Vegetarianism in the West

Tags

chicken, curries, india, indian food, switzerland, vegetarian, vegetarianism

I recently read an article on the ever-wonderful website Culinate, which I found quite enjoyable and felt compelled to share. It’s entitled Going Vegetarian in Geneva, and follows the author’s parents as they move from India to meat-centric Europe and are, subsequently, forced to reconsider their vegetarian lifestyle.

It’s an amusing account, charming and pleasurable to read, not to mention replete with recipes from the author’s parents. I look especially forward to trying the chicken curry recipe.

Though, it is no longer exceedingly difficult to become or remain a vegetarian in the western world, it’s interesting to read this portrait from a time when most Western cuisines were not particularly vegetarian-friendly.

I think this is especially fascinating since I work with the immigrant community, including many people from the Indian sub-continent. Once immigrants make a home for themselves, they are forced to participate within their new community, whether it’s making a trip to the local grocer store, opening a new bank account, or filling out a job application. Naturally, this is a method of survival, and, in this instance, our protagonists find themselves wondering whether to renounce their traditional foods or adapt to their new country’s cuisine.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Enjoy the story!

Jonah Lehrer on the Philosophy of Home Cooking

Tags

article, cooking, Jonah Lehrer, philosophy

It’s been a terribly long time since I’ve last posted. It seems as though the past few weeks have just slipped away, disappearing into the vague haze that has been enveloping Chicago on and off for the past few days. It’s a flimsy excuse, I know, but it’s the best that I can offer. I hope resume posting more regularly within the next few days (I promise I’ll try!).

In the meantime, I recently read a short essay by science writer Jonah Lehrer on the Philosophy of Home Cooking. Why do we continue to toil over our stoves most nights, when it would be easier to trek to a restaurant, pop a frozen meal in a microwave, or order takeout?

The article was slated to come out in January’s edition of Gourmet; alas, with the magazine’s demise, the article has found itself posted on Lehrer’s blog, The Frontal Cortex. I first heard of Lehrer on Radiolab, where he regularly contributes. He’s written about creativity and youth, the philosophy behind travel, the effect of city living on the brain, and so much more. This is an equally interesting article, and I hope that you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I did.

Here’s my favorite passage from the piece:

To cook is to insist that every hunger is a potential occasion, not just for something delicious (because deliciousness can be easily bought), but for that quality of experience that comes when the flame is on high and the last knob of butter is being whisked into the sauce. The tough meat is finally tender and there’s the pile of parsley, waiting to be sprinkled over the stew. It’s all so fleeting – the food will soon be eaten, the mess will be cleaned up tomorrow – but Virginia Woolf was right: “Of such moments the thing is made that endures.” We have taken a need and made a meal.

You can read the article in its entirety here.

Pasta e Patate

Tags

pasta, potato, soup

Every so often Chicago teeters on the brink of warmth, the scintillating sun hinting at spring– only for the clouds, as gray and concrete as the sidewalks below, to blanket the sun, enveloping us in a chill so brittle that our bones shiver.

These are the days in which a hearty soup is in order. For today, pasta e patate, a robust dish filled with chucks of potatoes and short, tubular pasta.

The link above is to the (superb) blog, Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino, which has solid recipe for this.

A few notes though–

I added a few sprigs of rosemary to the potatoes and pasta as I was adding the broth. Why? Because rosemary is a good thing.

You can substitute parmigiano for provola, if you’d like (I do).

I used four cups of chicken broth and two cups of water. It was enough liquid to cook everything properly, but still the potatoes and pasta absorbed all of it. So, mine wasn’t exactly a soup, in fact it wasn’t a soup at all. But it was still delicious.

Food Writing: A Future?

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food journalism

If you have a moment, I implore you to read this fascinating discussion of food media by food writers Michael Nagrant and Michael Gebert, in which they consider the upcoming trends in food journalism. Most interesting, at least to me, is food journalism’s recent slant towards personalized stories, rather than mere criticisms of restaurants’ food, ambience, and service.

It’s pretty obvious that with the advent and rapid growth of the internet in the past (specifically) ten to fifteen years, journalism and career writing in general will soon no longer be relevant (at least to the mainstream). This discussion just sort of vocalizes everything in which writers (of food and otherwise) have to fear in the future. Sigh…

Tomato-Citrus Soup

Tags

coconut milk, ginger, orange, soup, tomato, vitamin c

I, as many of you might be, am currently battling a cold. So, tonight I made a vitamin C extravaganza with the hopes of feeding this illness into submission. That weapon of destruction is tomato soup with ginger and citrus.

Check out the recipe here on a friend’s blog, The Girl Who Ate Everything.

It’s a simple recipe, quick to make, with only a few ingredients. Not to mention that it’s quite tasty as well.