Just today, i was beamoaning the apalling nature of american food to mon ami, V.K; and declaring the area as deep-fat fryer country.
It ouccured to me in a matter of minutes, as i logged off, that maybe it's not the produce that's bad, it's the way people cook here that's horribly mutated. I also realised, with alarm, that i had not attempted to visit a decent food supplies store, and that my views were thus narrow and uninformed. Our supplies till date were procured from 'dollar general' (absolutely shameful), and were of an inferior nature.
In order to review my knowledge of food in America, and to satiate the ever-surging urge to cook something, i decided to visit a decidedly better-stocked supermarket nearby. As i navigated past the galleries of canned goop and boxed crap, i noticed a rather limited selection of lamb on the freezer racks across the void. Accompanied by a reasonable selection of Boeuf and and porc (people really seem to love ham and pork down here) were a few shoulder chops of lamb. I quickly snatched two of the choiciest cuts, and breezed over to the olive oils, which are quite expensive here. A 200 ml bottle of extra virgin(italian) was for $4.97. The real shocker was the wine section, where a decent bottle of red was anything from $10 to $25. More importantly, were the imported wines such as a chianti flask for $12, an Oporto for $11, and Cream sherry for $15.
Oh mercy...i have had wet dreams starring these fine wines since i learnt of their existence.
It ouccured to me in a matter of minutes, as i logged off, that maybe it's not the produce that's bad, it's the way people cook here that's horribly mutated. I also realised, with alarm, that i had not attempted to visit a decent food supplies store, and that my views were thus narrow and uninformed. Our supplies till date were procured from 'dollar general' (absolutely shameful), and were of an inferior nature.
In order to review my knowledge of food in America, and to satiate the ever-surging urge to cook something, i decided to visit a decidedly better-stocked supermarket nearby. As i navigated past the galleries of canned goop and boxed crap, i noticed a rather limited selection of lamb on the freezer racks across the void. Accompanied by a reasonable selection of Boeuf and and porc (people really seem to love ham and pork down here) were a few shoulder chops of lamb. I quickly snatched two of the choiciest cuts, and breezed over to the olive oils, which are quite expensive here. A 200 ml bottle of extra virgin(italian) was for $4.97. The real shocker was the wine section, where a decent bottle of red was anything from $10 to $25. More importantly, were the imported wines such as a chianti flask for $12, an Oporto for $11, and Cream sherry for $15.
Oh mercy...i have had wet dreams starring these fine wines since i learnt of their existence.
Anyway, i rushed home and trimmed the chops, tenderized the living daylights out of them, rubbed them with salt n' pepper, studded them generously with fresh rosemary and grain sugar, then seared them in a frying pan with olive oil with a couple of garlic pods. The result was a tasty lamb chop, well-seasoned if rather crude in preparation and presentation. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be a nice colour, and was quite grey instead of the desired pink.
Maybe this confirms my opinion that most americans do not apprieciate the wide variety of foodstuffs made available to them, and stick to their grits and corn-on-the-cob with fried chicken and waffles.
Music - Rammstein- Spieluhr, Rein Raus
1 comment:
Oh, Puneet, Puneet. See...you basing your idea of what Americans eat on what you see at McDonald's would be the same as me decrying a few fine Indian fellows for stopping at a tea stall and gulping deliciously deep-fried samosas, or choosing a parantha dripping with oil. It's certainly one aspect of culinary culture, but it's not the be all and end all of American gastronomy.
My suggestion would be to...go to an American family's house for dinner. Don't go to an old person's place; if they're infirm, they probably can't cook you anything too delicious that doesn't smell like mothballs. If, for example, you went to my house, we would start with a variety of cheeses and breads, and we would serve you fresh vegetables from our backyard, lightly marinated and grilled, along with roasted potatoes with rosemary and drizzled with olive oil, and a berry cobbler for dessert. And it would be so delicious.
It's funny...I guess maybe my family doesn't eat like a lot of other families, and because I'm vegetarian and a complete dieting control freak, I never have things with lots of oil. I get kind of grossed out sometimes in Injea by the vast amount of ghee and etc. used every day, particularly when one is eating outside the home. Eh. Anyhow, I would say, the key is to go to someone's house for dinner, as it is in India. The best food is the food prepared by someone with love, which is something you can't pick up from the supermarket or order off a menu.
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