I don't know if it's the atmospheric climate or the economic climate, but I have noticed a shift in food.Food presentation. Food combination.
Food is nowadays a bowl or a plate of foodlets, mingled together. Not tethered with sauces. Not roasted stand-alone meats.
You got your farro salad. Your chunky, random pasta. Your beans and veg.
All just strewn across a plate or huddled in a bowl.
Gone, it seems for now, are the sculpted confections, the engineered arrangements, the precious, tedious plating.
What a way to eat. Pressure's off. Cook your nice ingredients, and then eat them. Together.
This was a "potato salad," inspired by Heidi's new book (the picture showed there were peas; we didn't follow the recipe but peas sounded good).
There's a Japanese deli in the San Francisco Ferry Building. I've cruised the cases there a couple of times, but always ended up feeling urpy when I came upon the mashed potatoes with vegetables punctuating it. All the rest of the food looks good; random minglings of foodlets. The reason my potato salad doesn't look urpy is because it's not mashed.
Ideas: Just throw in chopped pickled eggs, cooked peas, chopped celery, sliced leeks (raw), olives... Whoa, I didn't even add all that. Vinaigrette, then toss and serve.
I really like easy, messy, aggregate food! Recipe completely optional.
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27 comments:
That salad looks incredible! I have to admit that I love the Delica wasabi tater salad. I recreated it with moderate success.
http://lifesapicnic.blogspot.com/2007/05/little-inspiration.html
I like your idea of the peas to add a nice fresh,sweet taste.
Greg: Your taters look wonderful. And not mashed; I think that's key. Wow, wasabi!
Wooo, wasabi potato salad?? Yes please. I made wasabi coleslaw this past week. Perhaps this is going to be the summer of the wasabi (makes a great bloody mary too!).
CC, have you tried the baked oatmeal recipe from Heidi's book yet? Every food blogger and their dog seems to be typing/tweeting/instagram'ing it...
We have a little sun! I better go mow my lawn, eep!
Pots: I know, doesn't that sound good? I'm still weaning myself from kimchee juice all over everything. I love wasabi. (A whole tube?)
Haven't tried the oatmeal. Y'know... kinda don't want to. Though I guess I could take the technique and turn it into lemon bars or something (help me out).
Enjoy your sun... we got none here. :(
Wasabi in potato salad sounds really good, in small doses. A friend of mine swears that wasabi will start a car engine on a cold morning in Alaska - I think he's right. But, oh, the flavor!
Zoomie: It's also good in mashed potatoes (warm). Now's probably not the time to tell you that most of the wasabi in the US is just domestic horseradish, tinted green. Sad.
Still, right up the nose! :)
I may never have had the real deal, then, unless the Hawaiian Japanese community has an "in" with the growers. That's okay with me, I still enjoy the flavor and the clear sinuses.
Zooms: I like it too, fake and all. You can actually buy fresh real wasabi root in Japantown, but it's expensive and you'd have to use it soon. Wanna go in on some?
Go watch these, go on :) http://www.quay.com.au/page/inspirations1.html
Mouse: Wow, that's the shizz! Good god, what fun to watch the tweezers and all. Pretty, really, but we're eating rough over here.
Mouse: By the way, you been to Quay?
Ms Mouse, that's amazing to watch - the man is truly an artist. I especially loved the raspberry and violets dessert. Thanks for sharing - that's wonderful!
I think I'll stick to the fake stuff, thanks. I don't use enough of it to warrant a trip to Japantown.
Zoomie: Me, too. I guess I've never known otherwise, so I know what I know. Still. Might like tirades the real thing.
Tirades???
Autocorrect, fuck you.
I meant "to taste."
Yes, I'd like to taste the real thing, too, but not enough to actually go buy the root and mash it up to make my own. Just lazy and, who knows?, maybe some will happen into my path some day. I'm lucky that way.
I would probably do it more as a lemon custard sort of thing. Maybe sub flour in for oatmeal. I think you'd need to play with the ratios a bit tho - like more eggs to get it to gel. But a vanilla-y lemon custard layered with fruit sounds mighty tasty! I might need to acquire some lemons now..
I have not been to The Quay Cookie, but guess where I'm going for dinner Wednesday week? Can you? :D
Pots: Yeah, oatmeal seems so heavy for lemons. I knew you'd have ideas, though. Will you come and live with me?
Mouse: Unimaginative as I am, I'm thinking you're going to Burger King. Oh, was I wrong? :)
(Is the cat pen on schedule?)
Not Burger King (called Hungry Jacks here), no.
Cat pen is not going to make it in time :(
CC, my SO is rather attached to me, but under the right circumstance he might be willing to do a short term lease ;-)
Mouse: I KNOW where you're going for your birthday dinner! Oh, what fun. I hope it's perfect. Bring a pair of long tweezers and rearrange your food. That'll mess with them.
Pots: Truth is, we don't have a guest room, so you're much better off with loving SO. But I'm pouting.
Only you would think of rearranging the food at Quay! I laughed out loud at the thought.
Nothing wrong with good ole horseradish!! Brightens up your day!..meal..nostrils.
Lynnie: Yeah, it's like medicine! I love it. I even grated some of my own, fresh, once. Nearly went blind from the fumes.
Who needs pressure? Not me. This looks like what my husband calls one of my "fabulous bowls". I'm all about food "huddled in a bowl."
Denise, thank you! It is nice eating, after all. Oh, I had forgotten the term "bowls." Hah!
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