Food

Food is very important in my life.  I remember the first cookbook I received was Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which I had asked for for Christmas when I was 14.  At  that age, I had no idea of the technical complexity of that style of cooking.  I only remember seeing Julia Child cooking on television and seeing a wold of food open up before me that was unlike anything I had ever experienced.  I decided then and there that I was going to cook such glorious food.

Fast forward some 35 years later and food still holds a central place in my life.  I never did really mastered the "art of French cooking".  I liked eating every bit as much as I like cooking, so over the years I have opted for technically less complex cuisines that are, to my palate,  just as delicious.

For the past 26 years I have lived in the American South.  But this is not my native cuisine.  Many of the dishes, ingredients and techniques I have encountered here as just as alien to the style of cooking I was raised on as Hunan, Thai or Indian cooking.  And there is not really a single monolithic style of Southern cooking, either.  There is considerable regional variation reflecting historically available local ingredients, different ethnic populations and local customs.  Shrimp and grits, for example, is typical of the Carolina Low Country (the coastal area around Charleston, South Carolina).  Po' Boys are found in New Orleans, and Eastern Carolina Barbecue  is a specialty of central and eastern North Carolina.

Moving to the American South I encountered ingredients I had  heard tell of but had never actually seen before:  collard greens, grits, and okra, for example.  Some, like okra, I have grown to love and I continue to seek out recipes that utilize this marvelous vegetable.  One of my favorites is an Indian shrimp and okra dish. 

American cooking is not only highly regional, but also very ethnic.  Growing up in the Midwest, there was a strong current of German, Polish, Italian and Greek cuisines.  Food became a way to experience the world.  I have quite literally cooked my way around the world, without  ever leaving my own kitchen.  So-called "ethnic groceries" are like Ali Baba's cave, the repository of treasures beyond imagining.  Just this past week I have made a marvelous sweet and sour mushroom and tofu recipe, Korean barbecued pork, a shrimp dish with a mango sambal and good old American pot roast.  Lentil soup, shrimp and pasta with Gruyere cream sauce, and chicken with raspberry-balsamic vinegar sauce are only some of the things that I will produce in the days to come.  Sometimes my kitchen feels like a miniature United Nations, with all these different regional cuisines trying to communicate with one another and find a way to get along.  But when you boil it down, good food is just plain good food, where ever it originates.

As the Chinese among the Alivenotdead community prepare to enjoy their New Year's Eve feast, I wish you all good eating and a very Happy New Year!