I cook
by instinct - but I don't swing out traditional flavor profiles. Let me
explain. As I develop the food in my head and pulling ingredients (especially
spices) to mise en place, experience of that country's cuisine serves as
my parameter, and I never comprise. One just knows. Yes, you might call
it purist. But I think the conception of food historically is native, and the
influences are proximate; and true, spices have crossed over oceans, yet food
is a function of availability. Last night I made a whole wheat spaghetti with
pickled baby red eggplants (the size of kumquats; I quartered them) and tender
garlic, semi flashed-fried in butter and fresh-cracked peppers and chili oil.
The eggplant is a Syrian "addition to the Roman empire," so I went
for it. Another example: I didn't have lemon to juice but had sumac powder, so
for freshness to my falafel filling I used it. It is comprehensively
Mediterranean. And, thanks to a foodie friend of mine who called on my plan,
how could you add sweet or smoky paprika to the chopped hard-cooked egg topping
your loin of salmon bagel with chives cream cheese and capers? That's too far
removed. Even to be inspired by something, say, tasting marrons glacés
thinking of making chestnut cheesecake, though the boundaries are nuanced - is
it French, Italian or American? -fundamentally, there's no disservice. I was
reading Mark Bittman's Eat piece this morning (oh the fried clams
cornmeal-dredged in a roll) - he's always been to me a great teacher, and he
sticks to his "line." I want to make a pozole with purple
corns from Peru, or use them in a lorco, an Argentine oxtail stew -
right? Now you know "where" I'm coming from.
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