Yesterday, after running some errands, I opened the front door and just stood there. Breathing. smile. Ahhh…garlic! To me, the house smelled amazing. It was like walking into a small fragrant trattoria. I know this may not be the smell everyone likes in their home, but to me it’s the smell of delicious food.
I partially prepared the clam sauce for the linguine before I ran out of parsley and beefsteak tomatoes. You will need 2 large cloves of garlic for the sauce. You only need one piece of sautéed bread crumbs for the topping. Trusty old garlic worked its magic. And I think it wasn’t until later that I discovered garlic. I missed it all these years. Sigh.
I think I even ate some of the garlic without knowing it at an Italian restaurant, but it wasn’t until near middle age that its solitary spiciness in many other dishes took hold in my kitchen. . Even as an adult, I had never heard of such a thing.
When I was in college, I worked part-time in a team of engineers. My boss, Sal, is a good cook and often brings delicious food to work on Mondays. Sal taught me how to make his own version of spaghetti sauce, Siciliano. So, I bought garlic for the first time. But would you use it for something else? Fuggedaboudit. I never thought about it until I started cooking seriously in my late 30s. That’s when I learned about all the wonderful and fascinating foods that are not part of the bland New England diet. It wasn’t like that in the past.
My mother’s cooking was delicious, but simple. Her signature dish was a New England boiled dinner of corned beef and cabbage with plenty of vegetables. She was happiest when grilling lamb chops, a feast that was beyond her budget. Although she loved shrimp and lobster, she had never cooked any kind of fish at home. The idea of a fishy smell wafting around our apartment was unacceptable. She always took me to fish and Italian restaurants. We went to Chinatown in Boston once a year. Sadly I think we had chop suey.
Against this background, the range of food currently available is astonishing. We now take for granted the ubiquity of Indian, Hawaiian, and French bread. You can get fresh sushi at the supermarket! There’s so much food on our shelves right now that I never heard of growing up. Lo and behold, the first time I saw a white egg, I was 21 years old.
During a layover in Los Angeles, I sat at the breakfast counter and watched my short order being prepared. He read the waitress’ order, reached for a huge bowl of white eggs, and cracked them on the grill. It was so easy that he ordered two. I had only ever seen or eaten brown eggs at home. I wondered if the eggs he flipped for me might taste the same. they didn’t. They were better. The California eggs probably had a slightly different flavor and a richer taste compared to what I was feeding my chickens. In his hometown of Boston, white eggs are now sold at high prices. Brown eggs are sold at high prices here. Even if a simple white egg was a surprise, I realized there was a vast world of food to learn about. The exploration was a fun journey.
I quickly fell in love with Mexican food in San Diego, Phoenix, and Dallas. It took several more decades for burritos and enchiladas to become a national phenomenon. Chipotle is getting closer, but it still needs to work on quality control for Mexican food east of the Mississippi River. I love to get my shrimp taco fix every now and then.
Thanks to Mexican food, I understood the spiciness of Sichuan Chinese food and Thai food. Hmm. But please bring a cold beer. Dear Richard, loves anything spicy, including burgers, omelettes, and vegetables with chili peppers. Almost everything except tapioca pudding. Pass by Frank’s Red Hot.
This morning, I looked in the refrigerator to see if I could find something that my mother didn’t have in her refrigerator. Cantaloupe, raspberry and blueberry – in October? Honeycrisp apple, kiwi and smoked salmon. Bagel, romaine lettuce, ginger. 3 types of fancy blue cheese (gift). feta cheese and yogurt. This is orange juice that is not from concentrate. Hoisin sauce, Dijon mustard, and fig jam. There would have been no balsamic vinegar in her cabinet, and there would have been no avocados on her counter. There are many others, but I hope you get the idea. Our food can now come from anywhere, and what was once seasonal is now available year-round. The tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich is here to stay, but I love having the opportunity to eat macadamia nuts. When I was a kid, none of the above were available, at least not in Massachusetts.
We Silver Seniors remember when pineapples came in cans labeled Dole and weren’t fragrant and placed in fruit bowls the size of footballs. life is wonderful. Pass me the guacamole.
Marcy O’Brien can be reached at Moby.32@hotmail.com.