Miscellaneous musings on food

This page covers a variety of topics - points to recipes, web sites, mailing lists, and my own bizarre opinions on food. I enjoy eating quite a variety of food, and try my hand at cooking whenever we have enough ingredients to make things interesting.

Some places I enjoy eating include Waffle House (I dig the hash browns all the way), Chipotle (burritos, salsas, gucalmole), City BBQ (sandwiches), Burger King (burgers, breakfast croissants), Dairy Queen (Pecan Parfait, Heath Toffee blizzard), Woodlands (southern Indian cuisine), Panera (hot chocolate, pastries, sandwiches, ginger/peach tea), Aladdin's (mediterranian and cheesecake!), Restraunt Japan (bento lunches), Anna's Restraunt (greek), Hoggy's (barbeque, baked beans), Donato's (Big Don's sub sandwiches and pizzas with everything), Papa John's (pizzas with everything), Subway (many types of sandwiches), and more to come - once I look up the names of some of my other favorite Greek, Indian, and Oriental restraunts.

Right around my birthday in 1999, there was a discussion relating to "cuisines" on the Peoplelink.com HOBBIES/CRAFTS: Cooking mailing list at . I submitted the following description that some of you might find amusing: Arnab Chaklandar mailed that he didn't know there was such a thing as 'American' cuisine. I responded: Technically, there is no more an American cuisine than there is a French, Italian, German, Japanese, etc. cuisine. Here in the US, multiple regions tend to be 'lumped' into more general country categories. So, while in the US we have Cajun, Creole, Southwestern, Southern, etc. cuisines, they are most frequently just referred to as "American". Anyone want to discuss what you would consider the various cuisines of the US?

Cajun
originated in Louisiana. Tends to be more formal and from New Orleans. A blend of French, Creole, English and other.: Creole
originated in Louisiana. Tends to be more relaxed, from the swamp areas of Louisiana. Includes stews, gumbos, and other "all in one pot, using whatever you have" type of recipes.: Southwestern
originating from New Mexico, Arizona, etc. Tends to have influences of the Mexican use of varieties of chiles for flavoring Lots of beef and sheep influence, due to availably of those animals in the region.: Southern
sometimes broken down into high country and low country. Low country tends to be from Carolinas, Georgia, etc. Rice, greens, barbecues of various types, grits, etc. High country influenced by the money holders in the past. Mint Juleps, iced teas...: Traditional
this is a term I apply to what middle class whites tend to eat. Consists of things like meat loaf/hamburgers, fried/baked chicken, baked turkey, steak, baked or mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, iceberg lettuce based salads, perhaps pasta salads, apple/pumpkin pies, etc.: Hillbilly
I am uncertain what else to call this genre. It includes cooking various wild animals, like deer, squirrel, rabbit, etc. as well as wild plant life like morels (a type of mushroom), ramps (a type of wild onion), paw-paws (a type of pear like fruit), etc.: Junk food
potato/corn chips, ice cream, candy, soda pop. Pretty much in evidence all over the country - though there are regional favorites - like jerky, pork rinds, etc.