funny food experiences [General]

2012 Nov 26
I just remembered a moment I had in a Loblaw's store at the beginning of the fall that comes back to me every once in a while. I was doing my regular shopping when I was approached (BTW, why is it always me? What am I, flypaper for freaks?) by 3 newly arrived Asian students who wanted to know what to do with potatoes.

How do you cook them?
How do you prepare them?
What do you eat with them?

Maybe I should have enrolled them in my new course: How to eat like you're from this country.

We chatted for probably 15 minutes right there in the produce aisle. It was really quite interesting and kind of fun. Imagine how you might have handled it. Where do you start? They were obviously interested in saving money and cooking at home, so I gave them a crash course in boiling, frying and even microwaving potatoes and what might be served with them. I even got an email from one of them a couple of weeks later letting me know that it was way easier than they had thought and a very versatile food.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

This message brought to you by the Potatoe Marketing Board.

2012 Nov 26
Back in university I once called random phone numbers asking how to roast a whole chicken, until I finally got someone who took me seriously and walked me through it. Don't recall why I didn't ask my mom - she must have been away on vacation or something.

2012 Nov 26
I was 17 when I moved to Ottawa for University and was living on my own. I came from a culture of canned vegetables, and one day I bought REAL carrots from the grocery store and had no idea how to cook them. I called a friend full of questions: How do I boil them? how much water? for how long? how big or small should I chop them?

And my first cooking experience was kind of funny too. When I was ten I cooked a chocolate cake from a mix for my parents' anniversary. The instructions on the box said to "Grease the pan" so I did - with a can of used frying oil that my parents kept for doing perch. I put about a 1/4" layer of fish grease on the bottom of the pan and poured the cake mix on top. My parents were impressed until they tasted it and shot a few looks back and forth. I was convinced I had made something tasty and didn't notice anything at all wrong with it.

2012 Nov 26
In University I moved out of residence into a shared town house with a few other guys in second year. We decided to rotate cooking duty. I decided to make pasta on my first turn since it seemed safe and I thought I knew the basics of it from watching my Mom at home. It turned out that the one thing I didn't know was that you should bring the water to a boil before putting the spaghetti in the pot. By the time the water came up to temperature, the spaghetti was one massive ball of 'gloop' sitting in the centre of the pot. Not the debut that I was looking for.

2012 Nov 26
Oooh, now you've got me thinking about how to tell people about potatoes when they've never really seen anything about potatoes.

Here are my initial thoughts on how to tell people about potatoes.

1) Potatoes come in different types: boiling and baking. Boiling are thin-skinned and usually look pretty clean; baking are thick-skinned and you need to scrub them a lot more to get the grit out. Start with the boiling ones.

2) Boiling potatoes need to be boiled, but don't stop there. Boil them and then pan-fry them. Boil them and then roast them. Boil them and then mash them with butter and/or cream.

3) Potatoes soak up flavour like nobody's business once they're cooked. Add an oil, add a spice, add some meat, add some vegetables. Who cares? It's awesome. Cook cook cook, yum yum yum.


2012 Nov 27
When did this become the I-LURVE-POTATOS thread?

;)

2012 Nov 27
One of the funniest viewer mails I ever saw on Letterman was way back in the mid 80s and it was from a guy in Halifax ...

Dear Dave,

I Like love potatoes

But the "Like" was crossed out

2012 Nov 27
I had no idea how to cook and eat beets and rhubarb when I came to Canada 12 years ago.
I didn't like cooking beets because it took so long to steam it and it stained my hands.
Rhubarb scared me because leaves contains poisonous substances.
But I like both of them now, my favourite food.