I'm hardly a gourmet when it comes to either cooking or eating. But I do know enough about Italian cooking to know things are more than what they seem:
- If you order calamari, you get a flash-fried appetizer. The next day, you can go to a bait shop down near Fisherman's Creek and get a container of squid. It's the same fish, just not breaded and fried.
- If you order polenta, you're going to pay for a lot more than you will at breakfast the next morning, when you order grits and get the same thing.
- Same deal at a a Mexican eatery...if you go to "El Plato Grande" and order pozole. If The Big Plate serves breakfast, try the hominy.
Everyone loves calamari and everyone fishes with squid. But how about rice?
I love rice, because the concept of having thousands of something for dinner is pleasant. However, the Italian version - risotto - was all the big deal just a few years ago. Supermarket shelves just above the Rice-A-Roni were bulging with vacuum-packed bricks of risotto, which has grown in Southern Italy since the 14th century. It's a very starchy roundish, medium- or short- grain white rice that takes a little more time than the standard white rice, and it gets all sticky when cooked, and it's really great to toss with meat or shellfish or veggies or cheese.
It looks like I know about risotto, but one thing I don't know about it is where to buy some!
If you Google risotto, you can see that it reached its peak in the US around 2008, judging from when all the articles on it and recipes with it were put out there. But I ran out of risotto the other day and have been to three supermarkets around here and can't find it.
It's been replaced with quinoa, for crying out loud. Quinoa.
At least people can say "risotto," but 1/2 the people who buy quinoa ("Keen-wah") call it "Kwin-oh-uh."
Maybe I should try teff, spelt, bulgur or farro.
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| Try the risotto! |
I love rice, because the concept of having thousands of something for dinner is pleasant. However, the Italian version - risotto - was all the big deal just a few years ago. Supermarket shelves just above the Rice-A-Roni were bulging with vacuum-packed bricks of risotto, which has grown in Southern Italy since the 14th century. It's a very starchy roundish, medium- or short- grain white rice that takes a little more time than the standard white rice, and it gets all sticky when cooked, and it's really great to toss with meat or shellfish or veggies or cheese.
It looks like I know about risotto, but one thing I don't know about it is where to buy some!
If you Google risotto, you can see that it reached its peak in the US around 2008, judging from when all the articles on it and recipes with it were put out there. But I ran out of risotto the other day and have been to three supermarkets around here and can't find it.
It's been replaced with quinoa, for crying out loud. Quinoa.
At least people can say "risotto," but 1/2 the people who buy quinoa ("Keen-wah") call it "Kwin-oh-uh."
Maybe I should try teff, spelt, bulgur or farro.
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