I am about to sound extremely pretentious.
It's hard to find good fruit in the States and if you've never eaten fruit in another country/a locale close to where the produce was actually picked and vine/tree ripened...dude, you are missing out!
I grew up on iceburg lettuce as a staple. Cheap. Easy. Done. Rodolfo won't touch the stuff...he grew up on locally grown, happy, healthy, hippy, fancy schmancy greens without even knowing it and for less cost than a round cabbage-esque head of iceburg with 5 times the flavor....because he was in Chile. Lucky, lucky man. It's from him that I've gained my pretentiousness with foods. He's ruined me!
Let's face it, the grocery fruits here are all from Chile as well, they are just picked under ripe and sent on an airplane/truck/boat to get here...I don't smell very good either coming from Chile!
Rodolfo refuses to eat peaches in the midwest. He tries once a year and then gets disappointed when it doesn't taste of pure sugar..he's frustrated when he doesn't have to eat it over a sink...because it doesn't ooze down his arm with every bite. It ruins his day. Yes. He's a peach snob!*** And a tomato snob, etc. etc...he can go without, but when he finds the good stuff, it makes him so so happy! Like he's won the lottery!
Like I said, this is all very pretentious!However, I have backup!
She's called Julia Child! And thanks to Candace for letting me borrow "My life in France" she's got my back!!!
page 25: "In America, grapes bored me, but the Parisian grapes were exquisite, with a delicate, fugitive, sweet, ambrosial, and irresistible flavor" (Happy 100th Julia, rest in peace dear heart)
What a description!!! Delicate, fugitive!!! Ambrosial....damn girl....you've got it!
A description I would never use for a grape purchased in the mid west! She's right! They're boring!
Now...granted, the farmers markets are getting better and better! Thank god! So now, at least half the year, we have access to local tomatoes, zuc's, cuc's, herbs, melons, corn, eggplant, etc.. but when it comes to winter, our hearts get heavy and our palettes get depressed.
Perhaps this is just what we get for living in an area of the world that becomes inhabitable half the year, but isn't that the same for France and all those other lovely countries in Europe that turn out incredible produce and food experiences year in and year out?!? What's our excuse?
My point? If you haven't traveled out of the country at least once, do it! Not necessarily just for the culture, the traditions, or how good it is to get outside of your comfy zone, do it for your PALETTE!!!! To appreciate life to its fullest, it's important to try one grape..a single grape you could describe as "fugitive" I mean...seriously!
Your palette will thank you a hundred times over when you bite into a peach and it's the best peach of your life!!! The next trip we take...it's not about the place (or it is, but that's secondary), it's about the FOOD!
***The one exception to this rule was when we went to California and we bought some peaches from a stand the morning after we arrived. Let's just say he pulled a Julia in experience, but without the beautiful words...only noises..."mmm...oh!....mmmm...wooooow!!!! Shlurp." Now, he's definitely not willing to buy a peach in the mid west! California should not count as part of the States in this scenario....it's some happy hippy utopia...why aren't we all there?
2 comments:
Yes! To good fruit and hearing about your next travels and to everybody eventually moving to California!
Hah! As I was reading this I was thinking..."except in California!" and then at the end, that's what you said! My dad just brought me the most delicious flat of peaches from the orchard and they dripped down my chin every time!
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