You know, in truth most of my generation have got a lot like the same generation (or the one before) in the states have been- 'ew'ing at the idea of offal and the bluntly specific names of German 'wursts', but happy to have no idea of what bit of an animal they're eating if it's made into some cute shape and covered in breadcrumbs. There's actually been a reaction against this sort of thing recently- it started with TV chefs- most notably Jamie Oliver and his school dinners campaign- against junk food in general with junky meat products particularly singled out. So the middle classes got terribly anxious to know about what cut of meat they had and so on. And now that we're all supposed to be finding exciting new ways to spend less, there's a much-trumpetted fad on the way for 'nose-to-tail' eating, so we're all going to have to lay on bravado about finding exciting uses for spleen and things.
Actually, the blood-and-onion pudding was invented in ancient Greece, although I think they favoured the stomach for the stuffing, or just to eat it from a bowl. What really defeats me is the appeal of white pudding- an Irish sausage that just seems to consist of onions and pressed fat.
I dare say the squeemishness about offal in America, as in Britain, is only a few generations old (and I believe Jewish cooking still makes gleeful use of liver anyway). I presume my friend from Bangladesh wasn't familier with it just because in Bangladesh they only eat meat at all for special occasions (on which the animal is sacrificed in public, which even more put her off meat in general), and what they don't eat immeadiatly they throw away or feed to dogs or something.
I suppose, seeing as America as a whole drew together lots of older cultures to make an amalgamated new one, then the thousands and thousands of years of trial and error that lead to such oddities as sushi and brawn had already been done, either elsewhere or by the tribesmen, so proper 'Americans' didn't need to experiment in the same way, but rather to tweak the things they ate already.
Actually, when I saw grits I thought it looked like a hybrid of Pilgrim-era English food (if in doubt, cook it into a sludge and put something you know you like on top of it- rather like the flummery and pottage (a sort of porridge made with whole pulses) that they ate back home) with inigeonous food (corn, corn and more corn). I mean, I know there are a lot of Italian-decended people in the US, but where grits come from is not a very Italian area, is it?- and it's older than that anyway.
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You know, in truth most of my generation have got a lot like the same generation (or the one before) in the states have been- 'ew'ing at the idea of offal and the bluntly specific names of German 'wursts', but happy to have no idea of what bit of an animal they're eating if it's made into some cute shape and covered in breadcrumbs. There's actually been a reaction against this sort of thing recently- it started with TV chefs- most notably Jamie Oliver and his school dinners campaign- against junk food in general with junky meat products particularly singled out. So the middle classes got terribly anxious to know about what cut of meat they had and so on. And now that we're all supposed to be finding exciting new ways to spend less, there's a much-trumpetted fad on the way for 'nose-to-tail' eating, so we're all going to have to lay on bravado about finding exciting uses for spleen and things.
Actually, the blood-and-onion pudding was invented in ancient Greece, although I think they favoured the stomach for the stuffing, or just to eat it from a bowl. What really defeats me is the appeal of white pudding- an Irish sausage that just seems to consist of onions and pressed fat.
I dare say the squeemishness about offal in America, as in Britain, is only a few generations old (and I believe Jewish cooking still makes gleeful use of liver anyway). I presume my friend from Bangladesh wasn't familier with it just because in Bangladesh they only eat meat at all for special occasions (on which the animal is sacrificed in public, which even more put her off meat in general), and what they don't eat immeadiatly they throw away or feed to dogs or something.
I suppose, seeing as America as a whole drew together lots of older cultures to make an amalgamated new one, then the thousands and thousands of years of trial and error that lead to such oddities as sushi and brawn had already been done, either elsewhere or by the tribesmen, so proper 'Americans' didn't need to experiment in the same way, but rather to tweak the things they ate already.
Actually, when I saw grits I thought it looked like a hybrid of Pilgrim-era English food (if in doubt, cook it into a sludge and put something you know you like on top of it- rather like the flummery and pottage (a sort of porridge made with whole pulses) that they ate back home) with inigeonous food (corn, corn and more corn). I mean, I know there are a lot of Italian-decended people in the US, but where grits come from is not a very Italian area, is it?- and it's older than that anyway.