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The single dishes that made you a foodie.

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The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Joanbunting » Sun Apr 21, 2019 4:11 pm

i was talking to our tame chef towards the end of service today and we were wondering what single dishes you had eaten outside your/family home that made you passionate about food?

The first I could recall was aged 15 when on a school trip to Switzerland, We stayed in a small family run hotel and every dinner, alongside the main course we had a green salad. The difference was the dressing. In the mid 50's British salad came entirely naked and never ever as just lettuce, I discovered they were absolutely delicious.
The other thing that amazed us all - ignorant northeners that we were - was how many ways potatoes can be cooked other than boiled mashed roast or chips.

How aboout you?
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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Apr 21, 2019 4:47 pm

I might have mentioned this before - but I’ll see your vinaigrette dressing and I’ll raise you a little dish of mayonnaise rippled like the sand when the tide has gone out. Served with langoustines, also a revelation

Pleneuf-Le Val Andre, August 1962

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Sun Apr 21, 2019 6:07 pm

Not a single dish as such, but the most wonderful produce available whilst on self catering holidays in Spain when I was a child. I would never eat raw tomatoes at home, but I loved them when we were in Spain.

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Alexandria » Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:16 pm

Our grandparents and parents are in the Hospitality service industry providing Hotels and Restaurants
with products A to Z, servingware, top notch cookware, equipment etcetra ..

Lunching and dining out is not new ..

Growing up in Barcelona and Cadaqués, it is our culture, life style and very natural to be inquisitive
and adventurous about cuisine and eating out.

Being an only child, there were no babysitters and henceforth, my culture
has continually urged us to learn about gastronomy and wines, and becoming very much aware of the food in which we
select to eat .. ( dining out or purchasing for home gourmet preparations ).

I also studied in Paris, France, Barcelona and did my Masters in The Madrid Capital. Totally evolved in
the world of gastronomy as well ..

No single dishes .. The gamut of the local Mediterranean products as well
as foreign cuisines .. Travelling professionally, and personally of course opened a whole world of exploration.

Have a lovely evening. Interesting thread .. :wave
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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:27 pm

My family never ever went out, and my mother was a dreadful cook, so my first real experience of more exotic food was when I started going to Indian and Chinese restaurants after the pub with my mates, aged 15(!)...

The foodieishness started when I started trying to recreate the dishes myself, and this clipping from the TV Times from the early 70s is one of the first recipes I remember tackling, it's still one of my favourites - there's 3 portions of kheema mutter in the freezer right now, and the only reason I didn't use one today is that I had to use up a pork chop. I made the most gorgeous Korean-style dish (two day's worth from one chop, with every vegetable under the sun thrown in), so it wasn't an anticlimax.

I usually use Mamta's kheema recipe as the basis for the dish these days, it's slightly more complex, although as with most things I cook, tweaked.

I also owe a debt to Ken Lo's Encyclopedia of Chinese Cookery, although it was Ken Hom that really set me going properly in that direction a few years later.

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby karadekoolaid » Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:55 pm

Perhaps the first notable experience of really fine food was in my first year of university. We were commanded to sing at a Gaudy Dinner, in Magdalen College, Oxford. The dinner involved 7 courses - which was probably the first time I´d ever had more than "main course & sweet".
Two things stick in my mind. ( apart from the 7 different wines paired with the food)
Consommé a la Reine. A clear consommé, with thin strips of crêpe . It was served with a 1928 sherry . My Tutor ( who sat next to me) warned us all to follow exactly what he did - and NOT to overdo the booze, because we had to sing Eucharist at 9am the following day.
A sip of the sherry - absolutely glorious - and then the rest went into the consommé. Even more glorious.
Later on, we had poached artichoke hearts. The first time I´d ever tasted anything so exotic, accustomed, as I was, to Heinz Ravioli on toast.
As an amusing "aside" to the story, one of the counter-tenors ( who is now the Director of a notable choir and orchestra in the UK!) nicked a bottle of cognac from the bar and drank far too much of it. The net morning, we had to drag him into a cold shower to wake him up, and then make sure he was propped up between two fellow choristers, so he wouldn´t fall over. It took him THREE DAYS to recover. :crying1 :cry: :gonzo

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Renee » Sun Apr 21, 2019 11:14 pm

Oh no! What a traumatic experience with the drunken choirboy! I can just picture it!

Many years ago I rarely ate out but mum bought me a book by Ken Hom and I became interested in Chinese cooking. When we were on holiday in La Baule, staying in a small villa I watched the maid prepare a meal and was shocked to see her use half a block of butter but realised what a difference that made. I then bought Mastering the Art of French cooking and spent hours just reading the book and then followed some of the recipes.

What a great thread Joan!

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby patpoyntz » Mon Apr 22, 2019 12:04 am

My Mother was a really good cook but I suppose the food we had at home was quite plain. However when I was a teenager, in school holidays I used to be put on a bus to the wilds of Northumberland to help an aged aunt who ran a small country house hotel, virtually single handed. She was a great country cook, so we ate a lot of classic dishes, lots of game. The one dish which was a complete revelation to me was a proper jugged hare. So rich, so different, and it definitely gave me a desire to learn to cook, and eat, interesting food.

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Gillthepainter » Mon Apr 22, 2019 8:20 am

Our being 5 children, we never went out either.

At 18, with my A-level school chum, we went with the county under 17 football team, as french translators to Belgium, on the bus.
Unrequired, as the events were swimming with English speakers.
You got what you were given at the hostels in the evening.

As you can imagine, in Belgium the food was divine.
Eel in green sauce in Liege, got moaned before it arrived at the table. Something we kids never got away with at home, moaning about our given food!
My goodness it was good.

It taught me to try it, as you never know what you are missing.

And as a 19 year old student in Lausanne, I couldn't believe how wonderful penne a la vodka was.
I'd only ever eaten spaghetti bolognese.

It still feels wrong to moan about food in a restaurant to me. I don't do it - unless it's something dire.

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Sakkarin » Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:35 am

That nudged another memory, a month's Interrailing when I was 21, a different country every day, sleeping on the overnight trains. I remember before the trip buying a copy of "Fodor's Europe", and reading it cover to cover to make a list of all the national dishes, to try in each country. First stopoff was Amsterdam, and I remember the joy of actually ordering the "Ertwensoep" that i'd found in my research. Not a million miles from Heston Blumenthal's Pea and Ham soup that is still a special treat.

My mate was about as unfoodie as you could get, I think he had steak and chips wherever we went...


EDIT: Maybe Ertwensoep wasn't quite like Heston's, there's an awful lot of celery in it...
https://translate.google.co.uk/translat ... erwtensoep

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Joanbunting » Mon Apr 22, 2019 11:01 am

Where did your Aunt live in Northumberland Pat? I spent a lot of time in rural Northumberland in my childhood too. Mum and her sisters were all good plain cooks , especially bakers. Dad and grandad were really talented gardners and my uncle was a master butcher, so there was no shortage of lovely ingredients but they were all plainly cooked without garnishes herbs, oter than parsley, mint and sage or spices, except salt, pepper and mustard. Still, i learned all the basics.

The next part of my own foodie journey was my first visit to Paris with M before we were married. There it was the bread and the croissants I couldn't get over the fact that one could go and buy a baguette at the bakers, and some cheese or charcuterie in the shop next door and then go and sit by the river - in our case overlooking Notre Dame, and have a feast. I also discovered moules marinier that holiday too - by mistake! I couldn't speak a word of French and although M was doing a degree in French he hadn't got round to doing the most important beasts ie developing a food vocabulary so hadn't a clue what moules were. His face when they arrived lives in my memory 55 years later. The lovely waiter showed me how to use an empty shell as a weapn with which to eat them and I was away.
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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby patpoyntz » Mon Apr 22, 2019 3:45 pm

Joan, my aunt had The Allenheads Hotel.....a quaint little place. The hotel was never very busy, but the bar at the side did ok. It was a lovely place to visit...this was late 1950’s and through the 60’s.
Your first experiences of food in France, brought back lovely memories of my first visit in 1962 with two girl friends in an old car which kept breaking down. We had very little money, but eventually made it down to Nice. My main memories are of crusty baguettes and unsalted butter with cheese and huge delicious tomatoes, followed by melon, juice running down our chins. All eaten by the roadside as we travelled...no motorways then!

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby jeral » Mon Apr 22, 2019 8:35 pm

I took an interest as a home cook when food became more interesting than I was used to - and became do-able.

My foodie moment was when I worked with someone who explained how intricate proper curries were, and wrote recipes for me to try, by which time spices were starting to be on the shelves.

What a difference a day makes, now you ask us to pin it down. That started me on the path of seeking to learn and to take notice of nuances in flavour that could be devised or emulated.

Experts will always do it better than I will, but who's counting?

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Gillthepainter » Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:49 pm

That's a good tale, Jeral.
Since I was an utter lightweight when it came to my first experience of curry.

I had a chicken Korma in Wolverhampton, with some new college chums - one chap was from Iran and knew his spicy stuff.
And I thought I'd eaten the hottest, richest meal on the planet.
Wimp that I was.

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby WWordsworth » Wed Apr 24, 2019 8:33 pm

A million years ago when I was a student my flatmate despaired of my efforts in the kitchen and bought me Marguerite Patten's All Colour Cookery.

I bumbled around with a few recipes and decided I was quite enjoying myself. So it's wasn't a particular dish, it was the book that encouraged me.

Still got the book.

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby WWordsworth » Wed Apr 24, 2019 8:36 pm

My first currry was about the same time, on the Eccleshall Rd in Sheffield.
Chicken korma.
I thought I was going to die,.
No curry houses at that time in the small town in NW England from whence I came.

Love a spicy curry now and I buy my ingredients in the Asian shops.

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Joanbunting » Thu Apr 25, 2019 2:52 pm

I met my first curry at college. One of the girls on our landing was an Ugandan Asian. She was a vegetarian and at the weekends would cook up the most delicious thing on the two gas rings in the cupboard with the 2 gas rings at the end og the corridor. I still use some of her recipes. I had another friend who was fom Hong Kong , spoke cantonese and used to take us to the Rendezvous in Richmond where we always ate in the back room and had authentic Cantonese dishes.
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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Apr 25, 2019 8:16 pm

We got our first curry house, the Taj Mahal, in my small town in about 1965, shortly after the arrival of the Chop Suey House, and shortly before the arrival of the China Rose takeaway

Ate a lot more of the Chinese food at first, but gradually got used to the curry

Both have influenced my taste, though sharing kitchens at uni and after with both Indian and Hong Kong students and flat mates had more impact on my appreciation of the food

I remember seeing the waiters from the Taj Mahal play those from the Chop Suey House at football in Victoria Park, in their white jackets. Slightly surreal, but in retrospect, they must have felt terribly isolated poor lads

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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Joanbunting » Sun Apr 28, 2019 12:15 pm

Another big influence on my cooking, and eating was living on a remote isalnd for 6 years where most foods had to be ordered from Nassau and you never knew when or even if it would arrive. If you wanted fish you caught it. and if you wanted things like tomatoes and salad you grew it, but the seasons for all fresh fruit and vegetables were very limited. You needed bread you made it, if the hens didn't lay you didn't get eggs and if the goat kicked the bucket over there was no fresh milk.

So I learned how to preserve things, look after animals and be very imaginatitve with the contents of tins and packets.
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Re: The single dishes that made you a foodie.

Postby Alexandria » Sun Apr 28, 2019 2:35 pm

Joan, :lol: :lol:

If the goat kicked the bucket !

Sounds as if you surely had quite an experience
living in the Caribe ..

Have a lovely day .. :lol: :lol:
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