Priority List: 8 Cultural Food Practices

I’ve learned quite a bit about international food practices and cultural cooking methods over the past two decades. It’s been said, the best way to get to know a country’s culture is to eat their food. International cuisine can be found right here in the States, but to really experience global foods and integrate various cultural methods into your cooking there’s no better way to learn than by traveling and tasting them! You can also go into the kitchens and dining rooms of friends and family who love to cook the foods of their homelands and ask tons of questions. I have learned how to cook some of my best international dishes this way. Let me share what I’ve found from my travels to the Caribbean, from my own Spanish/Latino roots, and from my European friends who love to cook!

1. Spanish Culture
Delicious tapas are all the rage with foodies in the States right now, but Spain has had it right for decades. “Tapa” is the Spanish word for cover or lid. A small plate was usually used as a cover to keep fruit flies from swimming in sweet sangrias. Eventually, food offerings were placed on the small plates to give the patron a little nosh with his or her drink and the rest is history. Dinner in Spain usually starts around 9 P.M. so most use the time beforehand to socialize with friends and nibble on tapas of seafood and/or meats. Wouldn’t you prefer a split lobster tail over a bag of potato chips? How about chopitos (batter- fried thin slices of squid) rather than a bowl of beer nuts? In my home, we have a tapas night at least three times a month. Give me a variety of mini “tastes” rather than one large-size meal any day. ¡Buen provecho!

2. French Culture
I’ve worked with a Frenchwoman at a non-profit organization for over four years. We would speak about food every single day during our lunch break, but she was never impressed with my homemade lunches. At first she would say things like, “‘Ahh, the taste is lovely,” or “Oh, now that’s something,” or “Hmm, now that’s an American lunch.” By our second year together, she felt comfortable enough to tell me that my coq au vin was “not bad,” but it could have been superb. I dared to ask, and more importantly, she dared to tell me. She said, “The meal would have been superb if the chicken was not sitting in your freezer for over a week.” She said that the French way of cooking is really about preparing foods with the freshest ingredients. Buy everything you need (meat, produce, grains, etc.) on the day you plan to cook. Never buy packaged foods or canned goods. If that’s not feasible, then shop twice a week in order to prevent freezing foods. Get your breads at great bakeries, your fish at the fishmonger, your produce at local farm stands, and your sweets at patisseries or specialty shops. Hopefully, you have access to these foods in the same market. Bon appétit!

3. Italian Culture
There’s something amazing about Italian cuisine—it truly is a “living off the land” kind of eating. In some regions what you don’t have, someone next door may. So there, food bartering is common. The practice goes back for generations. Your neighbor may have the best tomatoes. Another may grow the best flat-leaf parsley and basil. Someone else may make the best olive oil and yet someone else may create the best red wine. So what do you do to ensure the best-quality product for your table? You swap: maybe a dozen fresh tomatoes for a head of the best basil. Maybe a full-bodied jug of red wine may be bartered for some fresh-pressed olive oil? Before you know it, everyone is benefitting from the best product grown, made, or created in the locality. The Italian way of preparing and cooking food is to prepare what grows locally. I remember my grandmother used to say, “If it grows together in the soil then it goes together on the plate.” So we would have tomatoes, basil, and olives as a salad at every meal in her home. Today, I enjoy that same kind of thinking when it comes to my food. If I can create a great-tasting pesto, why not send some to my friend in exchange for some homemade chutney? Also, support your local farmers and eat what’s literally growing in your own backyard. Your taste buds will thank you! Buon appetito!

4. Latino Culture
Latino cultural cooking is heavily influenced by the Taino-Arawak indigenous people of the Caribbean. The Tainos had a cooking tool called the pilón (a pestle and mortar). Fresh food bases (sofrito or recaito) were mashed in these large pestles and those recipes are still used today. Sofritos and recaitos, consisting mainly of garlic, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and cilantro, are cooked in strained pork fat or olive oil with annatto (achioté) along with other ingredients, and are a common element found in Latino cooking. Sofrito/recaito is used as the base for many dishes like beans, rice, soups, stews, sauces, poultry, seafoods, and meats. For my family and friends, I like to prepare Latino-inspired meals like my arroz con pollo (chicken and red rice), carne guisada (beef simmered with garlic and peppers in a thick tomato sauce), and camarones al ajillo (shrimp with garlic sauce). Grab a mortar and pestle, mash some garlic, annatto, and herbs with olive oil and make fresh sofrito for your own Latin-inspired dishes. You’ll find that the flavor is incredible and unmistakably sabor Latino!

5. Chinese Culture
I love Chinese food! I’m not talking American-Chinese food take-out (though I like that too), I’m talking about real Chinese home cooking. Dishes like pork belly with braised lotus root, crispy black eel, and stewed lion’s head meatballs (made from minced pork and water chestnuts.) I worked for a Chinese company here in the US and all the employees (except six of us) were from China, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The food that they brought for lunch was shared with me on many occasions, and l fell in love with the culture through the food. Those co-workers taught me some great rules to implement in my own cooking that I’ll share with you. First, make your vegetables the “star” of your main dishes. These days, we’re trying to cut out all the white carbs (flour, potatoes, white rice, etc.) and lower our meat portions when we can. We cut that small starch portion to an even smaller half portion. Then, we double the veggies to make-up the difference and we’re good. Second: slice, chop, and cut meats for quick cooking times (meats lose nutrients the longer you cook them). Third: rethink what you can have for breakfast. It is common to have baozi (meat dumplings) and hot soups for breakfast in a Chinese household. Eggs are reserved more for lunch and dinner dishes. It was funny when I was told not to eat at home and have breakfast at work with my colleagues. Somebody handed me a bowl and I remembered thinking, “I could have had cereal at home.” Then a large tureen appeared in the middle of the table and everyone started ladling hot beef noodle soup into their bowls at 8 A.M. At first, I thought to myself, “How bizarre?” Afterward I said aloud, “How delicious.” Sihk faahn!

6. Russian Culture
In a Russian household, supper typically starts just before 7 P.M. and can last for several hours. The first time I experienced a Russian dinner was at a colleague’s house. I arrived at 6:30 and was fed a first course of beet borscht by 7 P.M. The family discussed events of the day while waiting for the second course: a cucumber, parsnips, and white-onion salad. Pleasantries were exchanged and out came the third course of pelmeni (minced meat filling, wrapped in thin dough). Another 45 minutes later, a course of coffees, drinks, and smaller plates of foods like kotlety (meatballs) were brought to the table. Next came the heavier foods like fish, meat kebabs, and meat pies and it was already 9 P.M. Desserts came out (pastila, gingerbread, and chak-chak) and by the time I looked at my watch, it was nearly 11 P.M. What can we learn from the Russians? Well, I’ve learned that entertaining at home need not be a rushed experience. Have a seat, sit a spell, tell the tea, and just relax! Allow enough time for guests to digest their food between courses and really get to know your guests. If you’re ever lucky to be invited to a Russian household for dinner, know that it’s a real privilege. Good friends and wonderful food is all you need in order to have a great time. Prijatnovo appetita!

7. Southern USA Culture
Uncomplicated, simple foods are just plain delicious. There’s no need to mask the root flavors of foods with fancy dressings, oils, or sauces. Fried chicken, whipped potatoes, and collards are perfectly scrumptious all on their own. Even a peach cobbler can match any pastry for a delicious dessert on any given Sunday. I like to invite friends over for a dinner party, and when they’re expecting lobster with black truffle butter, I’ll serve up a fried bird that’ll make them forget their table manners! I learned how to make my famous fried chicken simply by watching my best friend’s mother (born and bred in Atlanta) in her kitchen. She grabbed a large Ziploc bag and added flour, salt, and a variety of spices. Then she added the pieces of chicken and shook it all around. Lastly, she dropped the chicken in a cast-iron pan of hot oil and in about an hour, the chicken was done. However, the hot grease smell was so strong and so intense in her decades-old pan that I would worry and warn that the chicken was burning. She would look in the pan then back at me and say, “I ain’t even ‘thinking’ about that chicken.” Today, I use what I have witnessed as the technique for my own fried chicken, and I have to say, it is the best fried chicken I have ever tasted—but I may be biased. When my son warns my partner and I that he thinks that the chicken is burning, I tell him the same, “I ain’t even ‘thinking’ about that chicken.” Never underestimate the simplicity and comfort of Southern home cooking. Y’all come back now, you hear?

8. Your Own Culture
If you can cook like your Mama, then you’re already ahead of the game! Just make two crucial adjustments: cook in half the time and serve half the food. How many of us remember our mother waking up at 5 A.M. to put a bird in the oven on Thanksgiving? That bird stayed in that hot box way past its prime until 3 P.M. Then, you couldn’t leave the table unless you ate everything that was set out in front of you. With today’s growing trend toward optimal health and better eating habits, a lot has changed in our kitchens compared to mama’s house. Techniques, cooking times, grades of meat/poultry, and even food choices have evolved over the years. I grew up eating potato pancakes, but today the ones I make my relatives would not recognize. To make them lighter and for nutritional value, I add shredded zucchini to the shredded potato. Instead of using whole eggs as a binder, I use slightly whipped egg whites. Then I season it with fresh herbs, a sprinkling of kosher salt, and fresh-ground cracked pepper. Instead of frying my pancakes in vegetable oil, I prefer to just brown one side with olive oil or canola oil, and finish it off by baking it in the oven. I serve them with a fresh herb and cucumber-yogurt sauce. A few years ago, I served them to my extended family, and they looked at me as if I had two heads. I asked them to just try it. They took a few bites and frowned. A few more bites produced smiles. By the second helping, they were so pleased that they asked for the recipe. Making old family recipes healthier has become a fun hobby of mine. I even heard my family say on more than one occasion, “I’m making H. Luiz’s pretty potato-zucchini pancakes!” Like they say, when you know better, you do better!

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