RE: [Leica] Re: food (WAS: Nathan's PAW 45: Spanish hams)

["Kit McChesney" <kitmc@acmefoto.com>]

Remember, The Splendid Table, Lynne Rossetto Kasper's wonderful food
program, is on NPR this afternoon! Don't miss it! 

Kit

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Ted Grant
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 11:01 AM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: food (WAS: Nathan's PAW 45: Spanish hams)

Kit McChesney eloquently reminded me of my youth! And as often as I can find
it today.

Hi Kit, thank you for the wonderful food post, such a wonderful reminder of
what it was.

Compared to what it has become in this North American corporate image of
food for major profit. In many cases nothing more than faster food, vacuum
it down and move on. Burp!

ted




> Actually, there are some good Spanish restaurants in the U.S. We have one
in
> Boulder, Colorado, just over the hill, called "Triana" (named after a
> neighborhood in Madrid). The food is marvelous, well-prepared, and well
> worth the price.
>
> The problem with food in the U.S., at least as it is served up in
so-called
> "restaurants," is that it has become just one more thing to sell, another
> industrialized product. At least in Europe the local market seems to be
> alive and well. Even in Paris in the winter there are always street
markets
> where you can buy fresh vegetables and other yummy foods, things that in
the
> U.S. can only be purchased in the "organic" section of the run-of-the-mill
> grocery chain, or at a Whole Foods or a local "natural" foods store. But
> even those stores are trucking produce from all over the country, and have
> precious little locally-grown stuff for folks to buy. Anyone who has spent
> any time in Italy or Southern France knows how much fun it is to visit the
> local market on market day and linger over each farmer's offerings, from
> fresh vegetables to fruit to live chickens and rabbits. This ritual is
part
> of the culture. We have lost that in the U.S., nearly completely--kids
think
> food comes from "the store"--but for those fortunate towns across the U.S.
> that have managed to revive the local farmer's market. Boulder has a
> thriving market, and Saturday mornings in the summer (ours lasts until the
> end of October, since Boulder summers can last that long) are great times
to
> browse all the stands and buy fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs, and locally
> made goat and cow cheeses. And some of us have gardens, too, myself among
> them. I did not buy one piece of produce this summer, as I could on any
day
> pick a pound or more of green beans, a basketful of eggplants, or chard or
> collards, or bok choy, or tomatoes, or cucumbers or squash, and I'm still
> pulling up carrots and it's the middle of November.
>
> What most Europeans take for granted as what food is and should be, that
is,
> locally produced and marketed, and bought fresh, folks in the U.S have
come
> to see as "specialty" or "gourmet" food, yet another marketing ploy by the
> corporate food industry to make us pay more for the stuff that should be
> less expensive, since it should be grown locally and transported a minimal
> distance in short time to market. That's how people used to get their food
> in the "olden days." They grew it, or bought it from a local farmer who
grew
> it. I grew up in the South in the 1960s, and I remember going to the
"fruit
> stand" with my mother to buy fruit and vegetables from local farmers. We
> never bought any produce in the grocery store, because there was always a
> stand on many corners that sold anything you wanted, fresh-picked that
> morning, or the day before. Anyone who has tasted a tomato really ripe and
> fresh-picked knows what I'm talking about. It is nearly a religious
> experience. (I'm drooling thinking of it now!)
>
> There is a mind-numbing (not to mention taste-bud numbing) array of chain
> eateries that dish up huge portions to American eaters who feel that if
you
> can't get "all you can eat," you're not really eating. (Not to mention
being
> able to eat it as fast as possible so as to get out of the restaurant and
> move on to the next activity). It seems that most folks have forgotten how
> to cook, don't know what a fresh vegetable tastes like, and are satisfied
to
> fill their guts with substandard produce, badly-prepared meats and other
> dishes, all because it's convenient, and they've lost the ability,
> literally, to taste. Their taste buds have been numbed by sugar and salt
and
> the taste of a freshly-picked sugar pea off the vine is as rare, and as
> foreign a flavor, as caviar. It's really pathetic.
>
> So yes, I'd say that there is a European attitude towards food that folks
> here have lost. The Slow Food Movement is trying to bring this all back,
> helping people to understand what meals are for and how to savor them. But
> the best meals in the U.S. are probably served by people's mamas and
> grandmamas who haven't forgotten how to cook, insist that everyone sit
> together at the same table for a meal, and don't let anyone leave the
table
> who hasn't said, "May I be excused?"
>
> Kit
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of
> studio52@fastmail.fm
> Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 8:51 AM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: food (WAS: Nathan's PAW 45: Spanish hams)
>
> Equate Spain with food? I shared the thread with my Italian and Greek
> dinner guest last night and we all had a good laugh. Can anyone recall
> eating at a 'Spanish' restaurant in America?...jf
>
>
> On Sunday, November 9, 2003, at 09:12  AM, Don Dory wrote:
>
> > America has a cuisine?  My mother in law lives in a tiny town in N.
> > Carolina about 45 miles south of Ashville.  Within a twenty mile radius
> > you can find the normal Chinese, Italian, Mexican choices there is
> > traditional French, tapa's, Vietnamese, and possibly more.  These
> > aren't
> > chains, just small family run places that generally offer good value.
> > Now, come on down to Atlanta and we can talk about cuisine!  From the
> > sixties where there was virtually no choice except possibly at the
> > "club" to what is available now is quite amazing.
> >
> > Don
> > dorysrus@mindspring.com
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Eric
> > Welch
> > Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 1:36 AM
> > To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: food (WAS: Nathan's PAW 45: Spanish hams)
> >
> > I didn't think so.
> >
> > And there is such a variety in the U.S. I don't see how anyone could
> > claim they could know what American tastes are. To grow up in the
> > Midwest and Northwest and then live in Southern California, I might as
> > well have moved to another planet. Artichokes on pizza? Fish tacos?
> > Sprouts? This is another planet! (A tasty one at that!)
> >
> > On Nov 8, 2003, at 10:13 PM, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
> >
> > There is no such thing as a "European" attitude to food.
> >
> > Eric Welch
> > Carlsbad, CA
> > http://www.jphotog.com
> >
> > Never miss a good chance to shut up.  - Will Rogers.
> >
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> >
> >
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