'd gotten pretty persuasive). It rapidly became a staple on our soup-of-the-day rotation, which frequently made for a (pleasurable) surprise for African students/immigrants in the area.

Hmmm. I haven't had that in years, but I do have both thighs and sweet potato on hand at the moment. I could probably manage fufu if I really wanted to, but somehow seldom do... :P

But what about the peanuts and peanut butter???

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, Darienne said:

But what about the peanuts and peanut butter???

Those are always on hand. :)

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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