Clever piece by John Burgess over at The Boston Globe. It's about the cooking he has done for his kids over the years and what he expects them to make for him this Father's Day (it's this Sunday, if you forgot).
Burgess describes what he has learned all these years of cooking for his children. It all comes down to maintaining perspective (no "food scolds"), no cooking "from the heart," and that texture trumps taste.
Mouth feel is 90 percent of the sale, as all those diabolical food chemists know. So no pulp in the OJ, no blood in the meat ("Omigod, eew, Dad, eew!), no stewed tomatoes in the soup, no chickpeas in the salad, no discernible fat. Crisp is good, creamy is good, in-between mushy is bad. Polenta's a loser.So is fish, usually. But again, look for the angles: Give a 13-year-old boy a super-crunchy nibble of grilled fresh sardine, hot and crispy from the fire, and he will soon be downing the crackling beasties head and all.
He also makes it clear that although he likes pancakes and they're easy for his kids to make on Father's Day, he'd rather have something else to eat.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-13-2007 @ 3:08PM
Iscariote said...
No blood in the meat? What kind of food lover eats steak without blood dripping out of it?
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6-13-2007 @ 3:12PM
Iscariote said...
I see now that he learned his kids don't like that, not that he wanted his father's day food cooked that way.
Still, if you want it more than medium I'm making you a hamburger.
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6-13-2007 @ 5:21PM
RobynT said...
My dad is making his own roast this Sunday. He says that is the only day my mom will let him make a roast! (And my mom does most of the cooking usually so I do think that cooking is more of a fun thing for him.)
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6-14-2007 @ 9:45AM
Neil said...
I was considering a donut expedition. The only problem is that it gives our six yr old the sugar high from hell. I rarely eat the things because they are sooooo bad for you. The roast sounds like an excellent idea though.
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6-14-2007 @ 10:40AM
Fash said...
My dad wants Lucky Strikes and premium strawberry ice cream from a particular local dairy on Father's Day. It's also his standard birthday request.
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