When I was a kid, playing with your food was forbidden. Absolutely, completely, unalterably forbidden. If one of our grandmothers were there, such nonsense could result in a whack with the dirty dishrag!
Of course that didn’t stop us from adorning the mashed potato mound with rows of peas and carrots, blowing bubbles in our milk or squishing jelly (jello) between our clenched teeth. (Or feeding our much-loathed liver to the dog…)
Fast forward a few decades and you go into almost any restaurant, any cuisine – and I’m not sure if they’re actually cooking back there in the kitchen – or just playing with my food. I think it started with drink adornments – moving from paper umbrellas to flashy fruit and then spears of celery in my bloody Mary. Then I noticed cute things – guacamole coming in tortilla bowls, bread sticks served vertically, colourful sauces sprinkled around the plate. Grandma did not approve of any of this.
But then the whole thing got weird. You’d order a meal and it would come stacked in the centre of the plate – discs of potatoes, meat, veg – possibly a volcano of sauce dribbling down the side. How does one eat that? Layer by layer – or knock it over? You order a salad – and it arrives with five bowls of bits and pieces – do you throw them in? Are you meant to eat them individually? Is the big bowl something to drink or (no – really, it could be a finger bowl…)
Actually – I love dazzling desserts – a towering spike of chocolate or a spun sugar cage is just fine with me. Even Grandma would love them as long they tasted as good as they looked.
Last week I met some friends for lunch at a ‘new Asian cuisine’ restaurant. (Hey! Whatever became of nouvelle cuisine?) Just when I thought we’d got over the vertical silliness – our food arrived, in charming little twine-wrapped buckets, on rickshaws, perched precariously over a babbling pool… mine was a stunning take on hide-and-go-seek – nine little dishes tucked in and under the food in nine little cubicles. This guy was in the centre of it all!
Grandma would have pitched a fit! Yes, it was all delicious. But… I don’t know… what’s wrong with having your main attraction over here and the starch over there and the vegs in that corner??? Even more troubling… what will they think of next?
How are they serving food in your neck of the planet? What is the weirdest presentation you’ve been on the receiving end of?
thank you so much Lisa, that helps a lot. I know he tried to blame me for so much stuff, but like I told all of his family and mine none of that added up to a divorce. I do realize it's his needs, it just hurts so bad to think how many years he's
How funny....i only very recently (within last week) read the coconut oil articles on the web. (100 uses, 80 uses etc.) so i bouht some and ordered some from amazon. (Im a stockpiler.)
Have started trying some of the uses. I tried using it a
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten at a fancy enough place to have those “pretty” plates sitting in front of me. Had I had the one in your photo, I’m not so sure I could have eaten it… while it seemed to be staring at me. ♥
That was rather how I felt about it. Those eyes! You might have enjoyed one of the other plates though… stilll I wonder. This food was extremely fresh and delicious and much enjoyed. But is it form over substance? Why is presentation so over the top these days?
Fried Oreo. How can you ruin a perfectly good cookie like that.
That is just so wrong!!! Do they dip it in batter before they fry it? Coat it in powdered sugar before serving? There oughta be a law!
When my daughter stopped in Las Vegas last year on her coast to coast road trip with her beau, she sent me a photo of sign from a shop selling deep fried Twinkies… But I suppose if someone is already eating Twinkies, there couldn’t be more harm done, could there???
soft batter. I was kind of hoping for a crispy buttery battery. I hate to admit it but I was. I can vouch for fried dill pickles though, yummm. What can I say I live in the south.
So have you tried a deep-fried Mars Bar? They are available from the takeaway shops here, but I have never tried one…
I don’t mind a pleasing presentation/aesthetics, however I do worry about the methods that food is now being derived from. I’d like to elaborate, but I don’t like to cause controversy:)
OH go ahead… You’ll probably find you’re mostly in sympathetic company…