[Sca-cooks] Rice was Cooking steaks was Re: lethal drinks

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 25, 2008, at 12:59 PM, Johnna Holloway wrote:

> My husband grew up in a military family and spent the years between
> ages 4 and 9 in Thailand. That's where he learned to always eat fish  
> sauce on
> white rice. I wonder if it's a question of time and place. As soy  
> sauce and fish sauce became
> more available, did it become more acceptable in some cultures to  
> always eat
> one sauce or the other on rice?
> My really good book on rice cultures The Rice Book by Sri Owen is  
> boxed
> someplace, but perhaps if anyone has it available, they might check  
> in that.
>
> Johnnae

Could be. It may also be that people are getting rice more from non- 
local sources, as well as smoking and drinking alcohol and coffee, all  
of which can mess up your taste buds to a fair extent. But there  
appear to still be a fairly high proportion of people who eat rice  
daily who can taste the stuff, and if they've been exposed to a number  
of varieties, have a fair shot at identifying the variety, where it  
comes from, maybe how old it is. On the other hand, China probably  
still the lung cancer, stomach cancer, and unfiltered Camel capital of  
the world...

I can do this, and I suspect some others here can, too, and well, it's  
not a matter of expecting everyone to be able to, but when you can  
detect the flavors, it's a little like getting together several  
different Bordeaux, Burgundies, and a Pinot Noir or three, and  
announcing that they have no flavor anyway, therefore there's no  
difference between them, but they make perfectly good Sangria, and who  
are all these snooty people who look down their noses at Sangria  
anyway???

And don't get me wrong, I like Sangria, too. It's just that every once  
in a while you forget to step back, shrug and say, "Viva la  
Difference..."

Adamantius




"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter