Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Yummy weeds
As some of you probably know, there are plenty of things growing out there which are edible but that most people ignore. What do you think the attraction to wild edibles is? Or, why aren’t people attracted to them and just stick with what they know? Do you think this is a trend which will spread from New York to, say, Europe or even Slovakia? Or are Slovaks already more in tune with this sort of thing than Americans? Do you yourself enjoy mushroom hunting or herb picking, or is it a waste of time or even dangerous? How adventurous are you as an eater or cook?
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Fairly “tasty” article, with a positive impact on the reader, it made me want to try such meals. This new trend (as some may call it) seems to be establishing in local markets and I understand it because for businesses it is very hard to survive as too much competition is out there. And people always want to try something new, and the stranger it is, the better. Therefore the customers are probably fairly attracted to coming to restaurants where they offer meals with such plants, perhaps they do it just out of their curiosity. These plants bring new flavours to us and so even the ordinary meals may have a delicious taste, if the right herb was used. However, the cook has to know these herbs as in forests also grow plants that may be poisonous. And that is, I think, the reason why people don’t do foraging for cooking themselves, they are afraid because of lack of their knowledge, which I believe most of the people living in towns have. And the other reason may be laziness, why should someone go for a walk in forests when there is so much entertainment at home (TV and internet)? And it’s also warm there.
ReplyDeleteAs the markets today are dynamic and flexible to changes, I expect not only that this trend will spread throughout restaurants around the world, but it may happen that some businesses will start to deliver these interesting plants into the shops where ordinary people can buy them and use them in their cooking. I would certainly do that, if I was given a chance.
My father’s friend is a herbalist, she goes in forest and picks herbs, but not for purpose of adding them to meals, but because some herbs have curative effects. And I have to say that it really works. Anyway, my point is that using herbs in cooking is something new, because if we imagine picking herbs we also imagine that the reason for doing that, which is that we can make a good tea if we are ill. As I said before, the stranger things are proposed to us, the more attracted we are.
I didn't know you could use dandelion greens or some lichen and bark as food, or to make a dish taste better. Most people use the usual spices such as oregano, black pepper etc. This article provides some tasty alternatives that sometimes grow right outside of our window. It's interesting to see that with the amounts of foreign spices and tastes, some cooks are turning to the plants that are closest to us. Personally, i'd definitely be interested in something like this if a restaurant that serves "wild" food opened up in Bratislava. It would be nice to try and taste something new. This kind of trend may spread to Europe and Slovakia, as Slovakia already has a "tradition" with gathering mushrooms and some wild fruits (like blueberries). We'll just have to wait and see...
ReplyDeleteOJO
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, although you could have mentioned that as with mushrooms, with every herb there comes a risk that we could pick the wrong one(if we were getting them from our garden or from some forest or something similar) because we're either not skilled enough to tell the difference or we just made a mistake. If this happens then it usually does not have such good consequences on our health. Otherwise I think that it's a pretty good idea as long as people get their herbs from trustworthy sources.
Maria Dudakova