Yeah, meals are definitely interesting. I grew up eating rice every single=
day, and when I didn't have to do that in college, I felt so
liberated! Pizza and hot dogs! Mac and cheese! But as I moved away from=
my Chinese community and started a family, I began to miss my parents'
humble cooking. I started to ask them for recipes and learned to make many=
things myself, stuff my parents wouldn't even bother to prepare because it=
is so much easier and cheaper to buy in Chinatown. I wrap my own won tons,=
egg rolls (thought I don't usually like to deep-fry), noodle dishes, New
Year Cake ( rice flour, brown sugar, steamed, eaten, as the name suggests,=
on Chinese New Year). Having grown up in New York City, I've also learned=
to love other cuisines. I make my own kim chee, a recipe I recently got
from a Cambodian friend which I shared with my mom over the phone. My
family likes sushi, seaweed, curries from Thailand and India, Middle
Eastern fare, Mexican, Jewish... Pot roast one night, lo mein, the next
night. My family definitely have their own favorites. Catherine likes
indian curries and sushi while Peter and Alexander prefer italian. My
pantry is always stocked with ingredients from all over the world--cardamon=
seed pods, saffron, buckwheat soba, rice vermicelli, jasmine rice, basmati,=
glutinous rice. I try to introduce as many different foods to my kids as
possible. Unfortunately, we live in an area that is the least creative
food-wise. But because of the thriving Southeast Asian and Indian
community here, I can at least get the ingredients to make my own.
I love the smell of garlic and onions saut=E9ing in olive oil. What's your=
specialty, Pat?
Alice
> So meals in your household must be very varied, indeed!
> My husband's family is mostly German and he grew up in northern Pa. among a
> lot of German and Polish farmers. His memories are of German cooking. =
When
You know what really gets me about Alabama grocery stores? Many many times
I've had the checkout clerk stare at my produce and finally ask me what it
is. The stickers on just about everything has fixed this somewhat but they
fall off. Many clerks don't know what a chile or a winter squash is and
rutabagas really blow their mind but when one once asked me what a cucumber
was, I just felt very sorry. Oh, once there was a bin full of green bell
peppers that were beginning to get just a little bit of a red blush on them.
( I love red bells and don't like green bells much so I try to buy the ones
that are showing signs of turning and I ripen them at home. ) The clerk
asked me if what I was buying was a green pepper or a red and when I tried
to tell her they were green but turning red she looked at me like I was a
liar and a cheat.
Laura
> <>`` ><>`` ><>`` ><>`` ><>`` ><>`` ><>``
Laura's Homeschooling, Garden, and Genealogy Site
is found here: http://home.att.net/~ekyorigins
``<>< ``<>< ``<>< ``<>< ``<>< ``<>< ``<><
That is very sad not knowing what a cucumber is. Every once in a while I
will get a clueless young cashier that has to ask if it's parsley or
cilantro. Asian kids, I've noticed, never have any trouble identifying
produce; we were brought up knowing what everything on our plates were and
how much it was per pound, bunch, or head.
Alice
In a message dated 7/28/06 7:34:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
laurabrownmckenzie@WORLDNET.ATT.NET writes:
<< You know what really gets me about Alabama grocery stores? Many many
times
I've had the checkout clerk stare at my produce and finally ask me what it
is. >>
Oh, the younger ones are like that here, too. Don't their parents or the
schools teach them anything?
Mary Ann
that was a story in the Smithsonian magazine,, called "No CHive Left
BEhind" ( and for our furriners, that is a play on Bush's no child left
behind) and the writer had a young check out clerk who didn't know what
STRAWBERRIES(!) were, so she went and got 2 more pints to give to her
and told her she could not go through life not ever tasting
strawberries. the suggestion in the article was to introduce kids to
these foods in the raw state . the horticulture teacher at the hi
school decided to do this, and I took her a mess of rhubarb, to start
her off.
susan
> I make my own kim chee, a recipe I recently got from a Cambodian
> friend which I shared with my mom over the phone.
Ooh, recipe please!
In a message dated 7/29/06 7:28:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
christie@PSKNET.COM writes:
<< that was a story in the Smithsonian magazine,, called "No CHive Left
BEhind" ( and for our furriners, that is a play on Bush's no child left
behind) and the writer had a young check out clerk who didn't know what
STRAWBERRIES(!) were, so she went and got 2 more pints to give to her
and told her she could not go through life not ever tasting
strawberries. the suggestion in the article was to introduce kids to
these foods in the raw state . the horticulture teacher at the hi
school decided to do this, and I took her a mess of rhubarb, to start
her off. >>
I'll never forget my first taste of rhubarb. I must have been 4 or 5 years
old. I loved to eat raw celery, so one day my mother gave me a stalk of rhubarb
instead, and said "here, try this". Well, needless to say, one bite was
enough. My mother was laughing her head off. She could be mean sometimes.
Mary Ann
I will say for our local supermarket - the checkout operators are rarely at
a loss as to what something is. True, with some fruits (where there is a
variety on offer) they may ask you which variety you picked up, but that is
understandable, one commercial apple looks much like another - even if they
are slightly different prices.
I was pretty horrified by Laura's description!
Tony
Alice wrote:
You sound like a very creative cook with a very diverse repertoire of
recipes!
> I love the smell of garlic and onions saut=E9ing in olive oil.
> What's your
> specialty, Pat?
Odd, but now that I think about it, I don't believe I have one.....
When you wrote this, I figured something would come to mind, but 24 =
hours
later no one thing stands out.
Pat
