Week 43

One thing that I think could be really cool and fun to put out into the world would be a place where you can see how people make their version of a dish. I cooked a ratatouille this weekend after a long time. I learned the general recipe of a ratatouille from a French guy I knew long back whose family was from Provence (where the dish originates). The one I know—the traditional one—is more of a stew. The ingredients are fried individually and then combined during the hydration process. It is not the layered dish from the movie. It is not baked, either. That’s an adaptation of the traditional ratatouille called confit byaldi, first created by Michel Guérard and then later popularised by Thomas Keller of The French Laundry. I routinely find myself making this distinction to people and find myself having the exact same conversation each time as the one I had with my french friend who told me, in no uncertain terms, that those are not the same dishes. So anyway, I’m now bound with this eternal curse to carry on making this distinction for the rest of my life.

Another discussion I had once was around paella. I learned from someone (there is a pattern here, I know) a recipe for paella that was Dominican, with annato seeds for that red hue and Chorizo as the meat base. I hadn’t realised this version was strictly Dominican, and that it could be made with or without shrimp, but not usually anything else. Then one day when I excitedly described this paella recipe to someone who knew about paella from Valencia, Spain (which is where Paella originates from), I was made aware, again in no uncertain terms, that one: paella without at least 2-3 different kinds of seafood did not count as a paella; two: I had no idea what I was talking about. What I think this person failed to register was that a dish can travel with a people and evolve over time, or even if it doesn’t travel, two cultures can use similar names to describe their own versions of a dish. Case in point: the uncouth that try occasionally to redefine veg pulao as veg biryani (sorry, not happening).

It got me thinking, won’t it be cool to be able to click on a map somewhere and be shown the recipes of that region? Like a seafood paella made by Valencians in Valencia is probably still quite different from a seafood paella made by Valencian immigrants who moved decades ago to Argentina or the USA? With differences in local availability of ingredients and financial and other resource constraints, food has probably evolved over time as well. It could be such a simple and authentic way to understand culinary differences across regions. If I had not been made aware that my paella recipe that I had learned was absolutely wrong, I probably wouldn’t have looked up which culture or cuisine did it the way I did. I had figured, “this is paella”, when it was really just, “this is Dominican paella and whoa there are like 50 other variations”.

I kind of really want to build this, but if you, reader, know of any such sites/resources, please send them my way.

🥘 Food

• Paneer Kishti

📚 Reading

• Why are we so tired all the time?
• Travel is No Cure for the Mind
• We talked and then
  we went to sleep and I dreamt
  I had to leave-

💿 Listening

• Have You Ever Seen The Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
• What’s Up? - 4 Non Blondes