Better Ingredients, Better Eats
Ahh, the first sorta’ cool morning in a couple weeks!
This month has been a bit of a challenge as near-record heat scorched lots of our tender greens and tested the limits of our endurance. Maggie has been working 6 1/2 days a week at this since April 1st, and to watch so much effort wilt, bolt, or start to brown has been “challenging”.
This month, I have been taking an online class for my other job, and while informative, it has required about 3 hours a day for the last couple weeks–3 hours more sitting at a computer, watching a video, following along in a text, and writing lengthy responses. It’s not terrible, but for someone who looks forward to zen-like hours of mowing grass, pulling weeds, or picking veg, 3 extra hours a day at the computer gets to be tedious. It has also sapped my creative energies as my best, ahem, “bravo sierra”, was used to answer those essay questions.
We also have seen our old farmhand Jumping Jack deal with some health problems this month. Jack is long-since retired from his primary duties of chasing rabbits and barking at deer, but he still does his part by dropping “castings” in the backyard to fertilize the lawn. Jack seems to have rebounded a bit, but even from just a month ago, he seems to have lost a step. It’s no fun watching an old friend start to decline.
I took a ride to Chicago last weekend with a couple friends to watch the Cubs play at Wrigley Field–a classic ballpark, a lot of ghosts of legends past, a lot of history, a big party in the clubs surrounding the park.
One takeaway this small town guy got from a weekend in the big city is how much I love being on Wood Road. I think once getting back on Sunday evening, Maggie and I left on Tuesday evening to visit friends, but I spent the rest of the week at home–taking online classes, pulling weeds, doing my chores.
The other takeaway is a big city does not necessarily guarantee a great meal. Aside from a an Eggs Benny breakfast with Chorizo and Chiptole Sauce and topped with cilantro (but not quite enough cilantro), aside from that tasty breakfast at a downtown place called Yolk, the rest of the food was substandard. The prices were big city, but the quality was decidedly truck-stop.
When discussing it with my personal chef (and wife!), I think we agreed the difference is almost always INGREDIENTS. I am admittedly not much of a cook, but I know what tastes good. Even the simple salads and sandwiches I throw together in the kitchen are more palate-pleasing than the $15 “meals” I ate solely because I needed some sustenance. Why? Because my greens are super fresh, my tomatoes are picked when they’re ripe, not when they’re green. My veg is not a week-old in a supermarket–but just minutes or hours out of the garden. I don’t chintz on the olive oil or the basil or the parmesan, either. We don’t buy bland, tasteless bread, either.
Why is it that restaurants are so stingy with the herbs, the spices, the sauces? Why don’t they insist on the freshest bread and an extra splash of olive oil? Are margins that slim that an extra dash of oregano, an extra teaspoon of marinade, or an extra a pinch of spice can’t be spared? If so, serve me LESS food with MORE flavor. Great food sates the appetite, bad food leaves you looking for more.
Or.. Raise your prices! Charge me an extra dollar for the flavor! I’ll pay it!
I can’t believe I ordered fish tacos for $17, and they were dry and mostly tasteless–I had to resort to some salt and pepper and some mustard and Tabasco that were on the table to add some complexity. Again, I can’t cook much of anything, but what restaurant owner, what chef, who in the business of providing people with a good meal would eat that meal and say, “That’s really good!”? I get better tasting eats at most backyard potlucks from people with no culinary training!
I’m spoiled. I know. Not only do I have a personal chef (Maggie) who deserves at least 2 Michelin stars, but we also have access to the best ingredients: those often grown a few dozen feet from our table.
The other night, we went out to a restaurant serving grilled corn on the cob. The husk looked to have the appropriate level of browning from the grill, but the corn was essentially tasteless–clearly it wasn’t picked that day or the day before or the day before, but very likely a week before and shipped hundred of miles–all the while the sugars in the corn are turning to starch so that Maggie and I could eat a starchy, not sweet, ear of corn. That restaurant needs better INGREDIENTS, not a new chef. Gordon Ramsey himself couldn’t save that corn–it should end up in a slop bucket.
Well, the heat has been getting to me and poor restaurant meals have been on my mind. I guess we’ll stay home even more. Suits me fine. We’ll enjoy our great veg and hope the always-challenging weather doesn’t completely discourage us.
Stay cool. Eat fresh and local.
Justin
