in praise of thoroughly cooked food
Jan. 14th, 2003 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkI love that people who write letters to the editor of newspapers so often have names like "P. Stickney, of Garland". Today's Dallas Morning News contained a letter from said P. Stickney, of Garland, on the topic of recent financial problems for area cafeteria restaurants. To paraphrase P. Stickney, the letter took the position that cafeteria food is no longer what it was fifty years ago. I cannot take a position on that, having only been going to cafeterias for some thirty five years or so, but I can say that cafeterias are no longer what they once were. When I was a kid, liquor licenses were not available to ordinary restaurants, rendering most "fine" cuisine unavailable, as it was apparently hard to make a living serving only iced tea rather than "high profit" mixed alcoholic drinks. Meanwhile, fast food restaurants really did not have the market penetration. The result was that seekers of "high cuisine" and "fast food", as well as everybody else, ate at cafeterias. Once a cafeteria visit was an event of state, comparable to a stay at a grand hotel. When I was a child, I was assured that I had just missed even more glorious days for cafeteria grandeur.
I liked P. Stickney's letter because it had cautions to cafeterias as a way to define the problem--advice to refrain from mixing apples and bananas in with the peaches; suggestions to ensure that vegetables are fully-cooked,and suggestions to ensure that rolls were soft. I do remember the time when everything was cooked so thoroughly that one could not find a hint of crunchiness in everything. Fashions change, and now it is hard to find things literally steamed, boiled or roasted into oblivion. Many belittle this cuisine, but did it have to vanish?
I remember once when my cousin, who is a big success as a professor of hotel and restaurant management, lightly sauteed some vegetables for my great aunt. She reported with awe "I never knew that people ate crunchy vegetables. I didn't know that was the fancy way to eat them; I thought they were under-cooked.
We're pretty broad in our food tastes, and eat food at home and in restaurants featuring cuisines of all the world. But sometimes I do long, with P. Stickney, for rolls that are soft and vegetables that are fully cooked.
I liked P. Stickney's letter because it had cautions to cafeterias as a way to define the problem--advice to refrain from mixing apples and bananas in with the peaches; suggestions to ensure that vegetables are fully-cooked,and suggestions to ensure that rolls were soft. I do remember the time when everything was cooked so thoroughly that one could not find a hint of crunchiness in everything. Fashions change, and now it is hard to find things literally steamed, boiled or roasted into oblivion. Many belittle this cuisine, but did it have to vanish?
I remember once when my cousin, who is a big success as a professor of hotel and restaurant management, lightly sauteed some vegetables for my great aunt. She reported with awe "I never knew that people ate crunchy vegetables. I didn't know that was the fancy way to eat them; I thought they were under-cooked.
We're pretty broad in our food tastes, and eat food at home and in restaurants featuring cuisines of all the world. But sometimes I do long, with P. Stickney, for rolls that are soft and vegetables that are fully cooked.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Long Live the Limp Vegetable
Date: 2003-01-14 03:33 pm (UTC)Combine veggies with huge quantities of water and a
fat-laden piece of pork. Boil, boil, boil.
I'm sure that if you go to one of those steak-cum-buffet
places, you'll find vegetables as soggy as you remember
waiting under heat lamps.
Re: Long Live the Limp Vegetable
Date: 2003-01-14 03:40 pm (UTC)When I was a kid, I hated that asparagus was boiled into a sort of mess, but now it seems a mild comfort to me. I must admit, though, that I still want my asparagus, if I must eat it at all, bamboo steamed.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-14 08:53 pm (UTC)and cafeteria food is not comfort for me
only reminds me of private school and nothing else
i recall the worst of it as lima beans in stewed tomatoes and shit on a shingle...that gray ground meat in some tenous sauce over bread and then there's the tasteless and oversoft spaghetti
i did like the creamed tuna on old dried bread slices cut up, call me weird
so i guess we're even on the food court
no subject
Date: 2003-01-14 08:56 pm (UTC)Your descriptions remind me of church camp food--a sure reminder of the need for grace and salvation!
Re:
Date: 2003-01-14 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-14 11:03 pm (UTC)As for vegies, I don't eat them so I can't really say anything. ;)
no subject
Date: 2003-01-15 02:31 pm (UTC)Me, I still like crisp ones!