Posted on 08/15/2018 7:02:09 PM PDT by EdnaMode
The inexorable rise of identity condiments has led to hard times for the most American of foodstuffs. And thats a shame.
[snip]
Along about a decade ago, though, I began to notice I was toting home as much of my offerings as Id concocted. My contributions were being overlooked or shunned. Why should this be? Moms extraordinary potato salad fragrant with dill, spiced by celery seed went untouched on the picnic table. So did her macaroni salad, and her chicken salad, and her deviled eggs. When I carted home a good three pounds of painstakingly prepared Waldorf salad all that peeling and coring and slicing! I was forced to face facts: The familys tastes had changed. Or, rather, our family had changed. Oldsters were dying off, and the young uns taking our places in the paper-plate line were different somehow.
I racked my brain for the source of this generational disconnect. And then, one holiday weekend, while surveying the condiments set out at a family burger bash, I found it. On offer were four different kinds of mustard, three ketchups (one made from, I kid you not, bananas), seven sorts of salsa, kimchi, wasabi, relishes of every ilk and hue
What was missing, though, was the common foundation of all Moms picnic foods: mayonnaise. While I wasnt watching, mayos day had come and gone. Its too basic for contemporary tastes pale and insipid and not nearly exotic enough for our era of globalization. Good ol mayo has become the Taylor Swift of condiments.
(Excerpt) Read more at phillymag.com ...
Haven’t had good Italian bread since I left Rhode Island 9 years ago.
Soybean has natural estrogen in it.
A really good, flavorful lavash made with the right wheat puts any pita to shame. Good for dipping with hummus, babaganoush, or simply for tacos in place of tortillas—yum!
What’s the ‘right wheat’?
I don’t know. It is the cooking method and the wheat. I have a relative that once made it with a foreign wheat, the best I ever tasted.
Well, there are lots of ‘wheats’, including the ancient emmer and einkorn.
Maybe it was one of those.
But I have to agree - Pita is very ‘dough-y’. I like it for sandwiches, especially very wet ones; but not so much for dipping...
I much prefer good Indian naan for dipping; but something even ‘flimsier’ would be nice :-)
True, and you forgot a few varieties. Naan is great, but is nothing more than a variation of flat bread cooked in a tandoor instead of on top of a rounded “griddle.” Again, the method and ingredients are everything.
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