It’s a beautiful week for a party. I hope you were all able to mark this occasion with some fun activities and some excellent food.
Speaking of food, lately I have been travelling down sentimental road and looking up some of the 70’s party fare of my youth. I know lately the food trends are ‘farm to table’ , ‘organic’ and ‘hipster craft-y’ but those crazy mini-marshmallow inspired, maraschino cherry dotted confections from every backyard potluck BBQ have my mouth watering for those comforting, if not questionably healthy, flavours of the past.
I am not a food snob, I will eat just about anything and I am especially fond of anything made by someone else. Still I am inspired by food trends and fads and I have tried re-creating a few more adventurous recipes over the years. But, here’s the thing, by the time you source the ingredients, gather the required utensils and odd cooking gear (I am looking at you pizzelle-maker) you might as well have just gone to the restaurant or bought the finished product at the specialty store.
So now I tend to stick to the simpler fare; slow roasted pork carnitas, beef pho, tagines… for me, it’s all about learning the key ingredients in an ethnic flavour profile and since many of the really popular items are taken right from the streets or grandmas of the world, I realised these dishes are just global comfort food and that brings me back to the tuna noodle casseroles, three bean and ambrosia salads of my childhood. I wondered if it was possible to pimp up these retro dishes and re-release them to the next generation of family food-lovers.
In a nutshell, well the jury is out. I think part of the allure of those traditional dishes are the illicit ingredients. Some of us harbor a secret lust for cool-whip out of the tub, squeeze cheese on celery, radio-active hued cherries and well, Spam. (you think I am joking? look how popular spam sushi is in Hawaii)
You can micro-green, liquid-nitro or sous-vide your fancy grass fed, Himalayan, chia crusted, single source proteins all you want but sometimes you can’t mess with the classics, even if it does come out of a can.
Now if you’ll excuse me there is a slice of jello pudding pie calling my name.