Food thoughts

[oyceter]

My mouth is still recovering from the Korean food for dinner tonight. I think on the level of tolerating spiciness, I am somewhere in between -- not totally scared of it, but in no way able to eat Korean, Szechuan or Indian without having to run for bread or milk or rice or something.

I spent a great deal of time wondering why half the owners in the Korean restaurant spoke Japanese -- was it a Japanese-run place like all those Chinese-run Japanese restaurants? But then I heard someone speaking a language I didn't understand that sounded like Korean, so then I got more confused. Maybe they are Koreans from Japan.

We passed by an Afghan place but didn't end up eating there because it looked expensive. But I drooled over the menu. Maybe some other time...

Then the boy and I had a stupid argument over whether Greek food is European or not. The boy argues that it is because Greece is in Europe. I argue that it is not because from my very limited experience, it tastes more like Middle Eastern food (the lamb, the spices, the legumes). I was in full blown stupid argument mode and comparing it to language families.

I think I'll eat strawberries and Cool Whip now. Cool Whip is awesome. This is completely the boy's fault -- now that he has introduced me to Cool Whip, he has turned my healthy dessert/snack of fruit into calorie-ridden excess. But mmmmmm.

Comments

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I would've put it in Middle Eastern myself, but haven't had Eastern European.

I've had Thai that was vouched for by a woman who had spent time in Thailand eating the spiciest Thai she could find. I only had the middling-spicy version, which was at the thin edge of tolerance for me; the really truly spicy version probably would have dropped me dead on the spot. Yay rice.

I've been at Korean restaurants run by a combination of Koreans and Japanese. Or waitstaffed, anyway. Including a Korean-Japanese restaurant, mostly staffed by Koreans.

Could you recommend readings on trade routes? I've only read food histories that are very breezy, and economic histories that are horrendously dry, mentioning the subject.

[dherblay.livejournal.com]

I was thinking Bulgarian food, which I've only had once, but I remember as being spiced very Hellenisticly. Of course, Bulgaria has had cultural ties to Greece since Thracian times. And since it was at one point a Khanate, there's probably some Central Asian spicing intermingled. And certainly both the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires extended over the Balkans, wafting flavors to and from Constantinople/Istanbul.

I wish I could recommend readings on trade routes; I'm still looking for a great book on the Silk Road myself. I wish I knew more about Turko-Mongol-Tatar culture in general, as well as the connections between Istanbul and Xi'an, as I think they would probably go a long way toward upsetting my casual notions of "East" and "West." But until I find a suitable book, I'll content myself with learning through eating.

I'm sorry if I appear so forward as to have clicked the link to your user info page and then had my curiousity piqued enough to google, but you've written IF! I've been working on a long post bridging off of John Sladek's contributions to the genre and should have it on my journal in the near future.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

If you ever find a good reading, pass it on. :-)

Not forward at all--I look forward to seeing this post on IF.

[oyceter]

The most interesting trade route related restaurant I've been to is this Muslim Chinese restaurant in Cupertino. Apparently lots of them moved over around the Tang Dynasty (from a very fuzzy memory of a Chinese history lecture) and settled around the western border of China (at the time -- around Tibet?).

Big minority that I had no idea existed.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite restaurants in Beijing was a Muslim Chinese restaurant. They made this incredible lamb dish with a sort of crust/custard kind of thing on top.

There was (maybe still is) a whole street of Uigur restaurants near the zoo in Beijing--wonderful noodles chopped off a block of dough (I've seen the same in Tibetan cooking) and *baked* bread called Uigur Nan (round and flat, pricked with designs, wonderfully crusty)--and most of the restaurants had a blazing fire, out door tables, and a whole sheep carcass hanging by the door! Great lamb dishes there, but hardly related to Chinese. The owners/cooks literally went out into the street and dragged you physically to their tables! But they were so jolly and the food was so good that we kept going back.

[oyceter]

I love those noodles! I don't know if it's a Muslim Chinese thing or a Chinese thing, because a good number of places in Taiwan has them as well -- dao xiao mien and dao chieh mien (pardon the poor pinyin). I like the chewiness.

The place in Cupertino is famous for their bread, but I don't know if it's Uigur Nan or not. They're sort of like very doughy scallion pancakes. One version is about an inch or half an inch thick, covered with sesame seeds, with scallions baked in. Yum.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Yum indeed!Sounds very similar. Maybe those dao xiao mien and dao chieh mien. Is the name of the place Fatima--for my next visit to CA? (found it on Chowhound).

[oyceter]

Yes!! That's it! Ooo, if you come over, call me up! I will definitely take you there and feed you.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

My son is promising me a month in SF in an apartment he's having renovated, probably in the fall! If not, sometime this year. Both my sons live out there. Thanks so much--I'd love to meet! And eat! and talk about Chinese poetry.

My younger son BTW is studying Mandarin in Oakland at Laney--he wants to study Chinese traditional medicine, unless he's changed his mind lately.

[oyceter]

Oh awesome!!

Wow, that's really cool. I am rather baffled at Chinese traditional medicine; it'd be interesting to know more!