Interview with Chris Gondek on Harvard Press Podcast about my book The Omnivorous Mind.
Why humans are crazy for crispy
At any run-of-the-mill Japanese restaurant in North America, the menu features such traditional items as tempura, tonkatsu, and kara-age chicken. This crispy trio has long had an important place in Japanese cuisine. But it is surprising to find out that all three are cultural borrowings, some dating back to time periods when Japan went to great lengths to isolate itself from foreign influences. The batter-frying tempura technique (used typically for vegetables and shrimp) was borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese missionaries and traders in the 15th and 16th centuries. Tonkatsu is a breaded pork cutlet, a version of the schnitzel from Germany and Central Europe, which was added to Japanese cuisine probably no later than the early part of the 20th century. Kara-age originally meant “Chinese frying” and refers to deep-frying foods that have been coated with corn starch.Read more…
A recipe for working memory and brain health
Food preparation is a great form of brain exercise
Consider the apparently simple task of cooking two fried eggs, over easy. First, obtain two eggs. Then have some oil or butter ready to fry them in, and salt and pepper handy to apply when the eggs are cooked. Next, gather together all the cooking and serving ware that you will need: a non-stick pan, a spatula, and a plate for serving the eggs on and a fork for eating them. Place the pan on the burner and set it to high to warm the pan up, and then turn the heat down to low. Place a small quantity of the fat in the pan; while it heats up, swirl it around in the pan to cover the surface. Break the eggs into the pan. Watch them as they cook until the whites start to set. After a minute or two, but while the yolks are still runny, use the spatula to flip them over, taking care not to break open the yolks. Cook long enough for the surface of the yolk to solidify, but leave most of the yolk runny. Use the spatula to lift the eggs out of the pan and on to a plate. Season with salt and pepper. What could be more simple?Read more…
Why Is ‘foodie’ a dirty word (for some)?
I am not a foodie. Sure, I am an enthusiastic home cook, with more cookbooks than I or my family could possibly use (I have a low threshold that just one decent recipe justifies a cookbook). I willingly drive a little further to visit our local artisanal bakery or butcher shop. I have never been a joiner, but I have paid my dues to the Slow Food movement.
At one time or another, I have subscribed to all of the major cooking magazines. I have read lots of books and scientific articles on food and eating, which is understandable since I recently published a book on the cognitive evolution of food and eating. I have hurriedly rushed out into the garden on a cool autumn afternoon, ahead of the first hard frost of the season, to cut down several basil plants, and then spend the next couple of hours turning them (and a gallon of olive oil) into pesto for freezing.Read more…
The farmers market as mood enhancer
I have some friends who are mushroom farmers, specializing in fancier varieties such as shiitakes. They sell them wholesale to a variety of retail outlets and also to restaurants. Once in a while, they load up the delivery truck and sell the mushrooms at farmers markets themselves. When they first started doing this, they did not have much success. They thought they were offering them at a good price, discounted under what they would cost in the supermarket. When they looked around at what other mushroom farmers in the market were selling them for, they realized that they would have to make a price adjustment. So they raised their prices and did much better.Read more…
Food and memory
Not that long ago, at the counter of a gas station out in the country, something yellow and red caught my eye—it was a Bit-O-Honey candy bar wrapper. I had not had a Bit-O-Honey bar for nearly 40 years, having moved as a child from Bit-O-Honey’s midwest base to California. So I bought one. As I unwrapped and ate it, certain memories quickly came back to me: the difficulty of getting the inside wrapping paper off the sticky taffy, the little rectangles meant to be broken off one by one, the initial hard chewiness that always made me wonder if it was stale, and finally, the honeyed flavor of the taffy itself, offset by little bits of nut.Read more…