5 ms·
Western cuisine seems to fundamentally misunderstand vegetables. Methinks it was partly the unavailability of spices, and partly the easy availability of meat.
by puranjay 7y ago
Western cuisine seems to fundamentally misunderstand vegetables. Methinks it was partly the unavailability of spices, and partly the easy availability of meat.
Meat is like a cheat code when you're cooking. A good cut of meat needs a little more than some salt and fat to taste good.
With vegetables, you're forced to be more inventive.
Take okra for instance. In India, its a favorite vegetable. Saute it with some Indian spices and it becomes a crunchy, flavorful dish.
Whenever I've seen okra in western menus, it is usually boiled which turns it into a gooey, sticky mess.
I love eating meat but I would be perfectly happy sticking to vegetarian-only food as long as I'm living in India
- jamil7 7y agoI think it's also a matter of Northern European climates, meat and dairy was available for most of the year while vegetables other than potatoes and onions where really only in spring and summer.
- war1025 7y agoThere are a whole host of root vegetables that are pretty darn tasty and basically absent from the modern American diet. Beet, Turnip, Parsnip, Rutabaga to name a few. Northern climates can and in the past have grown a wide variety of vegetables. I don't know where exactly to pin the blame for the current (but improving) state of affairs, but it isn't for lack of ability to grow a diverse set of vegetables.
- jamil7 7y agoNot sure about beetroots in winter but the rest seem plausible.
- mr_overalls 7y ago> Methinks it was partly the unavailability of spices. I see that you are unacquainted with Southern food, specifically Cajun cuisine. I cannot recommend a culinary expedition to New Orleans highly enough. It will change your life!
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y agoStories I've heard of southern cuisine describe meat dishes with a side of more meat.
- sudosteph 7y agoIt's not all meat but it it's not healthy either. I can't speak to Cajun food, but fried okra, hushpuppies, and Cole slaw, are all important side dishes where I live. Fresh tomatoes or fried-green tomatoes too are good ones too.
- ethbro 7y agoI will say, as someone who's live in both southern and northern US states... - Northern "American" food traditions tend to completely lack seasoning of any sort (note: not including appropriated ethnic traditions here) - Southern "American" food traditions tend to heavily season vegetables (often with ham) Essentially, if you just took raw vegetables and steamed them, nobody would bat an eye in New England. In the Southeast, nobody would eat them. And it would probably be politely suggested that you never bring food to the church picnic again.
- sudosteph 7y agoI can't confirm if northerners actually eat unseasoned steamed veggies (surely they at least add salt and pepper?) But I can can confirm that would be considered basically inedible in the south. For example, the most common broccoli dish is typically a broccoli casserole loaded up with cheese, bread crumbs, and various seasonings, and butter and/or cream as well.
- ethbro 7y agoAlso the most common squash dish! And green bean! And sweet potato (with more sugar)!
- ip26 7y agoI'm not an authority on the matter but I figure it's due to the heavy germanic influences in modern Western dining. It seems like that's where the idea that a "meal" is "meat plus a side of X" came from.
- benj111 7y agoNot so much the west in general, Southern Europe do nice things with veg. Cant speak for other countries, but in the UK it seems to have been a combination of servants getting too expensive for middle class families, so House wives, who didn't previously need to cook, now suddenly having to learn (A special mention goes out to Mrs Beeton for teaching people to overcook things), and rationing and general shortages during the world wars.
- mandevil 7y agoI've always thought it was wealth. Around the world, wealthy people tended to have fairly similar diets with lots of meat (even in Asian areas, with exceptions for Jains and others who had religious objections). It's poor regions and peoples who need spices to make food palatable. There was a cuisine lock-in around 1850-1950 where food culture solidified into a single thing [1], and if your region was poor when that happened, you end up with interesting vegetables and flavors, and if it was rich, you end up with "large hunks of meat" as your cultural foods. [1]: The reason British food has such a terrible reputation is that their cuisine solidified before widespread refrigeration was available but after urbanization, so it was built around carrying foods long distances that could survive no refrigeration- which drives you to overcooking, lots of sausages and preserved meats, etc. For most other regions the food culture represents a time before urbanization, and modern refrigeration supports that even when the population urbanized.
- puranjay 7y agoI wonder what impact the British seafaring tradition had on their dietary habits. You can't have spices and flavorful food if you're going to spend months at sea.
- pvelagal 7y ago"It's poor regions and peoples who need spices" - Vasco da gama arrived in India in search of spices, as spice trade was very lucrative. Christopher Columbus went in search of spice route to India, found America and called people there Indians. Spice was called "Black Gold" (due to black pepper) and dominated trade during those times.