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Digging through cookbook db has me thinking, a random thread about midwestern food and taste.
Midwestern American food is and easy dunk these days. Tasteless, in more ways than one.
And I laugh and agree, only I don't at all.
And I wonder what we're using the midwest to dunk on, really, when we do this.
And I laugh and agree, only I don't at all.
And I wonder what we're using the midwest to dunk on, really, when we do this.
My dad grew up with bacon-umami, with plenty of horseradish and mustard for tang.
He also grew up with field greens, dandelion, fiddleheads, wild puffball mushrooms and morrells, and game that haute cusinaires pay humungous bucks for today as fine dining.
But we'll dunk on his mother's cooking them?
Well, we know what to call that. But we..don't?
But we'll dunk on his mother's cooking them?
Well, we know what to call that. But we..don't?
Oh it's the chili. It's the heat. Horseradish notwithstanding.
The chili.
I mean, my other grandparents so midwestern that their meetcute was at a soda fountain in Michigan doused every single thing with tabasco. You smoke that much you need a lot of chili to taste anything!
The chili.
I mean, my other grandparents so midwestern that their meetcute was at a soda fountain in Michigan doused every single thing with tabasco. You smoke that much you need a lot of chili to taste anything!
And ofc my family is so very white. And so we don't mean the midwestern eastern European food (paprika!) or the Scandinavian food (vinegar and horseradish!) or Mexican food (chili!) or Black American food (chili!) or...
well we know what to call that too. but we...don't?
well we know what to call that too. but we...don't?
(and ofc those are only immigration groups from the older waves. not the many Asian and Middle Eastern and African midwestern cuisines of the past 60 years.
We know what to call that too..but we.. don't?)
We know what to call that too..but we.. don't?)
Is it the cheese?
<holds cheese close, soothingly cooing 'it's ok. it's ok. they love you. they're just angry right now. it's ookaaay.'>
<holds cheese close, soothingly cooing 'it's ok. it's ok. they love you. they're just angry right now. it's ookaaay.'>
ahem.
Is it the casseroles? The can of soup-and-pasta-topped-with-chips? The jello?
Is it?
Is it the casseroles? The can of soup-and-pasta-topped-with-chips? The jello?
Is it?
bc we know that's all part and parcel of a very specific post-war American moment, in which prepared, packaged food was sold as a healthful, technologically advanced prize available to the citizens of the new global superpower.
That bland casserole tasted like victory.
That bland casserole tasted like victory.
It was the Jello of Global Dominance.
and it tasted like sugar and horror.
and it wasn't midwestern. It was American. (and very white too yes)
and it tasted like sugar and horror.
and it wasn't midwestern. It was American. (and very white too yes)
And so in this 2020 political moment when, as in every election, eyes turn inward and Midwest = America
but only when convenient bc no one's looking at Iowa on its post-derecho knees rn, we might pause to remember the Campbells Casserole that we love to hate as we love to hate the midwest. The midwest was already spicy in 1950, and America just gets more complex.
We're at a massive tipping point where the myths we've told about ourselves for so very long are eating us alive on a massive scale.
Crack out that horseradish. The real tradition of midwestern, and American cuisine, may be to fight back.
Crack out that horseradish. The real tradition of midwestern, and American cuisine, may be to fight back.
