What food do you miss when you're away from home?

Grits with sausage bits gravy; crispy pecan waffle; hot buttered rice with a touch of honey, and; cornbread muffins with onion, corn, and jalapeño bits.

Bob Wilson

 

"Boiled" or "Broiled"? Homophones filtered by an accent can be a problem. ... Of course British cooking ...

Bob Wilson

 

Ding Ding Ding!
@bwilson4web with the win!
I could never mention this myself because I was born on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon line in the US.

No matter where you travel on the globe, you will find some displaced US Southerner pining away for grits.
Since PC is a multinational forum I will offer a brief translation for other Yankees, foreigners, and Californians.
Grits as a dish is nonplural, and mostly eaten for breakfast.
The closest approximation you might find in Europe might be polenta.
Both are similarly inedible unless they are properly prepared.
Both are culturally significant in their native lands, although grits are an important touchstone in US Southern life.

I once started a very heated debate aboard a US Submarine on my first patrol by putting butter and sugar into a freshly ladled bowl of grits, with 'sons of the South' stating adamantly that I was NOT holding a bowl of Cream of Wheat, questioning my right to be on the boat and demanding that I immediately pay for the O2 and the rack space that I was wasting.
It probably added 6 months to my qualification process.
From 'Southern Living",
https://www.southernliving.com/food/grains/grits/difference-between-grits-and-polenta.
If you ever happen upon a print copy, the cut out square will not be a missing coupon, but rather a recipe.
-probably for some form of cake or pie, and if it's not October it will likely as not feature coconut.
No one understands this, since the coconut is not in any was native to the US South.

ASLO, if you ever happen upon an issue to Southern Living, do not put it down without reading Rick Bragg's article.
Your welcome.

I find that British cooking, like their humor, is slightly underappreciated.
This is a good counterbalance to their slightly elevated self appreciation.

 

In occasional travels north of the Mason-Dixon Line, I have reluctantly sampled this. Even with a touch of maple syrup or brown sugar, it doesn't work for me with one exception ... fried. Then it becomes a somewhat inferior pancake that is edible is an impossibly narrow range between charred and raw. I would rather have a fried potato pancake called by some, latke. Then there is oatmeal.

Oatmeal with raisons is OK properly boiled up. Pick out the raisons and put the rest in a brown paper bag for the shad.

My late wife of 43 years would never eat grits unless she didn't know what it was. The name alone was enough to put her off.

Bob Wilson

 

Grits I've had, but maybe not when they were done right. But everything else on that menu—yes please!

 

If they were 'done right' you would not have to wonder.....

 

When I am in one home I miss foods done particularly well in another home. Might dare to generalize this along lines of grass seeming greener...

But to avoid gazing longingly over the fence, eat whatever it is that is done particularly well, wherever you happen to be. Might still miss home cookin' but dang that local chow can be a memorable experience.

On the other other hand, there are reasons related to microbiology to make one's new-food experiences not too memorable.

 

My very thought when I hear the term "probiotics."

Bob Wilson

 

I have found home proliferation of yogurt to be surprisingly enjoyable. A bit hit or miss at first, but nowadays I consistently get better results than I can buy in the store (and without the pectin or gelatin the store brands are sometimes adding to pretend theirs set up). About my only (deliberate) microbiology-related venture, but this is fun.

 

I had similar results with home-brew beer once upon a long time ago.

 

Store bought yogurt is barely yogurt. There are legal requirements on the culture species needing to be used in order to be called yogurt. While still using those species, the companies have altered the ratios to get a less sour product that appeals to more customers. Which likely also necessitates the need for setting agents. Then they add sugar to cover any remaining sourness. Greek yogurt soon followed the same course after it went mainstream.

The plain yogurts might be true to traditional recipes.

 

Though far from perfect here is what we eat to satisfy our yogurt craving.

Two Good® Yogurt Cultured Ultra-Filtered Milk With 2 Grams of Sugar (twogoodyogurt.com)

Plain/vanilla being our go to favorite - I am not sure it would even be considered yogurt by some.

 

I enjoy homemade yogurt immensely, but....I have a life, and so I get by with some of the "greek-adjacent' stuff.
When I retire I will be able to perhaps home roast coffee, get fresh squeezed eggs, make yogurt, cider, can vegetables from a home garden, etc...etc...etc...

But then.....will it really BE retirement or some glammed-up subsistence style living???

 

I have not tried making yogurt. My microbiology experiments were in making beer and baked goods including keeping a pet sourdough starter.

I just looked up the yogurt we've been buying (Cabot greek plain) and the ingredients list is pretty short:

I understand that the list could possibly be as short as "milk & a dab of yesterday's yogurt" but that would be a new world for me.

 

I like Cabot products. Plain yogurts tend to stick to the basic recipe. Note that the microbe list doesn't specify how much of each. Some companies use less of some species to the point you may not find them in the finished yogurt.

I stopped getting the flavor yogurts to mostly avoid the added sugars.

 

Yeah, flavoring the yogurt seems a bit pointless. I use the milk-and-some-old-yogurt approach.

If I want something sweet, I put it over fruit. If I want something savory, I put it over veggies.

That's the beauty with the yogurt beasties ... they do the work while I sleep.

 

That cabot greek has proven to be quite versatile... fruit and/or honey when we want sweet... I mix it with onion powder and citric acid to make a substitute for sour cream, and my daughter loves it plain.

Sometimes I like to mix it with a bunch of herbs and then marinate meat in it for a day or two. You wind up with lots of flavor and really tender, juicy meat. Particularly good with lamb.

 

Yeah.
That's what I thought about yeasties....until I spent one sleepless night cleaning up glass and foam after overcharging my bottles.