Food Purism? [Food/Vendor]

2011 Jul 11
Some recent incidents have made me think about purism as it pertains to enjoyment of food. I would call myself a food purist because I tend to appreciate the classics.

Examples:
* Poutine - Fries, cheese curds, gravy. Other toppings may spoil it.
* Hamburgers - Lettuce, tomato, cheese, bacon... they're popular because they're good!
* Cheesecake - New York style, topped with whipped cream and maybe berries. Please don't put anything into the batter other than cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla!
* Crème Brûlée - Vanilla, maybe a little citrus.
* Ice Cream - Vanilla, maybe cookies'n'creme.
* Doughnuts - Don't be too clever (maybe this is why I was underwhelmed by NYC's Doughnut Plant?)
* Chocolate - I love to eat chunks of it, but tend not to like it as an ingredient (with some exceptions, like Nanaimo bars).
* Martinis - Nothing really beats gin, vermouth, and olives.

Restaurants often try to differentiate themselves by serving eclectic twists on a traditional dish, often sacrificing quality for diversity. Hamburgers are probably the best example. Why offer it with peanut butter and sliced avocado if the patty and bun aren't all that great?

The really good restaurants are able to take a perfected classic and embellish it to make it unique -- I have no problem with that! What bothers me is when the essence of perfection that has made the dish a classic is somehow lost along the way.

2011 Jul 11
I'm extremely orthodox in my cooking. My body is no temple and I'll eat anything served to me, but I have absolutely no interest in putting my own spin on classic dishes. I've often described my cooking style as calculated execution that completely lacks creativity. If a grandmother, somewhere, doesn't make it I'm not all that interested in making it either.

I like Mario Batali's line - "Nobody wants to be the guy to add cilantro to a risotto." If I see kimchi tacos, cap'n crunch hotdogs or jerk chicken pasta on a resto menu I steer clear.

There are of course a few geniuses who can truly develop new approaches and certainly many famous cuisines are the result of hybridization, but those types of people are extremely rare in my estimation - very few resto chefs or gifted home cooks are likely to transcend hundreds of years of culture...but at the same time I can appreciate how some people find that outlook extremely conservative and far too restrictive.

2011 Jul 11
I don't really call that "purism" but rather "simplifying". There is no need to make something all-singing, all-dancing when simpler is usually better. This goes with one of my basic philosophies "just because you can, does not mean you should"

2011 Jul 11
I like new flavor combinations: the so called "Thai" pizza is one of my favorites. But the quality has to be there first, and I really hate when they combine things just to see how they turn out. I ate at a bad hotel restaurant in San Diego once and was cheerfully informed by the server that "today's enchiladas are enchiladas provencal"

2011 Jul 11
Almost every culture has a flatbread or pancake type thing.

Pizzas are a Mediterranean dish, probably going back to the Roman Empire or older (all the way around the Mediterranean from Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Egypt, Libya, Morocco . . .).

We only think pizza is Italian because they introduced it to us first. It's just as much Lebanese, for example, and I actually like Lebanese pizzas more. Anyway, the toppings were traditionally leftovers. It's like congee, or fried rice, or shepard's pie - a way of using up leftovers. Anything goes. And they do taste better the next day . . . humm . . . perhaps because of starch retrogradation?


2011 Jul 11
It's not necessarily about food purism just having a respect for tradition.

2011 Jul 11
Well, it could be that. It could also be you are so used to having it a specific way that you are used to it, so eveyrthing else tastes weird, and non-enjoyable.

For me, I'm a purist about the meat sauce on my pasta. It must be tomato based, with basil, cilantro, parsley with parmesan and ground beef. I don't know why.

2011 Jul 11
I sometimes think that fancy spices, variations of classic flavours and trendy ingredients are used to distract from the overall quality of ingredients. The greatest pleasures in life for me, gastronomically speaking, are often the simplest ones - freshly baked sourdough bread, olive oil poured over heirloom tomatoes and organically grown basil, pasta hand-made at home. On my travels, I have had probably the most memorable food of my life in the poorest countries.

2011 Jul 11
i'm not a purist. i have no love for molecular gastronomy though. i can't wait for that phase to end.

2011 Jul 11
Yeah, I'm with HFF on the molecular gastronomy thing - and sous vide ( sorry Francis :-) )

2011 Jul 11
I love molecular gastronomy. Mainly because I'm a major geek/nerd and it's so cool!
\

Weird too, but cool.

I blame Heston Blumenthal.

2011 Jul 11
I am such a purist I like my french fries with salt only. As a child I did not like the meal my mom frequently made with the leftover roast beef. It was french fries with leftover gravy and bits of roast beef-no cheese though!First halfway venture into poutine in the early 70's, not in Ottawa Valley! My whole family love poutine but to me its like leftovers. I spent the first half of my life without poutine and I can't grow close to it.
As for purism, I really do not like tomato sauce with cinnamon-especially on pizza or lasagna. And pepperoni in lasagna?
I can't eat processed cheese so can't comment on cheesecake. Having said that my first migraine happened after eating a piece of chocolate cheese cake. Haven't eaten cream cheese in years and only the odd bit of chocolate. How much of this purism is psychological-more than I care to admit in my case!
Again, as a child I liked my food tastes seperated-didn't like stews or casseroles. This has changed and I embrace food such as beef bourgignone(sp?, chicken cacciatore, sheperd's pie, paella, goulash,gumbo.
I do find I like the old comfort meals "purist". IMHO a Sunday night roast dinner should have roast meat of whatever, potatoes (roasted, mashed or boiled), gravy or au jus of some sort, 2 kinds of vegetables and salad of some sort. NOW-if its a Sunday night meal of some ethnic food-no problem.
As for purism-just had a baked potato with butter, grilled chicken leg with salt and pepper and steamed beans. It was delicious!
Some things are better pure but I think its the time/place/company that are the deciding factor!
Back when I had a digestive system that could handle ice cream vanilla was my favourite!

2011 Jul 11
Cooking and chemistry are so very similar. A lot of professional chemists are also into being chefs. I'm not a chemist but I like fiddling with anything complicated and detailed, deconstructing it and seeing how it works.

That said, I suspect most people simply like the foods they grew up with. Take any baby . . . raise it in Japan and it will probably like natto, raise it in Australia and it will probably like vegemite, raise it in North America and it will probably like peanut butter.

Then there are personality types - some people are bored easily and are novelty seeking, others are the opposite. I'm definitely bored easily and if it's unusual, I'll definitely want to try it. Less into the adrenalin stuff as I get older, but definitely into new experiences.

Another factor is we get used to the recent past in foods. I recently had Alaskan King Crab (gave some to the baby skunks) and I found it incredibly salty. My wife has slowly been cutting down salt in our food, a trend which I guess I'm resisting . . . but surprisingly it worked (like slowly boiling a frog). The last time I had Alaskan King Crab like that, a few years back, it was not salty at all.

Since going mainly vegan steak tastes absolutely revolting. I used to like them before. I suspect "aging" is just another word for "rotting" as far as beef is concerned, and we have genes from our scavenger past on the African grasslands, that make us fond of rotting meat. We could use firebrands, flaked stones and spears to drive off vultures, hyenas, and even lions, then chow down on some maggoty rotting zebra carcass . . . yum, yum (wouldn't that make us sick? Ahh, but we could also use fire to sterilize the meat). But these genes seem to get turned off if we give up eating meat for a long enough period of time. I'm sure if I forced myself to eat steaks I would reacquire the taste for them again.


2011 Jul 12
Interesting topic!

Reminded me of one really strange attempt at a new pastry I tried.

A few months ago I went to Rideau Bakery (bank st store) and I always get a piece of baklava when I go there.
That time the girl working there informed me that they made some with nuts,chocolate chips and cinnamon or something like that.
Bought some anyways- and it was not that great.

I'm thinking maybe they ran out of nuts and tried something else.
I have only seen rideau bakery do this strange pastry once.
Their regular baklava w walnuts is very good.

There is also a bakery I go to downtown and they decided to make punkin coconut macaroons- interesting idea but they do not have that much pumpkin taste...they should maybe stick to coconut or coconut and chocolate.

I like trying new food combinations,but also like a lot of traditional dishes.
depends I guess.

Another thing I don't care for is the bacon in everything trend.
Bacon in ice cream,chocolate,cupcakes? not really.

Bacon in scones,quiche or pizza..yum!
The bacon I buy is made with real maple syrup...so it is not the sweetness thing.

2011 Jul 12
PrettyTasty,

Bacon stuff from thinkgeek.com:

www.thinkgeek.com

2011 Jul 13
The cupcake one might be neat...

I actually used to have licorice tasting toothpaste- the Tom's of maine has a Anise toothpaste-just like black licorice!

I have a lemon toothpaste right now- it tastes just like lemon peel.
It might be made by Boiron not too sure.

There is also some brand I saw on a spa website I shop at that is popular in Japan- they have 25 flavors like Cola, chocolate,herbs ect...
I'll try and post when I find the brand. I remember the tubes were white with numbers on them and you could buy a set of flavors...

2011 Oct 2
being from a multicultural family (chinese, jamaican and irish), pretty much all the foods i grew up with were "fusion". my mum is chimaican (a jamaican of chinese descent... slavery on the island was not strictly africans). so alot of her recipes are chinese with jamaican influence. our nanny was jamaican and lots of times she cooked. my granny is irish-jamaican, so...... and da was cantonese and a chef and cooked on sundays. while i have learned and cooked ALOT of traditional cuisines, i feel i have a deft hand at blending well a few of them... i try to limit to 3 at a time LOL. people that frequent the resto i chef at seem to enjoy it. i do warn you, if it is labeled thai, jamaican, jerk, szchuan/sichaun, moroccan or mexican, do know i will bring the heat. no whinners allowed :D

2011 Oct 3
Chef Obi, now I need to try your cooking. Which restaurant?

2011 Oct 3
If his profile is up to date:

Chef and foodie (for the last 3 years and currently employed by Cafe L'Ange)
L'Ange Cafe

2011 Oct 3
"Cider" versus "Hard Cider" versus "Apple Juice"

Discuss :-)

2011 Oct 3
What you people call cider isn't, at least not in the UK.

Apple juice = the juice of apples.

Cider = the alcoholic fermented juice of apples, usually refined as all hell, stuffed full of sugars and sold as crap like Magners or Strongbow.

Scrumpy = the alcoholic fermented juice of apples sold from people's sheds, served cloudy and without pointless additives, usually strong enough to cause temporary blindness after four pints.

2011 Oct 3
actually over 4 years now LOL. OOOOOOOOOOh SCRUMPY! hhhhhhhmmmmm hhhhhhmmmmm good! max 2 pints for me... the range of sugar plus the alcohol causes me temporary amnesia as does Mead LOL