h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I watch a few cooking progs like Jamie, Nigella, masterchef, and of course the master Gordy.

What I really enjoy in these programmes is the way people over the food and wax lyrical. Always gets me wanting to cook their stuff.

I reckon I've learnt most from Jamie Oliver. And he's a massive fan of vegetables. The recent series of him cooking homegrown stuff in an outdoor oven has been excellent fun

'cooking' with jamie is being generous. for a chef he does remarkably little work other than assembling food; which is designed by the food stylists. not a bad thing by any means. but it does demonstrate the ability of these stylists to influence food fashion.

unsub

perhaps you missed this bit. 'not a bad thing by any means'.

Back to where you started - my Dad and grandparents grew veg so I was brought up on quite a variety of the stuff.

The only things I never took to were cabbage and broadbeans. Consequently I've never introduced my kids to these However, they eat pretty much anything else.

aah broadbeans. i will eat them but i can't say i like them. and that is definitely a texture thing.

That's just it, and the after taste

i'm going to pass on re trying broad beans to test the aftertaste thing.

There's little i simply *wont* eat. Brussels, celery (unless finely chopped in a stew or gravy type situation) and strong fish (salmon etc) and all have to do with the taste. Anyone who tells me that celery has no flavour is obviously missing some taste buds. Lucky them!

Pumpkin is a very strong aroma, but dont be put off all squash... The smaller squatter green squash are much less pungent and are lovely sliced and baked with some butter. Mash the flesh off the skins when soft with butter and season if you want to... makes a delicious addition to a roast or some other meal with lots of component parts, and isn't too sweet especially if yuor butter is salted

Without meaning to be inflammatory, I find the distinction 'vegetarian food' interesting, in my experience when people use it they usually mean 'a meal designed without meat'... What I find weird is that there's hundreds of dishes that dont contain meat, and they are not distinct from every day food unless you make it the case, mentally. I dunno, I think sometimes people make distinctions in their own minds that create divisions where they dont need to be and unconcious distinctions can get passed on to kids or peers as a sort of social conditioning that 'vegetarian food' for instance could be faddy or unreasonable to expect, or just too 'different'.

robyn. i like butternut squash. that seems milder than pumpkin proper. and i love pumpkin soup, probably because the pepper hides some smells. and yes, those little green squash are very nice. more like zuccinni i think.

we might not get along in here but i suspect we'd enjoy a meal together.

and the mis perception of ones own diet was one of the findings of that somewhat dubious survey.

i'm going to kick back from this thread now. not abandoning it, but i'd like to see where other people take it.

We dont get along?

news to me... I dont necessarily dislike people I disagree with anti. Perhaps a lesson that would go a long way on all of our threads...

i did say 'might'.

I find it interesting that many people think vegetarian food means simply food prepared without meat. It's a problem I run into frequently, as my boss takes my department out for lunch at least once a month, and most of the time, there's nothing suitable for me to eat beyond salad... and the man will always try the "pick the meat out" thing. For me and most of the vegetarians I know in RL, there's a lot more to it than that- avoiding *all* foods that contain gelatin, rennet, or meat stock, etc. There are a lot of seemingly "meatless" dishes that I couldn't in good conscience consume because they still contain animal ingredients.

I've never seen any UKian cooking shows, but there are a couple of vegetarian and vegan shows on PBS that I enjoy. They certainly do a lot more than just "style" food. Some of these people come up with brilliant, delicious recipes. I've heard that Gordon Ramsay can cook up a storm, but I've never had a chance to see him in action.

I think in some cases it depends on childhood memories, and sometimes it's a bad memory of a food's affect on you that will make you shy away from vegetables.

Examples - in my childhood I used to like candied sweet potatoes, until in school someone said they were bad. Changed my mind about them for the longest time. Today, however, with one exception, I love eating sweet potatoes. I will eat them raw, baked, and whipped... but not candied. There, however now that I'm older, I think it's because I think they're plenty sweet as they are already and the added sugar and marshmallows only add fats and extra calories.

Effects of food on me also vary. I shy away from raw bananas because of something in them or the skin that bothers my throat. (Irony, I can eat them after being cooked in foods. ) Raw broccoli and to a lesser extent carrots I love, but at times am apprehensive of because I've nearly choked on both. In the case of broccoli, it was very close to the point I almost passed out - and it still freaks me out about a month and a half after the fact. That said, I'm slowly getting back into the habit of eating them again... Even if I have to pretty much separate them into tiny bunches to eat them.

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Now, V8 is a vegetable drink that really surprises me on people's reaction. Some people avoid it like the plague, others have it with every meal. Used to dislike it myself when I was a kid, now I like it... so long as it's at least lukewarm. Cold, however, I can see why some dislike it because it's grainy.

But, if you want a better for you soup, heat up some V8, add a little bit of cheese or meat if you like, and eat. You get more of the vitamins that way than you do just tomato soup. And, if kids like tomatoes, that also helps out because they're also getting other vegetables that they might not eat if they see them, such as spinach and carrots.

I like vegetables... and when I was a child, ate the veges my father grew in our garden. The ones I buy now, (having not got the gardening gene from him) are tasteless and manky by comparison, and so especially, is the fruit.

But I still like 'em...

Vicky

the title says it all

>>'Standard' meat and 3 veg must surely have been a once or twice a week thing for most people, rather than a regular evening meal?<<

What do you mean Bouncy? I grew up eating meat and 3 vege every night of my life.

I don't think Jamie Oliver is a food stylist. He's a master at *cooking* healthy food that is tasty and very accessible to alot of people who wouldn't bother otherwise. Cooking well doesn't have to be complicated. One of the things I love is cooking simply to bring out the taste of the base ingredient eg the vegetable.

Oliver does use too much chilli and parmesan though


Broadbeans If you eat them cooked then cook only for a few minutes. If you cook them longer they taste baaad. They're fantastic raw too.


>>I find it interesting that many people think vegetarian food means simply food prepared without meat<< psychocandy

I eat a much wider range of food as a vegetarian than the people I know who eat a mainstream omnivore diet. And meals are constructed quite differently. I wish more people would learn how to cook vegetarian. Vegetarian food is always the first to go at pot lucks or buffet spreads and it's not just the vegetarians that are eating it

You can't have too much chilli.

I've already planted some broad beans.

And pleased you like Jamie. The guy is just so enthusiastic, it's infectious. And he's done a lot here in the UK to highlight the poor quality of school dinners.

He really makes cooking seem like an adventure and fun.

I loved that last series we had here where he was cooking at home from the veges he grew there (or that his gardener grew to be more precise ).

kea. i didn't say oliver was a food stylist. if you check the credits of his shows and many other cooking shows you will see a credit for food stylist or similar. these are the people who research the dishes, decide what matches the target demographics, and what looks good on tv. i have no idea what input oliver has into this process.

my observation related to the fact that oliver doesn't actually do much cooking. you don't often see him doing it and he rarely attempts to convey food preparation skills and cooking techniques. the underlying principle seems to be educating peoples palates about fresh, healthy food. this is a good thing. the point of distinction from other media chefs has made him fabulously wealthy and i don't begrudge him a penny of it.

for my money nick nairn delivers the same healthful food messages but is also an ingenious chef with dazzling technique and a very rare ability to deliver something new from simple ingredients.
and graham kerr still knows his onions and is worth checking out.