Sunday, September 4, 2011

On Culinary Culture Clash | The Girls' Guide to Guns and Butter

Have you ever visited a foreign country and found certain things to be simply unpalatable? To this day, some foods that I encountered in US (where, by the way, I have lived a third of my life) are that way for me. That is, I don?t think they are inherently bad, but it?s the matter of having or not having a palate for it. Here is the list of my personal b?te noire foods:

  • Pie crust ? OK in the savory context, but it doesn?t go with a sweet filling in my mind.
  • Crackers, pretzels, or any boxed snack.
  • Breakfast cereal ? my idea of breakfast involves things that are homey, homemade, and hearty ? like eggs in one form or another (egg-in-a-basket is a huge hit around here) and open-faced sandwiches with cheese, accompanied by a sweet drink. My husband needs to be at work by 8, but still cooks breakfast like that for the kids and himself (I do it some days though).
  • Sandwiches with two pieces of bread vs. open-faced ? too much bread!
  • Black coffee ? without a good amount of sugar, it?s too bitter. What?s good about bitter coffee?
  • Tea other than black ? having come from a black-tea paradise, it is very difficult for me to think of something that tastes or looks differently as tea.
  • Pork ? as I am a Jew who grew up in a Muslim country, I never saw it on the menu, and this is pretty much the only food I don?t eat at all under any circumstances.
  • Maple syrup on top of breakfast sausage ? imagine jam and caviar together.
  • Sugar in general ? when I first came to US, I couldn?t believe how sweet things were ? corn was sweet, many salads were sweet, fruit salads were served alongside the main course, and the desserts were so sugary that I mostly skipped them. Even pickled herring was sweet!
  • Salted butter ? think drinking sea water (good for cooking though).
  • Anything hot, with the exception of hot wings (which, by the way, I order/make mild to medium). I didn?t grow up with hot food, and having come from a culture with a myriad of subtle but never overbearing flavorings, having my entire mouth be overwhelmed with one sensation, and a painful one at that, did not appeal.
  • Beans ? a relatively rare fare back in the old country, I don?t like them to this day. I mean they are OK in chili, but that?s it.
  • Artificially-thick American yogurt ? while the taste was alright, the texture was a far cry from the soft, freely-flowing goodness of the old country, and of course true freshness is not something that can come from a supermarket shelf either. But then I learned how to make my own and never went back. To this day, my yogurt recipe is the most viewed page of this site.
  • Soft butter ? I grew up eating butter in hard, cold slices, layered on top of a piece of bread.
  • Buttered bread alongside a main course, and buttered, salted sweetcorn ? regardless of what my site might be called, this is not the context where butter belongs, in my mind. Granted, I did grow up eating bread with every bite of every meal, and fresh bread at that, but it was only buttered in the manner described above and only for breakfast.

But then again, there are things I grew to like over the years:

  • Pasta ? to this strict meat-and-potatoes eater, this pasta thing did not appeal, especially since the ratio of meat to starch was always inadequate. But I soon learned how to make a couple of highly meaty pasta dishes, and, with the 50/50 sauce-to-noodle ratio and a zesty salad on the side, I grew to like it. None of that pesto stuff though.
  • Lettuce ? when I first got here, I couldn?t believe people were eating the crunchy, tasteless rabbit food and, in unskilled hands, it is still what it is. I always skipped it until my friends? mom and dad introduced me to a simple, savory, garlic-heavy homemade dressing, effectively transforming my lettuce world. That fateful salad was also enriched with a large amount of tangy, salty feta and fatty avocado, both of which are now my salad staples (although I often use blue cheese instead of feta, too). I am pleased to say that my green salad is now widely lusted after (you can find the recipes for both my super-duper meaty bolognese and my salad dressing here and here).

At the same time, some of the things I prepared or spoke of with fondness didn?t not translate:

  • Caviar ? while many people think of it as luxury food, the idea of eating fish eggs is not widely-appealing to people in US from what I could tell, and when they are presented with it, they?ll put it on an appetizer. To me, caviar is inherently a breakfast food ? something to put on pancakes or spread on bread and butter.
  • Aspic ? my husband doesn?t like jellied broth, and tells me the name is off-putting. But that?s only in English!
  • Kombucha ? some people do like it here, but the sour, fruity kombucha they have here is a far cry from the sweet, slightly tangy, and very mildly carbonated magic drink of the old country, where, in my memory, it was made exclusively with black tea (not like any other kind was available). In accordance with that tradition, I make my kombucha sweet and mild, but I have seen people be literally shocked by the pronounced sweetness.
  • Bone marrow and cartilage on chicken bones ? something some people would fight over in the old country, kids especially. To this day, I don?t share my bone marrow with anyone.
  • Fresh, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes ? completely unadorned. Because the vegetables were so fresh, they didn?t need anything to shine, except perhaps a sprinkling of salt and a drizzle of unrefined sunflower oil.
  • Whole bunches of different fresh herbs, eaten with your hands alongside a main dish in lieu of a vegetable salad.
  • Borscht ? some people here do love it, but others can?t stand it. To me, though, it?s one of the best soups there is.
  • Eggplants ? I pride myself on my eggplant dishes, but often have to enjoy them in splendid isolation (here is a couple: eggplant-garlic-mayo spread and this easy moussaka).

What about you? Have you gone through a similar experience? Are there foreign things you will absolutely not touch?

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Source: http://girlsguidetobutter.com/2011/09/on-culinary-culture-clash/

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