My Culinary Life

Although I was born and mostly raised in the Midwest, many years of my young life (think age 10 and younger) were spent on or near the Pacific Ocean:  Coronado, CA; Honolulu, HI; Sasebo, Japan.  These were the years that my father was on active duty in the USNR during peace time, when the family could be with him at his duty stations.

There I was, with all of the edible fruits of the sea available to me, but I was a kid.  I didn't like fish because we rarely had it in the Midwest.  I refused to eat crab or lobster or shrimp or oysters or anything else that was unfamiliar to me.  Tuna was okay.  Because we were, basically, a Midwestern farm family, I knew chicken, turkey, beef, and pork--and all of the organ meats that come from the whole poultry/beef/pork food group.  I knew vegetables of everything growable in the Midwest because, when not on active duty, my dad always had a garden, wherever we lived.  What I didn't know was fish/shellfish, or anything exotically veggie-like, and I didn't care to try them, thankyouverymuch, because I was suspicious of them.  Oh, how I wish I had those years to live over again!

For many, many years, I have tried to think of foods that my mother wouldn't eat.  Farm girl that she was, she ate everything!  I don't know of a single food she turned down!  Raw oysters?  Pickled pigs' feet?  Kidney?  Tongue?  Heart?  Liver?  Limburger cheese?  Buttermilk?  Caviar? Shrimp/lobster/crab/scallops/octopus/squid?  I was exposed to it all because, although I wasn't forced to eat it, my mother considered all of them a culinary treat.  Even my dad--hungry man that he always was--drew the line at cucumbers and bananas.  (He claimed that banana seeds always got caught in his teeth.)

Having lived in Japan for almost a year, I claimed knowledge of Japanese food, until I realized that I didn't.  My exposure to Japanese food was sukiyaki and omocha, and some huge white carrot-looking vegetables in the open markets that were, I guess, horseradish.  Oh...and sake, although I was too young to drink it.  The experience is sooo much more!  And then there is Thai food, Indian food, Russian food, and all of the other cultures of the world to taste.  Have I tasted them?  Sadly, no.  I still hunger for meat loaf and mashed potatoes, turkey and dressing.  Corned beef and cabbage twice a year.  Crab only on special occasions because it is so expensive here.  Sweet corn in season.  Home grown tomatoes for BLTs, in season, if one can find them.  The apple doesn't far from the tree of upbringing.  I cook for one.  My default foods are the ones I am familiar with and can afford.  Sad, isn't it?

What prompted this?  A former student on Facebook posted his success at making an original ramen dish from scratch, and I realized that I had no clue what some of his ingredients were, nor did I understand the depth of his genius in making it happen.  I learned more about him than I did my own weak culinary life.  You go, George!