What I love about playing with ethnic foods is the sheer variety of flavor you can get - keeping in mind I grew up at the tail end of the Bland Era [Baby Boomers and the Depression/War generation.]
Many people who are younger than I am don't realize how good they have it. The grocery store in the town I grew up in after we moved back to the US was an IGA. It was common for groceries of the time [mid 1960s] to be about the size of an Aldi. This was the era that James Lilieks makes fun of, and most of what you see on his site was what was going on. I can remember my dad having friends in California sending us fresh artichokes in a time when those marinated artichokes in a jar was the height of exotic. I had a friend over for dinner, and my Mom planned shrimp, scalloped potatoes and artichokes vinaigrette, and she refused to eat anything except the damned boring potatoes. The wonders of landlocked western NY - the closest thing to shrimp she had ever had was fish fingers and tartar sauce in school, and she had never seen an artichoke in her short little life ... Today kids get sushi and pad thai as soon as they are weaned it seems.
Many people who are younger than I am don't realize how good they have it. The grocery store in the town I grew up in after we moved back to the US was an IGA. It was common for groceries of the time [mid 1960s] to be about the size of an Aldi. This was the era that James Lilieks makes fun of, and most of what you see on his site was what was going on. I can remember my dad having friends in California sending us fresh artichokes in a time when those marinated artichokes in a jar was the height of exotic. I had a friend over for dinner, and my Mom planned shrimp, scalloped potatoes and artichokes vinaigrette, and she refused to eat anything except the damned boring potatoes. The wonders of landlocked western NY - the closest thing to shrimp she had ever had was fish fingers and tartar sauce in school, and she had never seen an artichoke in her short little life ... Today kids get sushi and pad thai as soon as they are weaned it seems.
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