Many regional foods being left out of the mainstream

grumpyoldman said:
i really did'nt intend for this thread to be about "fried corn" it was meant to be about why with the internet we all haven't been exposed to more reginal foods from the world over
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Your post is a really interesting predicament!
A few years ago, I drove from Cincinnati to Chicago and passed fields and fields and fields of corn. And I wondered: " Why wasn't polenta invented in the US? Why weren't tortillas invented in the US? Why weren't arepas invented in the US? Why don't they make cachapas in the US"?
The internet has given us complete availability to every cuisine in the world, and yet... some folks are just happy with what they've got. I'm not much of a Bible bloke, but "He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened" ( Matthew 7:8)
Personally, I'm an internet maniac; I love the simplicity of looking up "Georgian Cuisine" and finding a million hits, when 30 years ago, I'd have had to spend 3 days in the Library of Congress to get one hit. Maybe I'm just a bit wierd!
A while ago, I looked up native American (ie. USA) soft fruit. The native species are not strawberries, or raspberries, no! They're blueberries, cranberries, huckleberries and farkleberries. When was the last time you found huckleberries in your local supermarket?
Since 1492, the food world has drastically changed, thanks to the Americas.
 
Taking a bit of a different approach to the question:
Why did bitterballen not conquer the world, never met anyone that didn't like them?
Why did tofu become so popular, but tempeh not?

I was born and raised in Northern Europe, but with a dad who was born in Indonesia and a mother with an open mind in food and health so our diet was quite a bit different from most of my friends.
Take away Chinese was considered real exotic and we had to travel far to get our ingredients for Indonesian food (and that shop is still operational)
 
JAS_OH1 said:
I never liked grits growing up in the South where it's a breakfast staple, but I love them when I'm the one cooking them. Creamy, cheesy, buttery...yum.
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not sure there's too many things that cannot be prepared inedible . . .
actually I'm working on hominy . . . . found canned stuff in two varieties -
(a) totally glued together in a lump of concrete looking stuff
(b) 'kernels' that slosh around in liquid....

I was smitten by hominy as a side in 1960's era breakfast plates. US Route 1 south . . . I-95 did not exist . . .
it was not gooey/pasty - so I'm leaning to the 'sloshing in the can' variety.

I am veddy open to ideas/suggestions/experience on putting yum-yum hominy on the plate . . . !
 
CookieMonster said:
not sure there's too many things that cannot be prepared inedible . . .
actually I'm working on hominy . . . . found canned stuff in two varieties -
(a) totally glued together in a lump of concrete looking stuff
(b) 'kernels' that slosh around in liquid....

I was smitten by hominy as a side in 1960's era breakfast plates. US Route 1 south . . . I-95 did not exist . . .
it was not gooey/pasty - so I'm leaning to the 'sloshing in the can' variety.

I am veddy open to ideas/suggestions/experience on putting yum-yum hominy on the plate . . . !
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Ask medtran49, she might know a few! I know she recently posted this:
Recipe - Mote Pata (pork, hominy and peanut butter stew)
and this:
Recipe - Hominy breakfast casserole
 
karadekoolaid said:
Your post is a really interesting predicament!
A few years ago, I drove from Cincinnati to Chicago and passed fields and fields and fields of corn. And I wondered: " Why wasn't polenta invented in the US? Why ....
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there are precious few foods/dishes that do not have ancient roots.
well, the "fusion" stuff aside....

the mid/central Americans have been growing / grinding / eating corn stuff since long long time . . . . pre-history . . .

oh, btw, those miles and miles and miles of skyscraper corn . . . it's feed corn for cattle/dairy - aka 'dent' corn
not sweet corn. you wouldn't be happy eating it using today's taster buds . . . unless, , , of course, , , that's all you got. eat it or go hungry . . .
 
CookieMonster said:
there are precious few foods/dishes that do not have ancient roots.
well, the "fusion" stuff aside....

the mid/central Americans have been growing / grinding / eating corn stuff since long long time . . . . pre-history . . .

oh, btw, those miles and miles and miles of skyscraper corn . . . it's feed corn for cattle/dairy - aka 'dent' corn
not sweet corn. you wouldn't be happy eating it using today's taster buds . . . unless, , , of course, , , that's all you got. eat it or go hungry . . .
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Yup. Most of the cornfields here in my part of Ohio are not in rows, the field is packed full of feed corn. They alternate the following year with soybeans, no idea what they do with them (though I do love some edamame).

Edited to add we have terrific beef here in our state!
 
it "might " be some sorta blend, but many many many years ago i was an electrician at a plant that extracted the oil from soy beans , what was left of the bean was turned into cattle feed
 
msmofet said:
Soy beans?
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Yeah I really never bothered thinking about it much since I tend to use olive oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil, and of course primarily peanut oil for frying. I can't actually remember the last time I bought vegetable oil.
 
where i grew up one one used olive oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil was only used for making popcorn and peanut oil was used for frying turkeys . to this day i only know one person that uses olive oil, we think of olive oil as a cooking show oil haha
 
grumpyoldman said:
where i grew up one one used olive oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil was only used for making popcorn and peanut oil was used for frying turkeys . to this day i only know one person that uses olive oil, we think of olive oil as a cooking show oil haha
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I am confused, you wrote that where you grow up "one used olive oil..." but then wrote "to this day I only know one person that uses olive oil"? That's a bit of a contradiction, yeah?

And times are a changing with younger cooks, but I have been using olive oil since I was in my 20s and I am now 62, though I never fried with it other than sauteeing foods, which I still do. Then again, I worked in restaurants in my 20s and it wasn't at a diner, LOL (though I do like food at diners quite well). These days lots of younger folks use olive oil. I suppose different people are just raised differently.

Peanut oil is not just for frying turkeys, though. Where I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, it's used regularly for frying seafood. Fresh catch!
 
JAS_OH1 said:
I am confused, you wrote that where you grow up "one used olive oil..." but then wrote "to this day I only know one person that uses olive oil"? That's a bit of a contradiction, yeah?
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I think grumpyoldman is the latest victim of auto(in)correct - I believe “one one” should be “no one,” just from context.
 
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