Nibbles #35
Essays on trying to share the food of your culture with those you love, on who gets to 'authentically' write about a cuisine, and on why 'copycat' recipes hold such an important place in culture.
Welcome to Nibbles where once a month I share everything brilliant I’ve been reading on the web as well as some general updates from my kitchen, my vegetable garden during the growing season, and other miscellaneous ‘you really need to know about’ updates.
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My mother sent me this brilliant essay by Samantha Ellis on the pressures and heartbreak involved in her efforts to get her son to eat the food of her Iraqi-Jewish heritage. The feeling of abject disappointment when someone I love does not enjoy food I’ve laboured over - as an act of love - was something I could really relate to even through I’m not a parent, and I live within my own culture.
Giulia explores the important question of who exactly has the right to write authentically about Italian food:
An interesting piece from Bustle on why Millennials like me gravitate towards Grey’s Anatomy as a comfort watch.
Stephanie, on why ‘copycat’ recipes are both important, and intrinsically linked to happy memories:
A bit of a mixed bag this month, over on my blog I’ve shared this colourful, summer-ready Spanish-inspired salad of Roasted Red Peppers with Butter Beans and Anchovies, and the Chinese-style Pork and Wild Garlic Dumplings (along with my go-to dipping sauce recipe) I spent some of the long Easter weekend pleating.
And, if you want a sweet treat to prep for the fridge with no added sugar, for my Macknade residency I crafted these Bounty Stuffed Date Bites!
Happily the herbs are now at the point where I can start (sparingly!) using them, a real contrast to the picture I posted at the end of last month! I’ve also been slowly potting on / planting out some of the seeds I sowed mid-March: whilst the frilly red lettuces and my outdoor cucumbers never appeared the cos and little gem lettuce are spending a little time in pots to really establish their roots before going outside (we’ll ignore the fact whilst potting them on I got them mixed up so I now don’t know which one is which..!), as is the solitary thriving Crown Prince squash I planted out of the pair.
Project ‘actually grow proper beetroot this year not just the leaves’ has been planted out in a row in one of the vegetable beds and seems quite happy there, with the tiny seedlings of a second row I put straight into the ground the same day starting to poke up next to it. The aubergines have finally come up (but are still super slow in the smaller greenhouse) and the garlic chives after getting off to a great start now don’t seem to be doing much: any advice on growing them would be much appreciated because my handy trick for simply subbing in wild garlic leaves for them in every recipe won’t last much longer as the carpets of the stuff around here are starting to flower!
Thank you for the shoutout, Rachel!