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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 16, 2009 17:29:18 GMT
All ports are made up of people from all over, and Any Port is no exception. Some exploration was made of background and cooking culture in the early days of the Port, but it's time to expand and expound. This OP was prompted by: Today's comida: smoked porkchops cooked with onion, cabbage and juniper berries plus a shot of gin. Wholegrain kasha with fresh mushrooms. And from the same author, way back in March, in the infancy of Any Port: This is a great OP and thread. When I'm awake enough, I may add something about my own background and culinary culture. (from this thread: anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=anecdotes&thread=577&page=1#10786)Since you can read about my roots in the link above, I eagerly await hearing about everyone else.
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Post by traveler63 on Dec 16, 2009 19:35:05 GMT
Hey Bix
After I read your post, where do you want us to post ours?
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 16, 2009 19:40:33 GMT
Hey, Traveler ~~ I guess in this thread, unless you wanted to start a separate one for a particular national or ethnic cuisine.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2009 23:57:00 GMT
Some of us have grown new roots over the years. I believe I can safely say that both Baz Faz and I have grown some Thai roots in spite of no known ancestry.
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Post by traveler63 on Dec 17, 2009 2:23:39 GMT
My culinary roots are a hodgepodge of different styles. My mom and dad were both southerners, well sort of. Mom was born in Bowie, Texas, Dad in Clovis, New Mexico. They met in Texas. Grandma was also born in Bowie, Texas. We called Grandma Mamaw Babe, because we couldn't say Grandma Babe. We had relatives in Lake Charles, Louisiana and I can remember visiting and sitting on the front porch and with Aunt Lillian(Mama Babe's brother's wife). We would be cleaning shrimp and crawdads. There would be beer and laughter, great food and love. Mom was a great cook! My dad also cooked and his experiences as a diner "short order" cook kind of rubbed off on me. My mom and Mamaw Babe (her mom) made the best fried chicken and as I type I can literally taste it. They weren't too shabby with pinto beans, cornbread, and fried potatoes. Dad, well he made the best sausage gravy ever and Mamaw Babe's biscuit, pies and candies (divinity, fudge, neugots) were fabulous. Mom's coleslaw was very different with a vinegar, sugar and cream dressing. Mashed potatoes, OMG, I have never been able to reconstruct those. Pies, OMG, Mamaw Babe's pies were to die for. For the most part, the food was "meat and potatoes" . No flimsy salads or fancy. I guess a lot of it came from Dad being raised on a farm, and he could kill and dress a chicken in no time. So that is the background. The family moved to Los Angeles right before WWII and that is where I came into the picture. My dad and mom adopted me in late 1949 when I was 3. We moved to Orange County(Fullerton, CA) and that is where we lived for quite a while. So, my cooking has been influenced by, mom, dad, Mamaw Babe and all of the aunts, uncles and cousins, that hail from Texas, Louisiana, Kansas and New Mexico.
For most of my adult life I have taken the basics and improvised as much as possible. After I married Mr. T63, there were influences from the Northwest; Portland, Oregon. I started getting interested in Southwestern cooking after a vacation to Santa Fe, New Mexico and a cooking lesson there. Obviously growing up in Southern California, there was a Mexican influence. I ran into a PBS show, can't remember the name, but it featured Diana Kennedy (Bixa, do you know who she is?)Her type of Mexican fare opened my eyes that what I was eating that was called Mexican food, really wasn't, it was stylized for American tastes. So, I started experimenting with her recipes. For instance, I had eaten cornbread all of my life, and then with the Southwestern, Mexican, New Mexican influence, I started to make blue corn, corn bread, and chili cornbread. Then I graduated to posole with pork( I have a mean recipe for this) and other pork dishes from her cookbook The Cuisine of Mexico.
When we started learning about wine, we started with white and German, so then I started experimenting with wine and food paring and learned so much about food, what I would have called exotic food when I was young. I had never been a great seafood eater, (I didn't have my first shrimp salad until I was 18 and on a date) remember, my roots are in good hardy, put meat on your bones type of food. However, during our stay in Portland, Oregon, I started to experience seafood. First it was clams, then, salmon, dungeness crab and man was I hooked!!!! So, off on another culinary adventure. !!!! Seafood with white wine, Wow!!!!!
Sometime after I discovered Diana Kennedy, well, Julia came into my life and that changed everything and I can honestly say that the combination of these two cooks, chefs or whatever you want to call them, really gave me the inspiration to be a foodie, and try everything. Enough! I have probably bored you all half to death, but I do have almost 50 cookbooks!!! AND I use them.
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Post by imec on Dec 17, 2009 2:51:40 GMT
I have probably bored you all half to death, Well, speaking for myself, not even close. I really appreciated reading this and it has helped me to better explore and understand my own roots. Thanks for taking the time to write this T63.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2009 4:30:06 GMT
Great read t63,thank you. Very inspiring,will have to ponder some more before replying. (Very amusing to me to hear you ask if Bixa knows Diana Kennedy. )
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 17, 2009 4:58:17 GMT
Oh, Traveler ~~ what a beautiful, heartfelt, moving, delicious homage to the food of your family!
One thing that really struck me is how you -- with all your traveling and appreciation of different kinds of fine food -- have such an honest appreciation of what is good. Faddish little foodies who like to pretend the US has no food culture, should be force-fed your enlightened appreciation of homey goodness. Probably the affected little dears didn't have moms who knew how to cook.
I loved reading about how your food horizons expanded and how you developed as a cook.
Re: Diana Kennedy ~~ click on the link in the OP & read paragraph six. My story is similar to yours. I venerate her! I was lucky enough to meet her a few years ago and kiss the hem of her huipil. She graciously signed all my Diana Kennedy cookbooks.
I have to tell you how much I admire the way you learned about wine. This is knowledge I lack, although I know it's one of the great pleasures and enhancements of life.
Please, please don't ever think you're boring! You always give such a full picture and really write from the heart. Thank you!
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Post by existentialcrisis on Dec 17, 2009 11:04:00 GMT
Wow Bixa, I read your post in the HomeStyle Fusion Cooking thread and loved it! Too bad that thread didn't progress much... and T63, loved yours as well. This is a great idea for a thread ... so I'll take a stab at it.
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Post by existentialcrisis on Dec 17, 2009 11:35:58 GMT
I am not much influeced by family traditions. My grandparents have always been mainly dead or far away ... My living grandmother is Scottish and makes excellent turkey stuffing, but that's all I really know. My mother was never a very good cook, due to her parinoia about food poisoning and under-cooked foods. Therefore, I had to eat very well-done roast beef, pre-cooked ham, chewy shake'n'bake chicken, and burnt breakfast sausages, always with white rice or mashed potatoes. Very strangely, as a child I hated mom's spaghetti and mac'n'cheese. Always will love her tuna casserole. Cream of mushroom soup was always a big ingredient in recipes, and I noticed it a lot when I was home browsing through Nova Scotia community-compiled cookbooks. We ate a lot of fish, mostly pan-fried haddack, fishsticks, and haddock in cream of mushroom soup. Eventually my dad got a higher position in the popular frozen fish company he works for, so we ate even more fish, often sampling products before they hit the markets. (Nowadays my parents are much more kitchen savvy and health conscious. They introduced me to poaching Atlantic salmon ... which is one of my favorite things ever!) We also started eating less peas & carrots and more broccoli. Fiddleheads were also a family favorite, when available. Oh, and mom would never buy exotic fruit (aside from bananas and oranges) or anything out of season - another parinoia but one that makes more sense. My first year living on my own (after two years of meal hall) I mastered the arts of canned, packaged and frozen food preparation. I thought I was so clever, adding steamed broccoli and tuna to kraft dinner! Having lots of room mates and fellow apartment building dwellers, I've had much opportunity to learn from others. I've mentioned before my Indian room mate, who introduced me to much vegetarian and Indian cooking, partiularly chickpea curry and avocado. Also had two vegetarians upstairs that year who got me hooked on tofu. I came to love vegetarian and ethnic foods, of which I previously had no knowledge. In Halifax, there's a great Lebanese scene and I was lucky to have a good Lebanese friend teach me some stuff. I also grew interested in all the German and Irish foods available in Nova Scotia, and I have recently grown a new appreciation for East Coast foods (like boiled dinner and anything with cream of mushroom soup ) and comfort foods in general. I've become such a foodie. Always browsing newspapers, cookbooks, cooking shows, food blogs, etc. I even found this forum when searching for a cooking forum. I am constantly experimenting with different cultural foods, and with food fusion. The stranger the better. I love making something into a casserole or making something established but with weird ingredients. My latest food interests are Southern US foods, UK foods, Eastern European foods, Scandinavian foods, and East Coast foods! Strangely, I have little interest in Italian, French and Chinese foods... which are apparently the best cuisines of the world. Guess I'm not one of those pretentious foodies...
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Post by existentialcrisis on Dec 17, 2009 11:59:37 GMT
Oh, and I should probably mention, as T63 spoke of wine, that my interest in beer i've inherited from my father, since a very very young age. Used to get sips of all the different beers he'd try so that I'd have different caps to put in my beer cap collection.
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Post by traveler63 on Dec 17, 2009 15:03:07 GMT
Thank you all for the kind words. I didn't even get into the story of the transformation from white wine to red wine, how I learned about some of the fancier food, and my indoctrination into cajun and creole cooking, so, if you like, let me know and I will do another post.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2009 17:24:40 GMT
T63,you have been holding out on us!! Now,a closet Creole and Cajun gourmand as well! Mon cher!
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Post by existentialcrisis on Dec 17, 2009 17:32:40 GMT
Let's hear it! Probably more interesting than my cream of mushroom soup stories
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 17, 2009 19:03:26 GMT
What an interesting look at how someone transforms from an eat-to-live person, to an innovative and curious good cook, Existentia! Thanks for that list of your most recent food interests, as well, and for the reminder that there are many wonderful cuisines out there beyond the most venerated ones. And ix-nay on the "more interesting than ...." attitude! It's all fascinating because everyones experience is different. You and Traveler63 both have such a good way of relating something, it's as though you are actually speaking to us. The trust and generosity shown in sharing your stories is a great gift ~~ thank you! Hear that, T-63? Of course we want more, more, from you and from everyone. Too bad that thread didn't progress much... Thank you for the lovely compliment, Existentia. I'm quoting part of what you said here because a) we have more members now than when the piece in question was posted; and b) because it's great to go back to see what might have been missed or what might need reviving.
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Post by traveler63 on Dec 17, 2009 23:55:44 GMT
Here is the second chapter on my culinary roots with regard to wine. We got married in Tucson and Mr. T63 was finishing up his degree at University of Arizona. Right after graduation we moved to Boise, ID for a while, then to Portland. While living in Beaverton, Oregon, we got to know one of our neighbors very well and one Sunday, they banged on our front door and said come over about 1:00 pm for some seafood. Now, remember, I was a "meat and potatoes" kind of gal. I was learning about white wine and was starting to experiment with different types of seafood. So, anyway, we went to their place, and out in the backyard, spread out on newspaper on their picnic table, were fresh cooked Dungeness crab, corn on the cob, potatoes, all kinds of veggies. We proceeded to sit down and using nut crackers and picks devoured many crabs. Wow!!!!! this was my first experience with crab. So, we continued to experiment with seafood, white wine and even German food. There was a chef name Horst Maeger in Portland who was very well known and had a couple of great restaurants that we visited. Time passed and I became more familiar with different seafood and at the same time, ran into an old friend who lived next to us in Boise. Her name was Shirley and her Hubby Leo. So, we had many dinners, exchanging recipes and dinners. One night we were having a London Broil steak at her place and she served a red wine( don't remember what). Anyway, during the meal, she made a comment that "once you try red wine you will never go back to white" Well!!! we love Shirley but come on? ? isn't that a little snobby? BTW, what does she know anyway!!!!! We.....ll In 1987, we moved back to Tucson because we decided that we needed to be closer to family. We were out one Saturday just checking out the territory around our new place. We wandered up into the foothills and ran into a little shopping mall, with a grocery store, drug store, other stores and one that caught our attention. It was called Wine and Food Emporium. So, being beginning foodies, we went in. Wonderful deli and we met a great guy, seemed to know what he was talking about in the food, wine category. Well, we went back the next week and bought something and a conversation about Napa Valley and wineries ensued. We had been thinking about taking a road trip to Napa and Mike (who we found out owned the store) suggested that we put dates together, and when we did we called him. He arranged for us to visit and take several winery tours. That is how we started to experiment with red wine AND damn, Shirley was right. We now very rarely drink a white, but do love sparkly and champagne, for any reason. We did start in Paris this last visit to learn about white burgundies and I am starting to enjoy the whites from the Loire Valley. We continued to visit Mike and the Gourmet Emporium and he started having blind wine tastings and we we went to them all. One night after the tasting there were 6 of us just sitting around. One bought a bottle and we started to talk and someone said wouldn't it be a kick to put together a group of people that loved wine and food. The premise would be to bring a dish and the wine to go with it. The meeting would be the second Saturday of the month and the party would rotate from member house to house. Well, to make a long story short, that was 21 years ago and we are still going strong. We are now at one dish and 2 bottles of wine. The average attendance is 10 couples. We have had as many as 20 couples and as few as 5 but we still go on. There are now 4 of the originals, Mr. T63 and myself and one other couple; Mike and his wife, the owner of the Gourment Emporium, which is now gone. During the time that we have been going to the wine party every month, we developed a friendship with several couples who were also in the wine party group(BTW, we call it the Tucson Hedonists). The friendship with 5 other couples bloomed and as a result, we have also a small dinner party group. This is the group that meets now four times a year( there are only 4 couples now). This is a gourmet group! I would consider the other 3 couples to be very competent and could be considered chefs. I am just a good cook. Anyway, we have amazing dinners when we are together. There is always a theme, food or wine. The host/hostess prepare a pre appetizer, main course with side dishes and the wine to match. Then the other couples rotate, soup/salad appetizer or first course and dessert and of course, wine to match. This has been going on since 1989. My introduction to French cooking came as a hostess for one of these dinner parties I did the recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It is the one where you take a very good cut of beef roast, and make it look like a box with a lid. You then hollow it out, take the meat, brown it, and stuff the box with the meat, pearl onions, carrots etc. Then you tie it all up, and braise it with a bottle of wine (red of course, we used a nice Bordeaux). Wonderful!!!!! Most of what I have been cooking I have learned about from these two groups. Our small group has done many great dishes, we strive to use ingredients that are from the areas, countries that are the themes. One of the dinners was Australian and I emailed a restaurant to ask about a dessert that was unique to Australia, and they emailed a recipe back. The same dinner, the hostess, Nancy did the same thing and not only did she get the recipe, but a few days later, the doorbell rang and there was a package for her from the chef at the restaurant. He had sent a special spice that he knew she would not be able to find. Some of the dishes I have done; A Portuguese dish; Clams and Pork, a Pork Tenderloin that I stuffed with several different ingredients. Gosh, I really would have to go back in my recipes to find others. But I think you all get the idea. One was steak stuffed with oysters( that was Australian). The only thing I have trouble with as I have said before is desserts, just not my thing. So here ends my adventure with culinary roots. PS, my next venture is into the art of the crepe.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 18, 2009 1:51:31 GMT
Fascinating, Traveler! Wow, I really admire the way you never rejected any new area of food or drink. Can you imagine what some people miss out on because they decide beforehand they won't like something?
I have to ask ~~ when you did the beef "box", were you making it for the first time ever for that dinner party, or had you had a trial run before? Brave!
You have to wonder if all Australian chefs are that generous and encouraging. Must be that friendly Australian temperament.
It's so impressive the way you all developed and maintained friendships with others open to adventures in the culinary arts. I was going to say "lucky", but I feel sure it's because of your personality and commitment to developing your own artistry.
I just loved reading this -- thank you so much!
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Post by traveler63 on Dec 18, 2009 2:56:31 GMT
Bixa:
Yes, it was my first time and no, there was no trial run. The recipe is called Boeur en Caisse in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Most of the recipes for the parties are first times, and the only ones that I usually do a trial run on are desserts because I am so incredibly bad at them. Desserts are precise, there is no room for error. A lot of the procedures have no way to compensate for mistakes, you just have to start over.
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Post by hwinpp on Dec 18, 2009 5:26:23 GMT
Just don't forget you promised us a post on Creole and Cajun food too, T63
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 18, 2009 6:04:49 GMT
Creole and Cajun should really be a separate thread -- potential for lots of discussion!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2009 6:06:27 GMT
I'm sitting in the background here, too, but I want all of you to know that I really love reading about all this stuff.
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Post by fumobici on Dec 18, 2009 7:03:34 GMT
Me too. I lack both the story and eloquence to jump in.
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Post by traveler63 on Dec 18, 2009 11:44:07 GMT
Thank you all for enjoying my stories. It is amazing to me to think that my experiences started with just very simple food recipes from my mom, grandmother and aunt who just loved food. Then I met and married Mr.T63 and his mom contributed and that is a whole new story. I have all of her recipes. Her mother was French Canadian and Indian and I inherited her techniques. Mr. T63's mom had a fascinating life, hard, but she contributed a lot because she was married to a military man and spent time in Europe after WWII. He was stationed in Heidelberg, Germany right after the War and so i have recipes from that era too. Then there were her friends who contributed to her their recipes and I have those, so ........ with my cookbooks, and the recipes in my head and written down it is pretty overwelming to say the least.
One thing that has helped enormously is for about four years from 2001 until his Mom passed away in 2005, Mr. T63 worked in a wine store here in Tucson. He bought and sold fine wines. Since he tasted all of the wines that were purchased for the store that gave him a great opening with winemakers, winery owners, representatives, etc. It also gave him access to some of Tucson's finest chefs and restaurant owners. It also gave him access to wineries, and winemakers all over the world. It helped both of us develop our wine knowledge and my access to food and food prep.
Yes, hwinpp I will do a post on Cajun and Creole and I will make it a separate post because Bixa I agree with you it will be a big one.
existentialcrisis you have an amazing background in food and food prep. I say this because it takes a certain kind of dedication to take something frozen or boxed and have a good outcome. Keep experimenting because that is how a good cook evolves. It is time and practice that can get you to the next level.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2009 11:50:00 GMT
Not to confound,Creole and Cajun should not be lumped together IMHO,already too much confusion about the two distinctly different cuisines.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2009 11:56:22 GMT
I consider Creole to be quite sophisticated and often complicated, but Cajun to be more simple and filling -- like just a shrimp or crab boil, fried oysters, red beans & rice, turkey necks, hush puppies...
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2009 12:05:08 GMT
I consider Creole to be quite sophisticated and often complicated, but Cajun to be more simple and filling -- like just a shrimp or crab boil, fried oysters, red beans & rice, turkey necks, hush puppies... Close analogy,some Cajun a tad more innovative.
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Post by traveler63 on Dec 18, 2009 14:11:55 GMT
Casimira,
I have always considered Cajun and Creole to be two entirely different cooking categories. I always heard that Cajun actually has its culinary roots from Acadian background which I understand to be French Canadian. Creole culinary came from straight French background, or am I misinformed?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2009 14:24:24 GMT
Yes,they are, but over years has been some fusion of the two,which has brought about some fine dishes. I do not come close to knowing or having firm grip/knowledge of either.That is my husband's territory. Although,I should pay closer attention to how he does. Actually, I know very little about cooking in general. Basic knowledge. No expertise in any cuisine. Always learning. (nice way of saying I am lazy or "feed me!!" )
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 18, 2009 15:40:15 GMT
Can I say something, please? It's true that some magazine articles and other popularization have confused people about Cajun and creole cooking, but .......... First, let's save this for the thread on that subject, which can explore the similarities and differences. Second: Her mother was French Canadian and Indian and I inherited her techniques. Because Louisiana creole and Acadian cooking have ties to France and to Canada, if they're in a thread together, we should see some interesting input from both of those countries, and with luck, from Spain, Africa, and Italy, as well.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 18, 2009 15:44:30 GMT
Me too. I lack both the story and eloquence to jump in. Aw, come on ~~ we all have a story and choosing to tell it is an eloquent gesture. Also, the whole point of this forum is that what each of us considers hum-drum, boring home stuff can be different and fascinating to someone else. The place you leave to go on vacation may well be my vacation destination.
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