Mashed potatoes with that?
By PAT WICK
© Another Day in the Country
When it comes to food, we're pretty experimental. Exotic dishes and gourmet meals have become a staple at our table. And we don't even think about it. Basimati rice and Indian Curry one night, homemade tamales or enchiladas another. Stir fry vegetables and Chinese noodles are another favorite. And then our mother came to town.
"Come eat with us tonight," we offered. "What are you having?" she wanted to know. "Majedra," (I don't know how you really spell this — it's just how it is pronounced. And I don't know what culture it hails from — it's just delicious) I said. "What's that?" she said wrinkling her brow and looking slightly stunned. "It's lentils served over rice with lettuce, lemon, fresh onions, and garlic salt for seasoning. If we have feta cheese we'll crumble some of it over the top. It's sooo good!"
Well, she wasn't convinced, but she was game to try. As she tentatively tasted this new food grouping she said, "Where do you girls get these ideas? I never cooked anything like this."
"Haven't you ever tried new recipes from some magazine? We asked. "Don't you buy recipe books with lovely pictures and cook new dishes just for fun?" The answer was "NO!" and she chuckled, "I guess I just always cooked what my mother cooked and then when I got married I learned to make some new dishes from Laurel's side of the family — that's it."
"I never ate rice until you guys came," says our buddy Tool Time Tim, who is brave enough to eat with us. Tim's a meat and potatoes kind of guy and not at all impressed by the need to sample a wide variety of food groups. I asked him what was the most unusual food he'd tried, "I guess I'd have to say Chinese," he said. "That egg-foo-yung stuff — I might have tasted it before, but I never knew what it was made out of." To Tim's credit, he not only tasted egg foo-yung but he learned to make it! It's a little like Mikie on the old breakfast food commercials on television — we watch Tim's reaction to food and then say with glee, "He LIKES it!"
Times certainly have changed! The world has gotten smaller and more exotic. Book store shelves are filled with interesting recipes from around the world. You can taste-test cuisine from almost any culture you can name — in the city that is! Here in the country, exotic is probably Chinese food and a cultural adventure is going to the Mexican café in Lost Springs.
We laugh at the memory of our dad on his first excursion to Taco Bell, which just happened to be his granddaughter's favorite place to eat. "Just order me one of those beanie things," he suggested to Jana. "Grandpa," she countered, "They've almost ALL got beans in them."
While it's fun to try new dishes, the foods we are familiar with are still dear to our hearts. We've learned to love the kinds of things our grandmother made. We love butter balls in homemade chicken noodle soup and yet there was a time when butter balls were a strangely foreign idea. Uncle Hank was a little boy sitting at a neighbor's table with his older brother Albert when he first spied "buter glase." He only knew enough about them to know he didn't like them and he also didn't want to offend the hostess, so he snuck them off his plate and into his pocket, where his sisters finally found them and had to scrub like mad to get the grease out of his britches.
I can remember when the country treat was something called "Schnit soup" made with dried fruit and often served cold. It made me gag! I hated it! Who would believe I'd grow up to be such a food explorer?
It's another day in the country and our cousin Janet brought fajitas for dinner on the Fourth of July while Jessica made her famous chili relano dish. Mom was invited and she said warily, "What are you having?" Jess explained and added, "You could bring something so that you'd be sure there was a dish you liked." There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line and Mom said, "Would mashed potatoes go with that?"
