Eating Habits and Diet During Covid19

[bjd]

I prefer the green ones but they are very hard to find here, in an area where they grow white ones. I used to have a cheap aluminum cooker with a basket that you stand the asparagus spears in and then steam for a short time, putting a bit of water in the bottom of the pot. They always came out perfect.

[kerouac2]

When I want the green ones, I just go to Picard, where they are always in season.

[Kimby]

I have a steamer basket that I do almost all vegetables in. Never have any trouble with asparagus, unless I forget and let it steam too long. But roasting brings out the best of many veggies, so I can’t wait to try casi’s suggestion.

[Kimby]

We just returned from eating our first meal at a restaurant! We were on a bike ride on Sanibel’s extensive trail system and noon snuck up on us.

Though some island restaurants have been able to keep going with take out, and maybe delivery, some are still closed up. But the mayor has cleared the way for restaurants to reopen with distancing and extra sanitation.

As we biked toward home we noticed a folding sign at the street announcing that a restaurant we’d been wanting to try was now open for breakfast lunch and dinner. There were no cars in the parking lot, but the door wasn’t locked. So we parked our bikes and went in. We had the place to ourselves, everything looked spotless (I know, germs are invisible), the waiter was masked and gloved and stood at least 8 feet away from us except when setting dishes on the table. We had made up our minds from the outside menu, so ordered right away. Despite having been more or less closed for 7 weeks, the food was excellent, and the air conditioning was most welcome.

Also welcome was a break from the sandwiches we make for our daily lunches at home!

I’ll let you know in 2 weeks if we escaped getting infected!

[tod2]

Lagatta, no dear. I am almost positive asparagus is not grown or grown in large quantities, in South Africa. Our "delicate" veg like snap peas, mange tout, baby corn and carrots all seem to hale from Kenya.
I even buy Israeli tomatoes as they are of a better standard. One thing I am always hunting down are NICOLA. potatoes grown in South Africa exclusively for Woolworths Foods.
I compare them to Royal Jersey potatoes - the best flavoured potato I have ever eaten. Not the baby Royals but the full size baked potato size.
These Nicola potatoes have a yellow flesh and are oval shaped. There is one other potato I keep a look out for and here they are called "Fingerlings" and have a pale pinkish skin and of course look like a mans fingers.. To die for!

[cheerypeabrain]

If the potatoes are also a bit knobly they may be pink fir apple potatoes. I grow them some years but haven't this year for some reason. I grew Nicola potatoes 2 years . A similar very tasty New potato is Lady Crystl. This is the first year I haven't grown them because I had trouble finding loose seed potatoes. No point me buying a big bag when I'm only growing in tubs.

[casimira]

I guess white asparagus isn''t grown much here in the US. I never see it.

It doesn't look very appealing to me. 

[Kimby]

I agree casi. I have seen it on occasion but never buy it. Isn’t chlorophyll GOOD for you?

[onlyMark]

I've just boiled a saucepan full of mushy peas.
The windows have had to be opened fully.

[kerouac2]

I looked up the difference between white and green asparagus, and basically it is mostly because white asparagus are harvested underground before they turn green (like Belgian endive). And green asparagus has a stronger taste. Between the two are purple asparagus, which is the version that has just started to emerge above ground but has not turned green yet. I never see purple asparagus.

[bixaorellana]

I've never seen purple asparagus either, & I've seen it growing. Maybe it's a varietal thing.

Are you sure white asparagus is harvested underground? I thought it was simply covered to keep the light off it. I can't imagine it would grow into stalks underground. I think endive is treated the same way -- covered to keep it from turning green.

May 13, 2020 11:34:01 GMT casimira said:

I guess white asparagus isn''t grown much here in the US. I never see it. It doesn't look very appealing to me.

I believe I have seen it in cans, but no -- never fresh for sale.
I always had this thing about it was better to buy broccoli than cauliflower because broccoli is green. Some people claim they're identical in nutritional value, but that turns out not to be true: plushcare.com/blog/broccoli-vs-cauliflower-differences/
I haven't looked up white asparagus yet.

[kerouac2]

May 13, 2020 16:02:28 GMT bixaorellana said:

Are you sure white asparagus is harvested underground? I thought it was simply covered to keep the light off it. I can't imagine it would grow into stalks underground.

Well, I used to harvest it that way in my grandparents' garden. The moment the tip would pierce the surface, you would dig down with your nife to cut the stem. But I'm sure that in modern times, everything is replaced by plastic; there might not even be any soil involved anymore, a hydroponic wonder.

[bixaorellana]

Well, I learn something new every day! Had no idea.

[bjd]

White asparagus is grown around here so I think it's more like Bixa suggested. As you drive past the fields, you see rows of heaps of soil, so I think the ground is heaped up around the plants to keep them white. Perhaps digging down was enough in a personal vegetable garden, but not for a commercial field.

The season is nearly over now anyway. I prefer green ones not only for the taste but because the white ones have to be peeled.

[kerouac2]

Oh, they were grown in mounds in my grandparents' garden, too. Those loose mounds make it easier to cut the stems, but it is still dirt.

[bixaorellana]

May 13, 2020 16:02:28 GMT bixaorellana said:

Are you sure white asparagus is harvested underground? I thought it was simply covered to keep the light off it. I can't imagine it would grow into stalks underground.

May 14, 2020 5:56:07 GMT bjd said:

White asparagus is grown around here so I think it's more like Bixa suggested. As you drive past the fields, you see rows of heaps of soil, so I think the ground is heaped up around the plants to keep them white.

May 14, 2020 5:59:55 GMT kerouac2 said:

Oh, they were grown in mounds in my grandparents' garden, too. Those loose mounds make it easier to cut the stems, but it is still dirt.

Ahhh ~ that's different, then.

"Underground" would mean that the asparagus had formed stalks before emerging into the light. The grandparents' garden & the commercial fields both had human agency to make mounds around the above-ground stalks.

[kerouac2]

No, not at all. The plants are deeper down, and the mounds are just kept looser with the careful use of a fork hoe (?). In my grandparents' garden there were two rows of asparagus plants. In a much tinier version, the rows looked like this.



When my parents took over the garden, they got rid of the asparagus plants immediately for a variety of reasons including 1. they take up too much room for an extremely brief season.  2.  it is pain to take care of the plants and 3. once they start producing, you have asparagus coming out of your ears until you can't bear to look at them anymore.

[bjd]

So I just looked up how to grow asparagus. Once planted, it takes 3 years to produce an asparagus "stem". As they push towards the light, each year, the farmer heaps a bit more soil around it if he wants white ones. Purple asparagus is when the tips just stick out of the soil, and green ones are when they come out into the sunlight. White ones are raised under black plastic tunnels so they never see the light.

It takes the plant 3 years to produce anything, but then remains productive for 10 years. And it likes sandy soil. And asparagus has been grown and eaten for 2000 years!

[kerouac2]

That's an amazing amount of time for such a minor and contrarian vegetable.

[bixaorellana]

I guess it's a matter of semantics. To my mind, the fact that the shoots have to emerge from the ground & would naturally keep growing in the open air except for the fact that those to be blanched have to have dirt heaped around them means "not underground". But in fairness, this article uses "underground" the same way you're using it. modernfarmer.com/2014/07/white-asparagus/

[kerouac2]

Frankly, they are both creepy and pornographic when you let them grow and turn green. That's why it's better to cut them they moment the peek out of the ground.

[tod2]

What put me off green asparagus is the sand in between the tip folds. It almost mimicked beach sand. We never ever see white asparagus fresh. I buy it in bottles or cans and eat it with big dollops of tangy mayonnaise.

[kerouac2]

I have a tall jar of white asparagus for emergencies.

[Kimby]

I have fond memories of collecting wild asparagus with my grandfather along Wisconsin roadsides. I am always reminded of this when I see the asparagus plants that have already gone to seed when we bike along Wisconsin roads. If I lived there, I’d be tempted to tie a ribbon on the fence wire wherever I saw the overmature plants to make it easier to find the emerging shoots in the spring. Not too conspicuous though, lest some other Euell Gibbons caught onto my system.

[whatagain]

May 9, 2020 14:42:37 GMT kerouac2 said:

Everybody knows that most men absolutely love to cook as long as somebody cleans up after them.

Actually i cannot cook if i cant clean up.
So i clean up and store back in the cupboards during cooking.
Another thing I absolutely need is a glass of wine. Even ic i leave untouched for most ic the time.

A last thing, i need to be complimented...
And i need everybody at the rable when it is ready.

[kerouac2]

When I watch a movie, I am alert to absolutely everything that happens in food scenes. I know that movies are not real life and that the actors could never actually eat the things on their plates, but I am always horrified by the quantities of food lying around at the end of the fake meal. And of course when people don't even bother coming to the table ("I'm not hungry."), I am outraged. The breakfast scenes are the worst. I generally don't eat breakfast myself, but I do know that when one of the characters has prepared food (pancakes, waffles, eggs, bacon... all sorts of things), in my universe it is unacceptable to take one sip of orange juice before bolting out the door with "I'm running late" or some such other bullshit. It seems to me that people who purportedly live in the same house know the schedule for breakfast, as does the preparer who knows who eats what and to yell to get them to come to breakfast if they do not appear on time.

But no, people walk out the door without touching anything, and it is presented as a normal convention of family life. If I were preparing breakfast and that happened, I would never prepare another meal for them again.

[lagatta]

Of course, at least in middle-class families, nobody ever goes to the toilet either. There are many such conventions.

[casimira]

Yes, breakfast scenes are the main offender.

And, it's not even family scenes.

It happens a lot in scenes with couples. Usually in a breakfast joint/diner. (One of the places I really miss about NYC.) We don't seem to have a whole lot of diners here in NOLA.

Meanwhile, on my weekly grocery trip to the new neighborhood grocery (which has been a major godsend in general but, most especially during this time) I had the most pleasant experience.

They make a point of setting aside two hours early in the a.m. for seniors. (they don't exclude younger people but, they very courteously posted a sign which very politely informs the general public that in an effort to better accommodate senior customers for safety reasons the store requests that between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 am. seniors will be given first priority).

Surprisingly, there has been no backlash from this, and, as noted, younger customers are not excluded.

I suppose most aren't even awake yet let alone out making a grocery run.

[lagatta]

They do that here too, but the problem is that 7 a.m. is one of the busiest times on the métro and buses here as healthcare workers still have to show up, and their shifts start earlier than those of office workers (many of whom are working at home or laid-off). I think a slightly later morning slot would have been a better choice.

Yes, most younger people out that early in the morning would be at work; if not, younger people seem to be more likely to sleep in, even if there is nowhere to go out for the evening now!

[kerouac2]

Although it was done quite a bit across France, there was only one place that set aside 30 minutes for senior shopping from 8:30 to 9:00. Now that confinement has ended, they're not doing it anymore.

I suppose there was less a point of this arrangement in Paris since Carrefour City and Monop' tend to open at 7:00 in normal times anyway. But I can certainly see the point in rural and semi-rural places where there is not a concentration of supermarkets or even superettes.