by gansie
When in the hell did Buffalo Wild Wings become such an astute political commentator?
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gansie
by gansie
“We’ve changed it for American tastes.”
It’s something I’ve heard a lot while reporting on food in this country. When I was interviewing Fikru “Chu Chu” Bekele about his Italian restaurant, La Carbonara in DC’s U St. area, he continually told me about how he changed his recipes to accommodate American tastes. He added more cream than necessary. In Ethiopia, where he is from and once owned an Italian restaurant, he needed to adjust recipes for our taste here, not there.
Last night, at a press dinner at Taberna Del Alabardero, our host explained the make up of the gifts we’d be receiving that night. It was olive oil. In Spain its citizens are used to a more bitter oil, here, a sweet oil. Instead of adhering to its home county for inspiration, the restaurant uses a sweeter oil to cook with. Guests were given a 250ML bottle of extra virgin olive oil packaged in Sevilla, Spain, but given the American taste treatment.
Kushi, a Japanese restaurant in DC, at times creates presentations so authentic it literally made my heart ache for the real thing. But it doesn’t serve the cuts of meat so familiar in Japan: heart, cheek, liver….instead, it serves chunks of American-favorite pork belly on a stick.
I was discussing this “dumbing down for Americans” concept with DC food expert David Hagedorn. He reminded me that restaurants are businesses and need to make money. They need to sell food that we will buy and enjoy.
I told him I wished restaurants weren’t always businesses. That they could be institutions for learning, places for people to explore authentic flavors of the world, without the requisite dumbing down for American tastes.
And then I remembered that our national past time is eating Doritos.
Photo Credit: Flick User Mattieb
by gansie
I had such a complete vision for dinner last night that I sketched it out at 3pm, eagerly waiting to start cooking. Initially I wanted to try beets, as I’ve been too afraid of a magenta kitchen, but didn’t want to alienate my beet-hating boyfriend so I omitted the ingredient.
Instead I subbed in eggplant and bonita squash, a lighter-skinned zucchini and a apparently a dish ruiner.
Browned corn kernels, chopped onion, rounds of eggplant and squash, mixed with roughly chopped mizuna and great northern beans. A feta-basil sauce, thickened with a roux, is splattered on top. And on top of that, a scant layer of buttered pumpernickel breadcrumbs.
Actually, let me be clear on the process: the squash was seasoned with salt and pepper then laid season-side down on a non stick pan hot with oil. Only one side was cooked, as I didn’t want the squash to turn mushy when baked.
The dish smelled strongly of feta upon exit of the oven. Success, I thought.
And then the whole fucking thing tasted metallic. Like totally off. Not like I need to spit it out, but more like I’ll eat this fast so it’s over and then I’ll go in the kitchen and eat the remaining pumpernickel and slather it with butter.
I’m now trying to figure out what went wrong. I bought the squash this weekend at the Bloomingdale Farmers’ Market, so it’s new to me, but I have no idea how long the vendor had the squash out of the ground. The reason I’m jumping to accuse the squash is that I had used one on Sunday and it made my scramble with potatoes and eggs taste metallic too. I thought it was one bad squash, but its metallic-itis seemed to inflict all of the squash I bought this weekend.
Is there something that I could have done to avoid this nasty taste? Is it too late in the season to be eating summer squash? Do I suck at cooking?
by gansie
At this point, a purple pepper and a yellow watermelon barely excite me. I get it. Change the color of a food and it’s like new again.
But what about actual new. Last year fresh ginger, with hot pink streaks and the stalks strung together to look like a tiara, totally pleased me. But like a drug addict, I needed more.
And then, there it was. Edamame. It wasn’t all that cute on the stem, brown and hairy. But it was more interesting than dipped in soy, as I boiled it and led it star in a succotash.
I crowned edamame as my favorite summer farmers’ market find. What was your warm weather food discovery before the autumnal equinox takes over later tonight?
