 July 7th, 2011
04:00 PM ET
Food says so much about where you’ve come from, where you’ve decided to go, and the lessons you’ve learned. It’s geography, politics, tradition, belief and so much more and this week, we invite you to dig in and discover the rich, ever-evolving taste of America in 2011. The week will culminate with a Secret Supper in New York City, and Eatocracy invites you to participate online starting Monday July 11th at 6:30 p.m. E.T. The first time I ate matzo ball soup, I was sure it was the most exotic thing I would ever put in my mouth, so long as I lived. To Jewish people since time immemorial, it's been the homely stuff of a family kitchen - filling, grounding, comforting and totally quotidian. To me, a thoroughly unworldly girl celebrating the occasion of her First Holy Communion at a Jewish-French restaurant in Cincinnati, Ohio, it was like a bolt of lightning in the dead of night, suddenly illuminating a previously unseen city in the distance. Upon moving to New York some 15 years later, I dated a solid string of gentlemen fated to eternal disappointment in the matzo ball soup offerings from the city’s delis and restaurants. I sampled each and every one of them – often trading whatever I’d ordered in exchange for their soup after they’d inevitably laid down their soup in exaggerated disgust. They were, to a bowl, perfectly fine and often excellent renditions of the dish. They just weren’t their Bubbe’s. I didn’t grow up with a Bubbe – or a Nonna or Memama or Oma – cooking up wonder in the kitchen. Grandma K. was a solid maker of American staples, and excelled at Christmas cookies (to this day no one can equal her Swedish Gems). Grandma R. was...not an enthusiastic follower of the culinary arts. Had either of them been – and been Jewish rather than Sicilian or Welsh-Irish-Canadian-French-somethingorother, I may have been happily indifferent to the charms of that first bowl. But I wasn’t. I was smitten. I’d taken a chance on something wholly other than my square, stolid diet and been rewarded. I tagged along with my Dad to Cincinnati’s International Folk Festival, selling little dragon flags and shirts at the Welsh Society booth so I’d be in close proximity to the food booths when my breaks came around. I spent my allowance money on those days studying the subtle distinctions between Cantonese, Vietnamese and Cambodian eggrolls. I shocked my sinuses with an unadvertised wasabi glob nestled in a dragon roll (and spent the next 10 years assuming all sushi was brutally spicy) and learned quite quickly that even if the cream cheese is an extra $.50, a dry bagel is indeed, no bargain. Despite any culinary missteps, I didn’t – and I don’t to this day – ever stop hoping that the next miraculous matzo ball, haggis, larb, souse, 'nduja or mangosteen is right around the corner. It may not be from my culture, but it feeds the ever-ravenous kid inside me. |
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I was always pretty willing to eat what I was given as a kid, although I obviously had preferences. It wasn't until adulthood that I ate Indian (my mother would make curry on Friday and give my brother and I something else), though, and my first experience with Chinese food nearly made me ill. Now, there's pretty much nothing I won't eat, even really crazy things. (On my general dislike list are pineapple and cheap hot dogs.)
My brother, on the other hand, wouldn't eat most foods without Tabasco or English mustard to hide the taste. There was hardly a thing he liked. Now, he's really into cooking–he cooks from scratch, even dinner rolls. He made his own wedding cake.
My mom was always open to new foods but we never had the money growing up to try too many new things. When I got older I constantly tried new foods and have found several favorites. Wild game is great (bear, venison) and I love seafood, even squid and gator are delish when they're prepared right. I work with several people from India and they have gotten me addicted to Indian food! Chicken biryani, tikka masala, and the sweets! Boori, boondi, galub jamun... yum!
My Baubie makes the best Matzo Ball Soup EVER. She always has a pot of it on the stove when we come over! If you have never had it before you need to experience one of the best foods in the whole world! :)
Kids are only picky eaters if you allow them to be picky eaters. Provide a variety early in life, and teach them to enjoy different foods. My mother presented us with dinner, and if we didnt want to eat it we didn't eat that night. Forced you to open your mind to new foods.
sushi all the way baby!
Gotta love how the photo is of Matzo Ball Soup. If you've lived ANYWHERE in the states where you had a "Jewish" deli, you've had Matzo Ball Soup. Of course, I am coming from a Jewish background, so that's a dish I grew (and still and growing) up with.
The only things that I don't like are liver, lake fish, and salmon. As long as something doesn't contain these things I'm game to try it. I always like trying something different.
No. I'm a boring eater. I'd never try... say... cicada ice cream or anything. Nope. All I eat is oatmeal. Not even any honey. Don't you know where that comes from?!
How can people prepare their foods from a box? Yes it's fast but why sacrifice taste and nutrition? Why sacrifice adventure!
When I was growing up there was always at least one home cooked meal a day and it was never the same food twice. It could be made with the same basic ingredients but it would he cooked a different way or spiced a different way. Oatmeal was a favorite of mine while growing up but my relatives who made it for me, each had their own special way! One even went so far as the use special fresh ground pepper corns in theirs, delicious. And there were so many variations on the families BBQ sauce and who had the best one. By the time I was 5 years old, there wasn't any kind of food I haven't tried or didn't like and because of the different ethnic groups in my family and the people I made friends with growing up, I've had the pleasure of sampling the best of the best from all around the world: Real Italian from a family of friends straight from Italy. Korean and other Asian ethnic foods from a family of friends with a background in nearly all of the Asian countries. Australian and New Zealand BBQ; Imported liquors, wines, brews, and spices; exotic meats, fruits, and veggies from places in Africa, India, and South America! Fish and seafood from all around the world.
And I learned so much from the foods too! Traditions that date back centuries! How to hunt, how to fish, and how to grow and gather my own fruits and veggies! I was spoiled on the knowledge of flavor full foods when I was a child and I'm happy to say that I'm passing on the tradition to my three year old who eats just about anything I make her, and not only that, I'm passing down the traditions my family passed on to me.
I was adventurous until developing severe food allergies. Now, I spend time considering various ways to make just a few ingredients interesting. Amazing what you can do with a little chicken, garlic, rice and cabbage! Everything from soup to egg rolls. . .Now I'm hungry.
You are very creative and I bet you have fun doing it too! =D That's the best part of being an adventurous eater, coming up with your own recipes!
Growing up, if it came out of a box, that was a home cooked meal.
Now I will try most anything–so far, I enjoy most everything except Korean food, and I cannot bring myself to try goat. Middle Eastern flavors are my favorite. Great article!
I didn't have an option to try out all the strange and wonderful flavors that I've come to love as adult. My dad was a meat-n-potatoes guy, and my mom cooked for his tastes...which were blander, the better. (I just chose not to eat meat at any point.)She also was not an adventurous eater. The flavors were simple and locally available out in the middle of Kansas during the 70's and early 80's. You can imagine the lack of variety. I had my first taste of Korean-Asian cuisine when I was out of college when my best friend dragged me to a little restaurant. I was hooked. Indian cuisine was next, and then Thai and Japanese and.... I can't say I've loved everything I've tried, but I love trying anything that's vegetarian. I suspect that if I'd had the options to try different things as a kid, I'd have had a lot of fun.
Homely is the same as homey in British English.
Excellent article. I have also enjoyed reading the comments. Adventurous eater here, raised by an adventurous cook.
I think you meant "homey" not "homely." Homely means not attractive. Homey means like home–comforting. Anyway–good article!
anything but american food
I didn't consider it adventurous eating, it was just what my mother cooked, and what my friends' mothers cooked. It wasn't till many years later that I discovered that some people grew up on a steady diet of hot dogs and PBJs, not an entire United Nations variety. While I'm "picky" in the sense that there are some things I refuse to eat, it's specific items (like kale or oysters) and not entire cuisines. I can find something in any ethnic restaurant that I'm willing to eat. Someone who happily eats smoked eel cannot possibly be described as a "picky eater"! :)
I grew up with varied cuisine and have always been adventurous when it comes to trying new things. My mother is Cajun and my father is Lebanese. It makes for some interesting meal combinations. My husband had little exposure to any food that may have been "different" (or not so different...had to introduce him to crepes, fajitas, smoothies) He was freaking out that he would not be able to eat the food when my father first invited him to a traditional middle eastern dinner. Now it is my husband's favorite food. He is also much more adventurous now and is willing to try most things.
According to the poll over 85% of people consider themselves adventurous. Let me just say that this poll is completely skewed, there is a good chance that the majority of adventurous eaters clicked on such a topic. I think real poll would show the exact opposite numbers. 85% of people could care less whether they eat at McDonalds or the sushi house next door. On a trip to Malaysia my main goal was to try durian fruit and I did. Did anyone in my group of some 30 Americans care to try it, not one! Malaysia was also my first time trying lychee. The Malaysian lychee is so amazing I shared it with everyone, but most did not care for it. So sad to live in a world full of the wrong 85%, I wish I could take this group with me next time.
Ryan, the readers here aren't representative of the population as a whole.
So matzah ball soup is a foreign flavor, but christmas cookies are an American staple??? What white bread Klan-entrenched enclave of the mid-American bible belt did this writer crawl out of?
At seven years old, that was exotic to her at the time. Lighten up!
Tasting Eritrean/Ethiopian food turned me into a foodie.
I tried foie gras at a party at my French prof's house once, and my life hasn't been the same since. For the record, though, since I was a child I've been known to eat everything from piroshki to barbecued goat.
I was raised in a bicultural household (Filipino and American), and that helped expand my palate as I became older. I was able to go abroad and be able to eat most of the local foods of the countries where I lived, worked, or visited. My palate, as you might guess, is most stimulated by Asian/SE Asian foods. I especially like Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and of course, Filipino foods. European foods are flavorful, but many are too heavy for my taste. But having been raised in a home in which many foods were cooked, my taste has been muddled. For example, I think peanut butter and jelly together are vile. And at Thanksgiving, I steer clear of sweet potatoes/yams and cranberry sauce, which my palate tells me should never be paired with turkey, or any meat for that matter. But for the most part, I will still eat virtually anything from all corners of Earth.
My father travelled frequently on business and would always come home and regale us with tales of the meals he had eaten in various parts of our country and Canada; he would seek out the local cuisine, be that someone's version of down-home southern cooking in Huntsville, Alabama, abalone steak at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, lobster on the coast of Maine, a good steak at George Diamond's in Chicago, or a Mexican-style meal in El Paso, Texas. And, while those were his favorites, he also enjoyed pierogies in Cleveland, bratwurst in St. Louis, Cantonese in New York, Hunan in Vancouver, and lutfisk in Minneapolis. "Every meal an adventure", he would say, and – much to Mother's distress (she would have been perfectly happy having some form of white meat chicken every night) – we would eat in out-of-the-way local places whenever we travelled as a family as well.
I'm proud to say I have followed in his footsteps.
That flat bread they make in the mid-east if fricken great and the meals they make out of lamb are good as well.
I am still searching for a good bowl of matzo ball with wonton soup. Please tell me if there is a Chinese restaurant that serves one here in NYC, Ha ha
perhaps you are confusing matzoh ball soup (knaidlach) with kreplach (jewish wonton soup – without port or shrimp of course.) i would imagine kreplach soup is much harder to find. my grandmother used to make both. i only make the knaidlach.
Yes. Thanks for the clarification :)
There are some delis in Calif. that serve MishMosh Soup. That's a matzah ball and a kreplach. You can't get much closer to a wonton than a kreplach. Mmmm
I was a fussy eater as a kid but now am a human garbage disposal. I will eat or try anything. There is so much out there that I don't want to miss. When I travel in the States I will go for local cooking and stay away from the chains. So many hidden gems all for the taking. Mmmmm....food!
When I was a kid I ate all the things that kids found gross. Like liver, vegetables, onions esp, grits, etc. The only thing I didnt like and still dont like is brussel sprouts. eeeewwwww
Foster, I used to hate brussels sprouts too – but no more. Cut them in half, put them cut side down in an oven-proof pan with some bacon drippings, heat until just a bit brown, then take the whole pan, shoot it into the oven, and roast, shaking occasionally until nice and brown all over. YUM! (Some put hot sauce on at this point – not my thing, but I'm told it's even better!)
As a child of the South in the 60's – with a working Mom...seems like all we ate was pinto beans, macaroni & cheese and fish sticks. When I was old enough (10-12?) and given the responsibility of cooking dinner for the family, I also served a lot of the same. I've branched out since then...I cook from many cuisines, married a French-Canadian and list Thai as my favorite ethnic cuisine. My husband is a strict bacon-cheeseburger man. As for the Matzoh ball soup, I haven't had any that was enjoyable; but will try it again!
So, Enough Already, if the conversation was about guacamole, then CNN is promoting Hispanics too much? If they were mentioning weinerschnitzel, then Germans or Austrians are being promoted too much by CNN? Dude, chill! You're seeing ghostly images and phantasms that aren't there. As Freud reputedly said: "Sometimes a cigar is...just a cigar!"
Jewish this, jewish that Further and deliberate ethnic promotion in the media (CNN is notorious). What are they trying to prove? Just plain silliness.
I don't think so. Read all these comments. Everybody having fun talking about food. Why are you so bitter?
Just that matzo ball soup is delicious. No agenda - just yumminess.
You apparently have a problem. That's really sad. Celebrate diversity instead of creating adversity.
"Celebrate diversity instead of creating adversity." That should be on a t-shirt. Perfectly stated, Tim!
Matzah Ball Soup is part of Jewish cuisine. What should it be called? Polish, Russian, German, Austrian, Hungarian, etc., etc. It probably originated in all of these places, in Jewish homes, so ease up a bit.
Hmmm. Since when is Matzoh Ball soup a foreign flavor? In NY its just slightly less popular than hot dogs.
But I didn't live in NY. I lived in Northern Kentucky and it was new and exciting and I was 7 1/2. Everything, even Cheerios, Snickers, potato chips and candy bars, are new to someone who hasn't had them before.
I have always like the cream-of-some-guy
Oh, sure. I used to eat cinder blocks, wood, car tires, cats, dogs, and other children. Sometimes I'd lie in a ditch outside the school until a really fat kid came by, and then drag him down by the ankles. Sometimes I'd knock him out and spread grout and paper clips all over him before digging in. Other times, I'd just eat him head-first, because you can't have all that screaming, now can you?
as a vegetarian, id try anythign vegetarian from any culture.
I was a picky eater as a child and still am. There is very little food that I enjoy. I wish I could be different. It's no fun going through life dreading having to go to someone's house for a meal and knowing that even though they're gourmet cooks, whatever they make is going to taste like crap to me.
Is there an original American flavor? I feel like I have no culture, unless you count pizza delivery and walmart, and we probably didn't invent pizza. Seems like all flavors are foreign.
Oh, and Rabbi Green and Jared, for shame!
The matzo ball is second-to-none in subtle flavor. The matzo ball is king. The two styles are chewy-hard and fluffy-light. Both styles are glimpses of paradise.
French cuisine has a dish called quenelles that rivals the matzo ball, but is presented as a sort of steamed flower sausage. Eat this, say the Romans, and Die Happy.
Anything ethnic, spicy and vegetarian! Grew up in a traditional European immigrant household and I got very turned off to cold-cuts, raw meat and other weird foods. My dad would try just about anything, he loved food. My mom was a great baker and spoiled us with torts, cakes and cookies.
I think I am adventurous, but at the same time I am a bit cautious. I love foods from all cultures, but you won't find me eating shark fin or a lion burger lol. I love Asian and Mediterranean cuisine. I also started developing a taste for French foods..
Ooooh, I forgot to mention Kool-Aid pie, with whipped cream... now I'm hungry :(
I starting making Japanese Nori rolls when I was 18. I didn't care much for typical north American staples; I wanted to try new things even as a kid. My most extreme cuisine must have been raw Sea Urchin. I was an honoured guest at a very expensive Japanese restaurant so I couldn't refuse. It smelled putrid, like really old socks and had a texture akin to phlegm. The other guests were raving about their freshness.
Love sushi, but not urchin. Octopus tastes fine but is rubbery. Magoro nigiri is my fave though.
Oh, Sea Urchin (Uni) ! Love it. It's equal to Caspian Sea caviar. Yummmm.
I've always been willing to try something new on the menu. As long as the protein involved was recognizable, I was game to at least try it.
My wife, on the other hand, was strictly chicken fingers, BBQ chicken, and cheeseburgers when we met. One of my favorite pastimes now is convincing her to eat new dishes. Now, she's the one suggesting Vietnamese pho, Afghani kabob, German wurst, and Indian curry (to name a few).
Life's too short to just stick to one thing. When a bad meal comes your way (and it will if you are willing to try new things) you can always pick up something at a fast food joint on the way home.
I have not tried matzo ball soup yet, but I will now... gefiltefish though, probably not. I like most foods, however unusual, but I can't get past the look or smell of that stuff. HUMMUS IS YUMMUS! Indian, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican, Pakistani, and many more... YUM!
Poppy's, crawdads, jumbalyia
LOL! I loved this story, and if I knew you, we'd be best friends lol
Mazal Tov
Great Story!
How can their be foreign flavors in a nation of immigrants?
I grew up on ketchup sandwiches and seafood. I didn't have pizza or Mexican until I was in college. Then I moved to Louisiana. Lord have mercy that was the best food I've ever had. I still cook gumbo and etouffee, but not as often – it's too good and I eat too much. Now, it's seafood almost every night, except for some Indian (chicken tikka masala) and Thai dishes.
Yup, Louisiana, or anything Cajun. Jambalaya baby!
That looks good, I thought it was some kind of Dim Sum dumplings...oh well, my saliva is running just thinking about those dumplings!
Standard American cooking - hamburgers, hotdogs, macaroni and cheese is pretty boring and fattening. We have incorporated so much from abroad in our cuisine, which we now call "American". There is so much in the way of wonderful food and flavors out there. We should be open to explore the wonders that this world has to offer. Great story!!!
Thai curry. Kang Ped. ..pure heaven.
I say this as a Jew, but really... chicken soup with what essentially amounts to a ball of bread? That's what you picked for "foreign cuisine?" Wow, you're really experimenting now.
I was seven and a half years old at the time. EVERYTHING was new to me!
You think Jewish food is exotic? You must've been living in a cave. In southern California, you can get almost any type of food regularly, I've had Chines (various variants such as Taiwanese, Cantonese, Hunanese...etc), Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, French, Italian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Ethiopian, Thai.....etc.
Its not like that in ohio.im from columbus and never have i seen any jewish cuisine like this.I didnt even have real sushi until i mived to cali!
*by real sushi i mean not bought in the mall for 5$
She said she was seven years old.
In most ways I was not adventuresome as a kid – it was a diet of Kraft dinner and frozen pizzas whenever I had my chance – but in some ways I was. I liked the hearts and gizzards of chicken most of all, always went right for the eyes when we had steamed fish, and ate a platter of locusts on trips to Asia on more than one occasion, as well as intestines and other organ meats. Wouldn't touch green or orange vegetables, though, and I was really weird about keeping things separate on the plate and avoiding certain textures. Now I eat everything (except cilantro and goat cheese).
I favour tasty flavours, wherever they are from.
Me too!
Honestly I hate matzo ball soup.... cant stand the stuff...
Mazzo ball soup done right has no peer!
pho
:) pot stickers
Mmmmmmmmm... :)
yum yum plenty...
matzo ball...yum yum plents!
Though I was raised on fairly standard American fare, I am convinced I was Asian in a previous life. To my taste, Asians have all the best food: sushi, all the different curries, kimchi. Everything else is boring by comparison. Sometimes food is so good it makes me almost cry.
dog, cat... you name it. yum yum yum :)
I was raised with the 'rule of 3' – i would take three bites of any food offered, I would eat those 3 bites, I was never allowed to make yucky faces. If it was offered again, and I didn't want any, I was permitted to say, "Thank you. I don't care for any more just now." If it's classified edible by a group of humans, I'm willing to try it. I may not go past the 3 bites, but I'm willing to try. My idea of traveling is to eat my way across the country! Picky eaters are missing a whole world of adventure!
I hear that and second it! My husband and I swear we go on vacation just to try the local cuisine. Who needs tourist meccas when instead you can spend vacation sampling hog jowls, shoo-fly pie, hoppin John, crawfish po'boys, Rocky mtn oysters, boiled bagels...and Matzo soup?!? (And no, I am not overweight!) Lol!
Well I do i eat indian food but love chinese food. mmmm..... yum
I love Chinese food, Thai food, Italian food, Mexican food...
larb...love love LOVE larb! my favorite thai dish!! =P
What kind of shit is that? Yack!
HEY!!
I guess I've never had a good matzo ball.
I was until I got to be about 19. Then a friend got me to go to a sushi bar and I loved it. I branched out from there and haven't looked back.
I was very picky. Only grilled cheese sandwiches when we went out to eat. I'm much better now, but have a terribly picky 6 year old. My hope is that he will outgrow it too.
I was back when I was a kid, but I didn't get a lot of chances to try things. Now, I have more opportunity!!
Does food from the Krusty Burger count?
If it involved getting a piece of cherry pie,then Yep I would eat it.
I was not...I spent the first few years devouring pb&j like there was no tomorrow.
H3llyeahIwas!!! Still am, too!