Faster than A Flying Squirrel
Brisby's favorite photo from my trip.
One of the many beautiful things about visiting people is eating food you do not normally eat. While at @Brisby's, I watched her make these little rice cakes for her daughter's lunch. I learned how to make them late at night while giggling in Brisby's kitchen and keeping the rest of the house from sleeping.
After getting home, I tried to order some special rice. Walmart told me it would be at my house in two weeks. I thought that was a stupid amount of time to wait for rice, but shrugs I never make fancy rice, so what do I know?
What I do know about rice is as a child, it was covered with disgusting things and put on plates in front of me for dinner. While looking at the glob of white worms (bean sprouts) and mushrooms in a slimy sauce from a can, I would die a little inside, knowing it would be a long night sitting at the table trying to pick out the white rice from the sludge poured over.
The unique Chinese tin can came with two cans taped together. I blocked out why this was needed because neither of those cans had anything good in it. I also know it wasn't Japanese food because of Pearl Harbor. Cuban food was not big in the United States at this time because of the Cold War.
Thinking back on why I never ate a lot of rice as a kid made me realize how political food was. The grocery stores did not have an Asian or Mexican section, for that matter, either. German food wasn't counted as foreign food because the town was built and settled chiefly by Germans.
However, many people changed their German last names during WWII and quickly lost their German accents.
As a small child, I still remember sitting around my Great-Grandmother's house surrounded by her sisters and sister-in-law and hearing their German accents sneaking out when they spoke. You could always tell when they were the most comfortable and relaxed. I miss those times.
All this thinking about rice made me realize I grew up eating American food, not just any American food. If you had to put it in a category, it would be Midwest American food. Southern food uses ingredients like okra and crayfish. Texas and California had more fruits in their diets because of the year's warmer weather. Beans in any shape or form is an American Southern thing to eat.
Ham hocks with blackeyed peas, which I am not sure are peas because they look like dried beans, is a great dish that will make your mouth water while you wait for them to be done cooking. As far as I know, there is no rice in there either.
Two world wars and a Cold War, followed by a few non-wars and other wars in deserts, did not bring rice into my diet. There were no ramen noodles. There were pot pies. Pot pies were 5 for 1.00 USD, and then inflation came and brought the price up to 4 for 1.00 USD.
The more I thought about those white worms I hated as a child when they showed up on my dinner plate, the more I realized how war dictated what we ate and had to buy in a grocery store. How even food was political back in the days before the internet.
You didn't talk about Japan because of the war. China, Russia, and Cuba were off limits, too, because they were just going to bomb us in our sleep or while we were at school. Either one was correct at the time. Canada had good fish, but I didn't come from a fishing family, so we grew up eating beer-battered cod on Fridays during Lent.
Everyone knew England and Poland had bland, horrible food, so those never even made it into the conversation.
This is a 2024 photo of the white worms. They didn't look like this in 1970!
Yet, knowing what I do now, I could have eaten anything from any of those countries and been happier than a plate of white worms trying to hide in a gravy-like sauce.
I would sit still and try to eat as much plain white dry rice as possible. The rest of my plate had the goop spread as thin as possible, so it looked like I had eaten more than I had.
Next, you waited for the right moment—the perfect moment to ask if you could be excused from the table. You wanted your parents distracted when asking, and you didn't want them to look too closely at your plate—any idiot would know you hadn't eaten enough.
If you didn't pick the perfect time to ask, you had to live through the Children in Africa starving stories because you admitted you could not eat another bite and were full. STUFFED. REALLY! If you were lucky, you got a sigh and were let free after you wondered how, even if kids were starving in Africa, they would not want to eat white worms either! So, really, I was doing them a favor by not sending them my leftovers.
You're Welcome!
Today, when I make my new fancy rice, the white worms and mushrooms are still at the grocery store for those who like to eat that kind of thing, and no one in Africa gets harmed.
This was my rice story.
Help someone smile today. It can not hurt you.
Snook
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So you're the reason the white worms are feeling neglected! 😮
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You are way too funny!!! and yes!!! I have to admit they are in therapy because of me! LOLL
The funny thing is I had no idea they were bean sprouts until MUCH MUCH later in life!!
HUGS!!!
!LOLZ Kitty that's amazing 😎 The little face is too flipping cute! 💚
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HAHAHAHAHAHHA
So much glad and happy that your vacation was really fun actually. It is great to actually see
Thank you!! Yes it was so fun and full of a ton of laughter!!
!LOL I totally get where you're coming from with "white worms."
I still don't care for rice a lot unless it's eaten with Chinese food or something else, and even then, only in small amounts. I've always considered it filler for when a restaurant didn't want to put more meat, beans or another more expensive ingredient in the dish.
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Thank YOU!! Wonderful to know I am not the only one!!! LOLL
and this new rice seems to be more filling than what I remember as a kid!!
right???
I think so too!!!!?!
how is that? did we have different rice? hahaha
well maybe! cuz the short grain (Calrose) rice is what we eat a lot of here...it's sticky rice
the stuff from my childhood was like.... not as dense and fulfilling hahaha
this stuff is so yummy hehe
I think you are right!!
Too funny. My grandmother used to use the "children starving in Africa" line. My smart-ass would always respond with, "Well, if they want to eat this, send it to them." She didn't like that too much. 😆 Have a great weekend! 🤗
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HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! to the video :D
and your poor Grandma!!!
HUGE HUGS!!
I think rice made you remember so many things about your childhood, lol
Well, rice is my best food and I get to eat it everyday of my life
I love it so much
You are correct!!!! When I got finished with this post I was like !? this ended up in a weird place! LOLLL
I think it is amazing how when the world became smaller we all got to try things we never would have. How lucky we all are to live to tell the tails.
So glad your vacation was filled with giggles... and new foods of course. ;)
Thank You!!! It was much needed and I hope someday to go visit again.
HUGS!
Ahahahahahaha. That's one of the best posts ever.
So. Childhood foods. I grew up in the far north but much closer to salt water than you. We had much different 'limited' food choices. The people in the little (<2000) town where I grew up were recently relocated from Russia to the US, but they were German speakers that got chased out just before WWI. So we had Borst and cabbage but also lots of beef and pork. The English ate sheep. And potatoes. Lots of potatoes. My mom said that one year the area raised too many potatoes so the government bought them, dyed them purple and gave them back to people that raised pigs for feed. She said every kid in Lincoln County, Washington had purple gums! My Dad would neither confirm nor deny.
We had Chinese and some Japanese restaurants around. The nearest city (10,000) had a LOT of Mexican flavors because they did much of the work on the farms. That city is Moses Lake, Washington. Re named during WWI from Nepel. Same for a little bitty place near me known as Marlin, formerly Krupp. Named for an American gun maker rather than a German one... Wilson Creek got renamed then, too but it wasn't because of GeoPolitics, it was originally Whiskey Creek.
There was a restaurant in Davenport that was owned by a Japanese family, had owned it for years. They were 'relocated' to a concentration camp in '42. My aunt said the only good news about that is she got to play the Cello in the orchestra because her friend was gone...
Eat more potatoes, comrade!
it's so weird when you start to think back as an adult how wars changed so much that you? I never realized. was a weird realization when writing this post about rice. LOLL
Thank you for sharing you part of the USA with me. It is so interesting how History is there yet hidden in plain sight and how it will be lost once we are gone.
HUGS!
When I was small, I really remember how I didn't really love rice like that but it suddenly change when I grow up
It's weird how your tastes change when you get older.
but I AM happy they do.
Oh goodness, my gut 😅... I could taste AND see these descriptions hahaha. There is a brand called La Choy I think that still has this two-in-one nightmare, and I mistakenly bought some when I was 18/19 and poor lol.
It was interesting to think about the politics surrounding food, particularly in a time that processed foods were gaining their popularity. Really puts a lot of modern foods into a new light!
I love that you got to revisit ingredients that used to give you the shivers, and have them cooked by a sorceress! All bean sprouts need are magic fingers and some love and I think it changes the whole dish! It looks way yummy 😍
🤗💕🍙
yeah it was a weird thing I could not get out of my head when trying to write about making rice LOLL
and yes, it sounds like you got the exact type of can we had and ate.......... I am sorry for you!!!! :D
HUGE HUGS!
HAHAHA white worms?? your so funny HAHAHAHA
I Am so happy I could make you laugh!!
Was it the taste of the sprouts, or just how they looked 😂 And did you ever mention that you'd rather have your rice plain?
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Honest, I have no idea what spouts really taste like, so I am going to go with the texture because I do not care to eat mushrooms for the same reason, and I love the flavor of mushrooms but can not get past how they feel when you bite into them.
I am also just now realizing how growing up outside most of my waking hours as a kid and hating bugs makes all my food references about bugs or outdoor things LOLL
The things you learn about yourself when you get older are interesting, to say the least!
and no, to your last question. LOLL, at least I don't think I did. but back then you ate when you were given. Mom worked an 8 hour day and drove an hour each way to work so.....
HUGS!
Haha! You brought back memories of being served white worms with mysterious crunchy white thingies for dinner as a kid! @snook😊
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THAT makes me happy!!!
HUGS!
Look familiar?
Oddly, La Choy was founded by a Korean entrepreneur, not a Chinese one.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Yes, that is the can!!!!
and now I will blame Korea for the horrible childhood memory! LOLLL
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This one sure made me chuckle! I have never cared for bean sprouts, but I don't remember them ever showing up on our table when I was a child, either. We ate a lot of very plain and simple food, including fruits and vegetables we grew and preserved, and animals my dad raised and butchered. I have very unpleasant memories of trying to chew a bite of mutton until it became squishy enough to swallow. I eventually learned my dad didn't let it hang before he cut it up and put it into the freezer, so it was very tough. To this day I can't bear the smell of lamb cooking.