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

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

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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