Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 144 posts

Re: Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

#121

Post by collyw »

anandrm wrote: post #37
maury91 wrote: post #9

In Italy we say: "A lot of spices are to cover the taste of bad ingredients". It means that if you use a lot of spices ( we _usually_ use only black pepper and salt ), you are going to cover the taste of the ingredients you are using, we believe that you need to use good ingredients to have flavourful recipes, if an ingredient tastes bad you shouldn't use it. Also we always search for the balance, there shouldn't be…

"A lot of spices are to cover the taste of bad ingredients" - Thats a very pretentious statement , i hear this from lot of stake guys. The use of spice is totally cultural, few do have medicinal value - the best example would be (Curcuma,Cinnamon etc) ..Some spices that are native to Asia/Africa make big difference in food flavors.You appreciate it when you grow up with it. I also understand why people appreciate mea…

Interesting take. Steak is one of the things that I do prefer without extra sauces or spices. Tuna steak I add a bit of salt pepper and chilli powder. Chicken by itself is fairly bland, I find it like a blank canvas for adding other flavours to.

Re: Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

#122

Post by llampx »

tolbish wrote: post #112
d13 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saag is just a kind of spinach.

I wonder if they meant saag paneer. The first google result for that recipe lists 21(!) ingredients and a 1 hr 20 minute prep time, but a difficulty of "Easy".

That's funny, when I googled it the first result was showing a 5 minute prep time and 15 minute cooking time. I've noticed that with Indian food there's many ways to skin the cat. If you start with fresh spinach you'd have a different prep time than with frozen spinach.

Re: Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

#123

Post by llampx »

selimthegrim wrote: post #100
Arkhaine_kupo wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you suggest something that goes well with Cinnamon? Sure! I have to admit is not a spice I use too much. (Brings back nostalgia of rice puddings etc). But it is quite an autumnal spice, so think of it like something that would go well with those flavours. For example pork loins with apple can use a little clove or cinammon if you want to have it enhance the sweetness of the apple. It also works well with nice a…

Butter chicken itself is the epitome of "covering up bad ingredients"

Which bad ingredients is butter chicken covering up? From what I recall the origins are to use yesterday's leftover tandoori chicken in restaurants. In which case it is reusing ingredients instead of throwing them away, not covering anything up.

Funny how it worked and people try to recreate that flavor when they don't have leftover tandoori chicken.

Re: Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

#124

Post by llampx »

esyir wrote: post #114
macg333 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for this comment. I can't believe I have to read someone say Indian food looks like excrement and then have the first response be that the comment about Spain is the most offensive... Indian food is incredible, its delicious and vibrant. I think it is obvious the original commenter has never tried to cook Indian food from scratch and so has never had the opportunity to taste Indian food at each stage of the…

My Indian colleagues themselves make that exact same comparison, even as we're eating it. I'm thus pretty numb to that now.

I think this is something that has to be pointed to you. I grew up eating Indian food and it never crossed my mind. Came to the US, suddenly Indian food was smelly and looked unappetizing because that was the popular opinion.

Re: Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

#125

Post by vram22 »

vram22 wrote: post #115
hnedeotes wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whoops, got my culinary knowledge put in place. 1) yeap, confirmed that's it 2) this was in Sri Lanka, they did also have sambal that is closer to the one with onions done in Malasya/Indonesia but this one was with coconut and no onions, more dry than wet, just fine strands of what seems semi-dry coconut with spices (smashed chillis?) and they served it in many regular places along the dal tadka? The idea I have is t…

>whoops, got my culinary knowledge put in place. Ha ha. No, to be clear, I didn't mean it in a critical sense. We all make mistakes and don't know a lot of things that some others do. It was in that spirit that I was sharing stuff I knew a bit better, due to being Indian. >1) yeap, confirmed that's it Cool. >2) this was in Sri Lanka, they did also have sambal that is closer to the one with onions done in Malasya/Indo…

>The sambal you are may be from that origin.

Damn, autocorrect. It changed "ate" to "are" in above sentence. It even autocorrects the same thing (wrongly, again) after you edit its previous wrongly autocorrected word. Gets it wrong more often than not. Even converts my right spellings into wrong ones. Started after recent update. Disabled it now.

Re: Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

#126

Post by BugWatch »

moron4hire wrote: post #63
agurk wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not knowing where you are from, I'd take a guess at American as there is a sharp divide in garlic use between Italian and Italian-American cusine. Italian food typically has a lot less garlic in it and if you had it in any of the classic dishes like ragù alla bolognese or risotto alla milanese it would be surprising. Dishes like spaghetti alla puttanesca or aglio e olio are classic examples where it is used. Marinara…

I work at a foreign language instruction company. Two of the funniest moments happened at the same lunch. The Italians declaring, "Americans use too much garlic." And the Turkish declaring, "Americans have too many kinds of cheese. Cheese is just cheese." I've been known to put garlic, onions, and shallots into a dish.

@~"Cheese is cheese."

And I guess that's the moment when the French "delegation" collectively gasped, and left the table in protest? :D

Re: Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

#127

Post by llampx »

InfiniteRand wrote: post #103

It's interesting to note that my Indian wife had trouble wrapping her head around the concept of appreciating the meaty flavor of a hamburger with minimal seasoning when she first came to the United States

Without speaking for your wife, but speaking for myself and my parents, its NOT that we had any trouble wrapping our head around it, just that meat by itself didn't taste that good. Even in the US it is common to add other ingredients, like cheese, tomatoes, onions and tomato sauce and mustard to the burger. Otherwise you're just eating cheap meat and bread, and there's nothing noble about that IMO.

Even at fancier places which ground up better cuts of meat and bake their own bread, there are condiments added to the burger, both in the patty and after it is cooked.

Re: Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

#128

Post by llampx »

kleiba wrote: post #10

Speaking of snobbery: the reason why "Indian food is so delicious" is that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Or, more appropriately: "de gustibus non est disputandum". I know lots of people who really don't like Indian food. (luckily, I'm not one of them). Perhaps something that the cited studies overlooked: surely, one reason a lot of Indian dishes are tasty is their high calorie content. Hmmm, sweet calories.…

Restaurant Indian food is not representative of what people eat everyday. It is too rich and too spicy to eat everyday. Yes of course some people eat it every day, just like some people order pizza every day or eat 3 meals at McDonald's. I hardly think Indian food is the only food that has high calorie content. How much saturated fat and carbs are in a regular McDonald's meal or a Starbucks frappe?

Re: Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

#129

Post by llampx »

Melting_Harps wrote: post #27
maury91 wrote: post #9

In Italy we say: "A lot of spices are to cover the taste of bad ingredients". It means that if you use a lot of spices ( we _usually_ use only black pepper and salt ), you are going to cover the taste of the ingredients you are using, we believe that you need to use good ingredients to have flavourful recipes, if an ingredient tastes bad you shouldn't use it. Also we always search for the balance, there shouldn't be…

Quoted post unavailable.

Oh please, get off your high horse. Japanese cuisine is anything but sustainable, and has plenty of sauces and every cuisine in the whole world, including your vaunted Italian cuisine, has dishes that hide bad quality food, as other commenters have pointed out.

I feel definite closet racism vibes from this post especially the emphasis on the anecdote with your blonde haired blue eyed Aryan God sous-chef.

Re: Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking (2015)

#130

Post by helmholtz »

BugWatch wrote: post #126
moron4hire wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a foreign language instruction company. Two of the funniest moments happened at the same lunch. The Italians declaring, "Americans use too much garlic." And the Turkish declaring, "Americans have too many kinds of cheese. Cheese is just cheese." I've been known to put garlic, onions, and shallots into a dish.

@~"Cheese is cheese." And I guess that's the moment when the French "delegation" collectively gasped, and left the table in protest? :D

Moving to France and discovering that every grocery store always has an entire aisle full of Cheeses was a mind-bending discovery for me. The aisle stinks, mind you, but nothing can beat Raclette after a winter's day out. The other amazing realisation was just how seriously bread is taken in these parts, with that famous No Such Thing observation that bakers in Paris may not take a vacation without putting a sign to the nearest boulangerie.
Post reply on HN