Core Foods
My former boyfriend called the food that is part of the daily life of most people core foods. We often talked about how what is American core food changed dramatically in our life times.
When I was in college, I had my first taste of yogurt and bagels were available only in college towns or in Jewish neighborhoods. My family loved when I brought back bagels from Ann Arbor or from northwest Detroit. Now, bagels are everywhere as are tacos.
Detroit was a late comer to the pizza market. The first pizzeria in my area opened in the mid-1950s and my mother was nervous the first time she cooked spaghetti, thinking it was mysterious and complicated.
That was despite a large Italian population in my area. As the main ethnic groups were Irish, Polish and Italian and as Michigan had once been so markedly German that during the Civil War, soldiers orders were posted in German as well as in English, it would seem that the foods of these groups would have been more prevalent. They weren't although saurkraut was a staple.
Families ate liver either with onions or bacon as a regular part of the food rotation and families like mine, that were part Polish and part Irish, had corned beef but also golbkis, pierogis and babka.
I never liked golbkis but I had some at a Polish deli during my move from Boston to Western Mass and they tasted better than I would have admitted while growing up. My ex hated them and hated liver -- a childhood fav of mine -- so I hadn't prepared either in 30 years. In fact, I never made globkis.
I did recently, during the same week I cooked liver, from a local farmer whose beef is grass fed. My 25 y/o son who moved in with me had never had either. He said the purpose of Polish cuisine is to reduce cabbage to an unslightly, unappealing, inedible mass. He likes cole slaw made with purple cabbage.
So, what is your experience with core foods? What do you enjoy now that you never had as a child? What is missing from your diet that wish you could include?
When I was in college, I had my first taste of yogurt and bagels were available only in college towns or in Jewish neighborhoods. My family loved when I brought back bagels from Ann Arbor or from northwest Detroit. Now, bagels are everywhere as are tacos.
Detroit was a late comer to the pizza market. The first pizzeria in my area opened in the mid-1950s and my mother was nervous the first time she cooked spaghetti, thinking it was mysterious and complicated.
That was despite a large Italian population in my area. As the main ethnic groups were Irish, Polish and Italian and as Michigan had once been so markedly German that during the Civil War, soldiers orders were posted in German as well as in English, it would seem that the foods of these groups would have been more prevalent. They weren't although saurkraut was a staple.
Families ate liver either with onions or bacon as a regular part of the food rotation and families like mine, that were part Polish and part Irish, had corned beef but also golbkis, pierogis and babka.
I never liked golbkis but I had some at a Polish deli during my move from Boston to Western Mass and they tasted better than I would have admitted while growing up. My ex hated them and hated liver -- a childhood fav of mine -- so I hadn't prepared either in 30 years. In fact, I never made globkis.
I did recently, during the same week I cooked liver, from a local farmer whose beef is grass fed. My 25 y/o son who moved in with me had never had either. He said the purpose of Polish cuisine is to reduce cabbage to an unslightly, unappealing, inedible mass. He likes cole slaw made with purple cabbage.
So, what is your experience with core foods? What do you enjoy now that you never had as a child? What is missing from your diet that wish you could include?
posted
by Plainoldme
