Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Tangential Tuesday


Short and sweet, Chrissy.  Keep it short and sweet.  This little phrase goes 'round and 'round in my head some days when, feeling particularly wordy and/or food geeky, I want to throw the whole of my being into describing in excruciating detail the amazing particulars of  a single ingredient that goes into certain cookies/stir-frys/muffins/snacks.  Does anyone other than me and Harold McGee care about the structural differences between seeds from the Leguminosae family versus the Gramineae?  Does anyone else find it fascinating that the same Mexican cactus that gives us agave nectar also gives us tequila?  Amidst my talking about the sensual pleasure of this or that food and how it nourishes us spiritually and emotionally to the core of our beings in order to connect us to the cycle of birth and death... I just wanna get out my lab coat and go all Alton Brown on 'ya.  Truthfully, I never liked physical science all that much until I started to learn about food.

So from now on, Tuesdays will be 'Tangential Tuesdays' where I allow myself free reign to geek out on any ingredient of my choice.  This will serve the dual purposes of keeping my posts on other recipes 'short and sweet' while giving you (hopefully) something to make you go Hmmmmm.... we'll save the MMMmmmm's for Sundays.  Promise.

**please comment if you'd like to suggest a particular ingredient to geek out on for next week... I simply ask that it be something less like 'Velveeta' and more like 'Mozzarella di Bufala' ... wait, I take that back.  I'm really not above discussing how wrong this cheese-like substance is.  As long as you let me name the post something catchy like 'Vile Velveeta' or 'Velveeta Revealed'.  But would probably rather stick to natural food science and not food science applied to make non-food substances something food-like.  Okay, off on a tangent -  my work here is done.  Happy Tuesday.  

2 comments:

Regina said...

"Does anyone other than me and Harold McGee care about the structural differences between seeds from the Leguminosae family versus the Gramineae?"

Doubt it.

"Does anyone else find it fascinating that the same Mexican cactus that gives us agave nectar also gives us tequila?"

I do!

I'll team up with you on a rant about how High Fructose Corn Syrup sucks! You cover the science part, I'll cover the advertising part (have you SEEN the new ads saying that HFCS isn't *that* bad for you? It targets dietitians. Oh, and they're sponsored by the Corn Growers' Association. Surprise.)

Heather said...

I am all for a High Fructose Corn Syrup tangent as well! That commercial is outrageous. The first time I saw it I thought it was a joke. Like those fake commercials on SNL. I had to rewind the DVR and watch it again before I could even comprehend that it was for real.