[Sca-cooks] capsicums

[Lilinah]

Well, i'm no fan at all of "American" food and large chain 
restaurants. I only eat in them when i'm on road trips.

I am, however, a fan of capsicums. I grew up eating bland Midwestern 
food. I'm originally from Chicago where garlic is, or at least was in 
the 1950s, considered outright subversive.

I know i've regaled the list with my first experience of Indian food 
in NYC when i was barely 18: when asked if i wanted mild, medium, or 
hot, i said "hot". With my first bite, my head exploded inside and 
everything went white. With the following bites the flavor of every 
other spice and seasoning was heightened. This was in 1967, and i was 
hooked.

Not long after i bought cookbooks for Indian, Mexican, Persian, and 
Turkish food. A few years later i was expanding into Szechwan, Thai, 
Vietnamese, and Indonesian food. When i was living in France i cooked 
Mexican food, when i moved to Indonesia i took my Thai and Szechwan 
cookbooks with me.

I will note, however, that an excess of capsicum will not improve 
corporate food. It is a fad, although, since salsa long ago began 
outselling catsup in the US, it is one that may go on for a few 
years, before the next culinary fad takes over, and the capsicums 
fade away.

Capsicums? I'm going to a Malay restaurant tonight and i'm looking 
forward to the sambal ("relish" made of ground up chiles and often 
not much else, or maybe some shallots or garlic).

Mundanely my most immediate ancestors are from the Ukraine, Latvia, 
and Lithuania, and Austro-Hungary. They came to the US in the 19th 
century, the first batch arriving around 1863. Why do i like spicy 
food SOOOO much?!?!?
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita