Hard News: Food and drink
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"That isn't falafel."
Would you like to call a friend on that one?
From that Wiki link:
Unlike many other bean patties, in falafel the beans are not cooked prior to use. Instead they are soaked, possibly skinned, then ground with the addition of a small quantity of onion, parsley, spices (including cumin), and bicarbonate of soda, and deep fried at a high temperature.
I've done it two or three times, but it is a bit of a palaver, and you really should have a good deep frier, which I don't. But you're not going to get falafel that look anything like the ones on the page by frying your dry hummus.
Since I discovered the fresh pita at La Cigale, I'll buy those and the fresh hummus and some rocket, make a yoghurt dressing, and fry up some Lisa's falafel mix from the supermarket (three for $10 at the Food Show!). for lunch. Yum I confess, I'm a lot more focused on the result than in holding myself to a culinary code of conduct in getting there,
And why not? We've always bought and sold food products from each other -- bread being the obvious example. I appreciate your sincerity in what you do, but it's a must-make-by-hand conception of cooking that was born when womenfolk had all day to do it -- and it never really existed in this country (or in Britain, for that matter), where our grandmothers boiled most things to death, and our mothers welcomed the new wave of instant foods in the 60s. I think a happy medium is possible now.
And I'd strongly debate the claim about expense. I can make a beef rendang, but most of the time it's much quicker, easier and cheaper to use a paste from the local Asian supermarket (the Brahm's brand), cook it down, and put fresh stuff around it on the plate.
But anyway, do what you do ...
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Since I discovered the fresh pita at La Cigale
Lucky bugger. Pita that's been sitting in the truck/supermarket for a couple of days just doesn't compare.
I have yet to find (or actually, look very hard) fresh pita in Dunedin for taking home.
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Late to the thread, but just to comment on an earlier view (which sounded a lot like snobbery) that the Food Show is just for corporate food interests and that 'real foodies' wouldn't be caught dead there ..... sorry have to totally disagree
Yes, there is a lot of corporate presence (as there is at any trade show in any industry - the big players are needed to help subsidise the small players and make the event financially viable), but there is a lot of small, local, damn tasty food proprieters adding a lot of heart and soul to the event who genuinely regard themselves as people who love real food.
For many of those smaller outlets (and I've seen first-hand how hard some of them work being married to someone who runs a stall at the food show), this event is a once a year opportunity for their product to not only be seen and tasted by thousands of people, but also to be tasted and discussed with the trade, chefs, and (yes) maybe even sold to the corporates in order to try and find its way into more kitchens around the country.
The event aint cheap to be part of, and its bloody hard work, but a lot of them love what they do and love being part of it. And whats wrong with that?
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I appreciate your sincerity in what you do, but it's a must-make-by-hand conception of cooking that was born when womenfolk had all day to do it -- and it never really existed in this country (or in Britain, for that matter), where our grandmothers boiled most things to death, and our mothers welcomed the new wave of instant foods in the 60s.
It has never really existed is the thing; it's just a nonsense, and it's a rather classist one at that, premised on some really pernicious myths about the proper way to eat. (And it's almost certainly inconsistent to boot.)
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Kong,
I think there can be a deep enjoyment from making something yourself, even if it's much easier, and usually better (at least the first 100 times) to just buy it. But there's only so much time in the day. I make stuff myself all day at work, getting my deep enjoyment from that, doing something I'm both trained at and good at. After hours, I'll often do hobbies too, but making/preparing food just isn't one of them. A few basic recipes done well, a much larger repertoire made by my wife, and the rest from professionals. I don't think it's any less...anything... than for instance, someone who likes to cook a lot, but won't grow their own food (one of my hobbies). Gardening takes time, it's something I like to do, but I don't look down my nose at everyone in the fruit and veg section at the supermarket. In fact, I appreciate supermarket produce all the more because I know just how difficult it is to grow decent food.
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It has never really existed is the thing; it's just a nonsense, and it's a rather classist one at that, premised on some really pernicious myths about the proper way to eat. (And it's almost certainly inconsistent to boot.)
Oh, I don't know that it's terribly inconsistent. Preparing foods yourself using fresh ingredients is a fairly demonstrable way to eat better. As for the classist thing, it's complicated: for instance Italian cuisine is certainly popular with the New Zealand middle class, but it's working class food in its origin, still very cheap and not terribly difficult to prepare. Indian friends tell me that the same applies to their culinary traditions.
Which is not to say that I agree with Brickley, but.
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given you're more SWPL than a stand mixer, please give it a rest.
What does SWPL stand for?
And - you, Brickley?
I have cooked in the USA. Minnesota I think. Last time was in 2000.
Unlike many other bean patties, in falafel the beans are not cooked prior to use. Instead they are soaked, possibly skinned, then ground with the addition of a small quantity of onion, parsley, spices (including cumin), and bicarbonate of soda, and deep fried at a high temperature.
I've done it two or three times, but it is a bit of a palaver, and you really should have a good deep frier, which I don't. But you're not going to get falafel that look anything like the ones on the page by frying your dry hummus.
It can be doubted whether or not that line of reasoning is particularly convincing.
The problem is your recipe, not the difficulty in making falafel. If you follow some jumped wannabe recipe then you wear the cost. I've made dry humus and fried it. It doesn't taste like falafel from a fancy restaurant or some a priori conception I have of falafel. It tastes like falafel I've made myself. It tastes good.
Your argument is a bit like saying, I want to learn how to play pick-up-sticks but the instructions say I have to use my butt cheeks. Memo: you don't have to use your butt cheeks just because the instructions say so.
Since I discovered the fresh pita at La Cigale, I'll buy those and the fresh hummus and some rocket, make a yoghurt dressing, and fry up some Lisa's falafel mix from the supermarket (three for $10 at the Food Show!). for lunch. Yum I confess, I'm a lot more focused on the result than in holding myself to a culinary code of conduct in getting there,
Enter Pollan's arguments. You're buying into a false idea. Lisa tells you: it's too difficult. Don't do it. Use me. I'm a bit dear comparatively but I answer so many questions.
It's not a culinary code of conduct but more an argument that pre-prepared food does not actually save time, is more expensive and usually is worse for your health.
I appreciate your sincerity in what you do, but it's a must-make-by-hand conception of cooking that was born when womenfolk had all day to do it -- and it never really existed in this country (or in Britain, for that matter), where our grandmothers boiled most things to death, and our mothers welcomed the new wave of instant foods in the 60s. I think a happy medium is possible now.
What do I do? I'm not saying "must made by hand". I'm simply arguing making by hand is better, cheaper and better for you.
My parnter and I cook like this all the time. We both work full time and are generally extremely busy. We don't have all day and neither of us is "women folk".
And my grandmother made some kick ass Scots food that probably died with her.
And I'd strongly debate the claim about expense. I can make a beef rendang, but most of the time it's much quicker, easier and cheaper to use a paste from the local Asian supermarket (the Brahm's brand), cook it down, and put fresh stuff around it on the plate.
That isn't persuasive either. You're arguing from the specific to the general. I'm saying, in general, pre-pre stuff is more expensive. Sure, a redang paste might be cheaper but that doesn't detract from what I'm saying.
Funny, you should talk about expense again, too, because what bothered me most about your post was your tongue-in-cheek comment about the "recession". Funny, factory workers in Gisborne don't go to the Food Show? Who knew?
After hours, I'll often do hobbies too, but making/preparing food just isn't one of them.
And right there is the entire problem. Preparing food isn't a hobby and the fact that it is seen as one is unfortuante and might explain why so many people are fat and unhealthy.
Oh, I don't know that it's terribly inconsistent. Preparing foods yourself using fresh ingredients is a fairly demonstrable way to eat better. As for the classist thing, it's complicated: for instance Italian cuisine is certainly popular with the New Zealand middle class, but it's working class food in its origin, still very cheap and not terribly difficult to prepare. Indian friends tell me that the same applies to their culinary traditions.
Which is not to say that I agree with Brickley, but.It sounds as if you agree with me a bit.
I don't know how it could be classist. The best cuisine is usually more refined because it was derived from cheap ingredients that needed inventive ways to make themselves yummy. Food is awesomely class free if you make it yourself. If anything is classist, it's people arguing that foodlike stuff is food.
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Oh, 'wannabe felafel' is even funnier than 'bourgeois porridge'!
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My Orkney grandmother also cooked excellent meals after the Scottish tradition. And she taught my mother and 2 of my sisters as well as myself. And we've passed along the techniques, the recipes, and some of the names in our turn.
Dont know about your grandmother, but Nanna's ways with food are very much alive & well-
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The problem is your recipe, not the difficulty in making falafel. If you follow some jumped wannabe recipe then you wear the cost. I've made dry humus and fried it. It doesn't taste like falafel from a fancy restaurant or some a priori conception I have of falafel. It tastes like falafel I've made myself. It tastes good.
Your argument is a bit like saying, I want to learn how to play pick-up-sticks but the instructions say I have to use my butt cheeks. Memo: you don't have to use your butt cheeks just because the instructions say so.
Yeah, I know what you mean. The other day I made sushi. Many people say sushi is hard, but I the problem is their recipe, not the difficulty in making sushi. If you follow some jumped wannabe sushi recipe then you wear the cost. I made it by mixing mung beans and tomato sauce and serving them on stale pita bread. It doesn't taste like sushi from a fancy restaurant or some a priori conception I have of sushi. It tastes like sushi I've made myself. It tastes good.
Their argument is indeed a bit like saying, I want to learn how to play chess but the instructions say I have to always move bishops diagonally. Memo: you don't have to move your bishops diagonally just because the instructions say so.
You can move any of the pieces however you like, and it's still chess.
Fight the power!
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I was gonna make a cunning post about wanting to make hamburgers but only having hot dog ingredients, but Jack has beaten me to it with some awesome sounding sushi.
I don't know how it could be classist.
Man. I don't know where to start on that. There certainly are class elements to food (and drink), though as Giovanni points out, often boundaries get broken.
Consider how many of your Gisborne factory workers drink expensive wine... or indeed wine at all, relative to the people who own their factories, or the MPs whose rather large incomes and kickbacks we've been discussing elsewhere.
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some a priori conception I have of falafel.
My proletarian felafel challenges your bourgeois legume croquettes and spurns your decadent particularities of edibility, sapidity and esculence.
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And another point: personally, I only have an a posteriori conception of felafel.
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See my paper in the Leguminous Ontology Review.
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See my paper in the Leguminous Ontology Review.
Dude, I cut that out and pinned it to my wall. Oh, hang on. This isn't the rock journalism thread is it?
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Meta-comment: this thread has now become breathtakingly awesome. I cannot see the words 'proletarian felafel' and 'bourgeois legume croquettes' without giggling uncontrollably.
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And Brickley, you're advancing a religious, or at least philosophical, argument. Good luck to you, but it suits me fine to incorporate the odd good-quality product with my fresh ingredients on a weeknight.
Disclosure: I currently have chicken drumsticks steeping in a purchased teriyaki marinade. I'm thinking seasoned rice and green beans with that.
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Sole Google result for "bourgeois legume croquettes". Awesome.
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SWPL = Stuff White People Like, (See also: swipple, yuppie.)
It's not a culinary code of conduct but more an argument that pre-prepared food does not actually save time, is more expensive and usually is worse for your health.
This is why you brew your own soy sauce, and mill your own flour, right? Seriously, industrial beer is just better than not-industrial beer.
And of course there's a classist element. There's something very nasty about saying `that's not food' about someone's diet; it's a attack on something very essential to them. And, of course, the people who tend to eat not-food, oddly enough, tend not to be so well-off. What a fcking surprise, eh? (Likewise, what a surprise that fat people tend to be poorer, and anti-fat discourses overlap substantially with anti-poor discourses.)
(I also like to think Daniel Davies has said good stuff on this, but I suspect most of it is contained within defences of Budweiser.)
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It sounds as if you agree with me a bit.
A bit, but you lose me completely when you make it prescriptive. Conversations of this kind often devolve into the idea that eating well and being healthy are moral imperatives and I find that line of thinking decidedly distasteful. Plus, we all live imperfect lives, trading the time it would take to learn to make the perfect Platonic porridge with other things we've got going.
That said, I do worry a bit when the Otago grocery study data are released, and think that broadly, as a nation, we could use to learn how to cook more and cook better. That might require a bit of evangelical fervour on the part of somebody else, I'm just personally not that way inclined. (Although Russell could mention his pizza making via flatbread found by the side of the road more often and tip me over that particular edge.)
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SWPL = Stuff White People Like, (See also: swipple, yuppie.)
There is nothing that white people like more than odious acronyms.
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(Although Russell could mention his pizza making via flatbread found by the side of the road more often and tip me over that particular edge.)
Alright. I'll make some dough this week, just for you.
At least it wasn't Hell Pizza.
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To repeat what I said upthread: blaming people for not taking the time to cook is a handy way of diverting attention from the problems of a capitalist society and making collective problems a matter of individual responsibility. There's also the fact that some people simply do not like cooking, while others regard food as fuel.
If it comes to that, the traditional, everyday home cooking of my ethnic ancestors (Anglo-Celts and Ashkenazi Jews) tend heavily towards bread and potatoes, with overboiled vegetables of a very few kinds, and the whole lot made palatable with as much fat as possible. Lots of veges, fresh seafood, fresh fruit and so on were luxuries for rich people. Stale bread with a slice of onion and a smear of chicken fat, maybe some salt herring...
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There is nothing that white people like more than odious acronyms.
Easier just to use than try and make up a neologism, tho. And it is in commonish usage somewhere else I comment, so.
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Stale bread with a slice of onion and a smear of chicken fat, maybe some salt herring...
Okay, but there are tons of ethnic diets that have broad popular origin and appeal. Sorry to harp on about my own, but hey, it's what I know: and it's both cheap and healthy, not to mention uncomplicated.
(Just as I was typing that I saw a food in a minute "cannelloni" on the telly which drove me to instant despair. If you need me I'll be in the bathroom, crying.)
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