[Sca-cooks] Tony Bourdain Iceland Special

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Mar 26, 2006, at 2:35 AM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> To which Adamantius asked me:
> >>>
> Is it possible that Phlip's use of the word "was" [quoting Dr. Buell,
> or possibly not] has led you to assume the discussion was about
> period Icelandic cookery, when in fact it may have been on Icelandic
> cookery in general, or modern Icelandic cookery?
> <<<
>
> No. I did consider that, but if Paul Buell said that, his view is  
> even more contrary to Nana's comments on modern Icelandic cooking  
> then if we just stick to medieval Icelandic foods.  She starts out  
> in her book talking about the great variety of foods now available  
> to the average Icelander, thanks to modern transportation and  
> preservation systems. Her comments on this don't sound like  
> "Icelandic cooking is pretty basic today- boil fish, add a bit of  
> salt and pepper and serve."

Not unless one has recently added fish, salt and pepper to the menu  
due to modern transportation and preservation systems ;-). The bottom  
line is, even if what Dr. Buell says is both a generalization and an  
exaggeration, and it may be both, it could still be essentially true  
on some level, at least the "pretty basic" part.

> Of course this probably varies depending upon what segment of the  
> population someone is watching. If someone came to the U.S. and  
> watched many of the school kids, they might easily say "American  
> cooking is pretty basic today- Put frozen pizza (or pizza slice) in  
> microwave, heat and serve".

Absolutely. I'm sure if you lowered Jacques Pepin (or whomever along  
those lines) from a helicopter into a school cafeteria in Muskogee on  
a Monday at noon, he might very well say something like that.

Adamantius


"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04