They did not have this $#!# when I was growing up

[vanillafluffy]

I know they weren't genetically engineering food when I was a kid, but there is stuff out there that they flat-out DIDN'T HAVE when I was growing up. IMO it's mutant food that somebody Frankensteined while we weren't looking:

cilantro
chipotle
star fruit
goji berries

There are probably more, but these are the ones I can think of, because you can hardly eat out or shop without running into chipotle mayonaise or tuna-cilantro casserole. What's up with that?!

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Comments

[adventurat.livejournal.com]

Hm. Adding cilantro to tuna casserole might make it palatable. Though I'm not sure anything could.

What are goji berries? I've heard of the rest of those.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

That's the big question! I've seen bottles that purport to be the juice of said berries, but I've never seen the shrub, bush or plant they grow on.

[cbtreks.livejournal.com]

Cilantro is particularly annoying to me because it tastes like soap. Gag.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

It doesn't float my boat, either.

[msretro.livejournal.com]

I had star fruit a few times as a kid on vacation in Hawaii. I'm glad to live somewhere where it grows again, since supermarket starfruit has about as much flavor as iceberg lettuce.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Iceberg lettuce is evil. I'd as soon eat a paper bag.

Star fruit is tasty, and it looks interesting when sliced. I'd just not heard of it til about ten years ago.

[sbjb.livejournal.com]

I used to have starfruit all the time when I was a kid. Mom would slice it about 1/4 inch thick, lay it on cookie sheets, sprinkle it with a little sugar, and freeze it. We'd eat it directly out of the freezer. Yummy.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

For a tongue-in-cheek post, this one sure is getting a lot of comments.

[sbjb.livejournal.com]

But...but...but...

It's about FOOD!!!!

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Okay, I concede the point. Now I'm thinking lustful thoughts about watermelon...it's getting to be that time of year. The first sign of summer will show up in the bed of a pick-up truck any day now!

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[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

cilantro has been growing in the middle east for centuries.
chipotle is just dried jalapeno.
starfruit is indigenous to tropical climates, it's just recently become popular compared to other tropical fruit.
about two hundred years ago very few Europeans knew what a banana was unless they were sailors or had otherwise done a LOT of traveling.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

And when I first moved to this area in 1974 (NYC before that) nobody around here had any clue what a bagel was. They didn't even have frozen ones back then, let alone sell them in bakeries.

CHEtongueEK.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

"Goji berry" does sound to me like the name of an unusually obnoxious BELM anime character, though.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

It'll show up on the Cartton Network any time now....

[hippediva.livejournal.com]

Not exactly. Cilantro and chipotle chilis have been around for a few millenia. Ditto on the star fruit and goji berries. (although I will reserve judgment on the last one----there might just be an Alien Alton creating these things and shipping them to earth).

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Alien Alton would be fun---lots of recipes for using tentacles, I'll bet....

[majolika.livejournal.com]

I ate a whole bag of dried goji berries lately, and afterwards I still had no idea how they tasted.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

You've actually seen them? You're ahead of me, then. As I said, I've seen juice, but have never been curious enough to pay all that money for an itty-bitty little bottle of juice.

Chocolate-covered cranberries, on the other hand, are made of awesome. (Well, okay, most things are better when chocolate-covered.)

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

It's not so much what they didn't have as where it was. I knew nothing of such things growing up in New York and New Jersey. It wasn't until I got to California that the world of culinary wonders opened up to me and I got that Avocado was good for something besides gummy, bland guacomole at El Torito.

Wonderful as the Tri-state area is, sometimes you have to get to a place with a more diverse population, such as Florida or San Francisco.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

More diverse than the Tri-state area?! IDK...however, I'll concede that there are regional delicasies. I'd never seen a sweet potato before I came down there, and I'd never *heard* of okra. (And I haven't developed a taste for either one.)

I miss delicatessens, though. Especially Norwegian delis, which they have in Brooklyn and Staten Island---finding tidbits like my favorite Norwegian cheesse around here is a lost cause.

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

Well, certain more diverse than Northern New Jersey. One reason I thank my maker for getting me to California is the terror that I could I have ended up like my mother, the Queen of No Salt, No Onions, No Garlic, No Pepper, and essentially NO TASTE. I'm still not the hot food maven my hubby is, but at least I've learned to love a good Indian Food Lip Burn or a great cumin and cilantro marinated chicken breast from Bi-Rite, not to mention their Chile Marinated Bavette Steak. That would so NOT have happened back in NJ.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

No no no no---sounds like that old song, Wings, I think? Over the bridge in Staten Island, my mom did stuffed peppers, she and dad were into stir-fry and had a wok before most people knew what a wok even was. I grew up chowing down on snow peas and water chestnuts and bok choy...and our downstairs neighbors, well, Aunt Mary was Italian and Thursday was spaghetti night, with sauce made from scratch---TALK about garlic! With all that plus the Norwegian from Dad's side of the family, oh yeah, I got diversified at a fairly young age.

[njzynj.livejournal.com]

I like cilantro. Forgive the short and to the point comment.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Okey-dokie. Here, have mine! *bestows cilantro*

[njzynj.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You can never have enough cilantro, or jalepeno's for that matter.