My madeleine!

When I think of what my madeleine or food that is connected with me, for whatever reason I think of mashed potatoes. I have no idea when I first ate potatoes, most likely when I was a small child since they are mashed, but they have always been a food that I have loved and considered a comfort food. My dad always jokes that I am the meat and potatoes girl while my brother is the veggie boy; I guess that might have been helped along by my love for mashed potatoes.
While potatoes did come from South American natives originally and were brought to Europe by some of the first explorers, potatoes are often associated with Ireland. Since potatoes are not a new food and mashed potatoes have been around for most likely just as long, there isn’t really any way to determine who first had the idea to mash the starch.
Most mashed potato recipes are made with milk and/or butter and sometimes cheese to keep the potatoes moist but I am not a part of the norm and prefer them made with the potato water that they were originally cooked in. Obviously water doesn’t give quite the creamy texture or flavor but that was what I was raised on and so that I the way I take my potatoes! Due to this pickiness of mine I often don’t enjoy potatoes that are made commercially as much as I enjoy ones that are homemade, especially by my family. While I can eat, and sometimes enjoy, mashed potatoes that are made with more ingredients than simply water and seasoning, my one absolute is that they have to be made with “real” potatoes. I will not eat mashed potatoes that are instant and made from flakes; even if the flakes are dried potatoes I find the texture and flavor to be drastically different and not for my palate.
I am fortunate enough to enjoy a food that is well known in the culture that I am a part of and is at least known, if not well, in many other cultures across the world. Though my pickiness may limit me, mashed potatoes are my madeleine, the food that I have had for so long I don’t remember the first time and that when they are good, I thoroughly enjoy!

meat?

As I read through the book My Year of Meats I have been thinking about meat more and more as one might think from the title. My main question is what is meat since so many people seem to have so many different answers. Catholics seem to think that meat is from animals that walk on the ground, not swim. Then there are the people who claim to be vegetarians because they don't eat "red" meat. So what makes up meat? According to Webster's Dictionary meat is: a solid food as distinguished from drink, animal and especially animal flesh considered as food, and the edible part inside a covering (as a shell or a rind). Since a mammal is a warm-blooded vertabrate and a fish is a cold-blooded vertebrate I guess the Catholics who eat fish during their meatless Fridays are correct. Fish however, seems to be the only animal that can legitimately qualify as a meat so people who call themselves vegetarians for not eating "red" meat are big fat liars!
Obviously the scientists who determined what is a mammal and thus a meat have had much more training than I have ever had but I must admit my disagreement with these choices. I personally think that any animal should be considered meat but I must go with the rest of the world and live with people who eat fish when they don't eat "meat."

Apples!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. As American as apple pie. Apples are a very familiar part of life whether we eat them or not, we cannot deny that they are well known. Though not originally grown in the United States, apples have been here for quite some time and occasionally it is possible to find some of the apples that were first grown in the US. Some of the oldest apples are known as heritage apples since apples like the gala and granny smith haven’t always been around. It makes sense to think that apples are not man-made products but in reality the king of fruit has had a little help along the way to create new types of apples. Hybrid apples have developed as scientists have combined the bases of various apples such as the Jonathan and the Golden Delicious which combine to create the Jonagold apple. The Jonagold not only combines the flavors and textures of its parent apples but is one of few apples that doesn’t average the size of the apples but rather adds the two together and creates an apple that on average is about 450 grams, more than an average of the two apples combined.
Apples are so well known and appreciated because they are not only available in so many forms but also available almost all year long. Apple juice, cider, pie, and wine are just a few of the common uses of apples in addition to fresh and crisp apples right off the tree. Through refrigeration that actually takes two parts of the apples to be put back in later in the year, apples are able to be kept fresh almost all year round even though the season is only from about August through October.
Apples are part of the food that is consumed everyday by everybody. To understand and appreciate the fruit that is considered the king of all fruits is to understand and appreciate a base of America, the apple seed.

Doing Gender

Though my experience in the food industry is not extremely extensive, I have had some experience in different areas and in different contexts. I guess the first experience I have had would be in my own home which is a bed and breakfast where obviously breakfast is served. In addition I have worked on the dietary staff at a Senior Care Center and in the kitchen at a summer camp, all very different yet similar experiences. At home my mother is the main chef who prepares breakfast for guests and my brother and I help out when we are home and able whereas my father does what he wants and tends to enter the kitchen at the most inopportune times. Working in a retirement home was really my first job outside of my home that involved food preparation, serving, and cleaning up. At this job I soon realized that most of the head chefs were men and the servers were women. Though there are currently a couple men working at serving meals, for the longest time any men who worked in the department rarely saw the outside of the dish room let alone the main dining room, when they got out of the dish room it was to serve meals to the residents who were ailing the most and often unaware of their surroundings. When I started working at summer camp I had the position of the kitchen floater which meant that I was lucky enough to prepare food in the kitchen before meals, keep an eye on the salad bar in the dining hall during meals, and wash the dishes after meals. For the most part the girls worked in the kitchen and the dining hall and the boys worked in the dish room. I was the only girl to work with the dirty dishes which most considered to be the man’s work.
All of these jobs haven’t really shown me a distinction of class within the food industry but they have definitely shown me the difference between genders. The women who are in the food industry are the faces, they get the recognition of being servers but when something goes wrong it is usually their fault for whatever reason. The men then tend to cover the extremes of head chef or dish boy. The men are assigned their roles and run with them while the women are often directed from many different people. The food industry is not necessarily corrupt in its ways but definitely biased in its job opportunities.