FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Don't forget those of us who still cook
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
This is Part 2 of some ruminations on the state of the modern supermarket (click here for last week's column).
A quiet but high-stakes battle goes on every day in supermarkets: the battle for shelf space between established goods and much-touted new items; between national releases from mega-bucks food companies and homey products from smaller producers; between healthful natural foods and timesaving convenience products. Everybody wants everything from grocery stores. And the bigger companies actually pay to assure that their mix of products is placed where they want them.
But here's another plea to grocers as you decide on product mix: Remember the little guy. I don't mean the smaller food companies. I mean people who still cook.
Cooking allows those who are health-conscious to control fat, salt, sugar and other elements in their diet. For some of us, cooking is a soothing way to segue from a busy day to the home circle. Real cooking generally means real flavors. Cooking also allows those from various ethnic backgrounds to prepare the foods they crave.
But with the increase in convenience and specialty products and what the food industry calls "meal replacements" (meaning ready-to-heat refrigerated foods), I've noticed the steady disappearance of such items as bone-in meat cuts and non-instant grains.
As I test recipes for a project on early Portuguese cooking in Hawai'i, I find it increasingly difficult to duplicate the dishes because the meats called for are the tougher, economy cuts. (The first generation's budget didn't run to steak.) I never thought I'd have to call ahead to order a cheap cut of meat!
One day I was planning to make rumaki — that old-fashioned appetizer of chicken livers and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon. But I couldn't find chicken livers. The man in the meat department offered me chicken liver pate (which I was happy to see) but seemed very surprised that anyone would actually want to cook with chicken livers. I went away. As I drove to another supermarket (which did have them —frozen), I recalled the days when I was so poor in college that chicken livers, which sold for less than a dollar a tub, were often my dinner, well-trimmed and seasoned, sauteed with onions and served over rice or noodles.
The lazy susan has definitely turned: It's cheaper now to eat out, provided that you confine your expectations to the lower rungs of the food chain. You can even eat semi-healthfully with the increase in salads, veggie wraps and such on fast-food restaurant menus.
But there are a couple of generations of us still on the planet who grew up cooking, and still cook. So don't do away with all the uncooked stuff in the store just yet, OK?
