Post by Stephen WolstenholmeOn Sun, 03 Nov 2013 10:32:39 +0000 (GMT), Jane Gillett
Post by Jane GillettFollowing a post in the "Food Taster" thread, it brings to mind a feeling
of mine that there's a fashion ATM for adding chilli to everything. A
little chilli is nice in some things but its use seems a bit heavyhanded at
times.
Do others feel the same?
I think the issue relates to trends in TV programmes. There is the
long lasting UK love affair with curries and more and more programming
relating to cooking curries plus the wide range of different curries
from across Asia that are still being discovered. For example the
re-run of Rick Stein's India series was interesting and I had a go at
cooking a squid curry he did and jolly nice it was too. It needed lots
of chillis!
The other trends have been Caribbean food, Mexican food plus a
smattering of American recipes which will have the inevitable
"tex-mex", Southern states influence. There have also been several
"street food" series on satellite telly some of which feature daft
competitions to eat ludicrously hot chilli based dishes. If you watch
this stuff then you will certainly detect chillis in everything. It
also only natural that more mainstream media like TV news and
newspapers will also pick up on these trends.
I don't generally watch TV cookery programmes because of the following
habits irritate:
. The modern "need" to make everything competitive;
. The modern trend to have artificial time limits (actually this seems more
prevalent in archeology than cookery ATM I must admit).
. The fashion for having to have an unrelated "celebrity" present;
And the major one -
. The tendency to always show you the cook's face when they are talking
about what is going on in the pot and the pot is what you need to see. This
is common in other areas and seems to be an essential part of "exciting
television" these days. Although, come to think about it, it did happen in
the past. I remember listening to the moon landing on the radio (didn't
have tv) and the presenter was wittering on about something and suddenly we
got "oh - they're down"; the producer or whoever was more interested in the
commentary than what was going on so we missed the actual touchdown.
Post by Stephen WolstenholmeThe other angle is that more and more people have realised they grow
chillis for themselves. People will want to use them in recipes if
they've succeeded in growing them.
Sure. No problem with people's home cooking; you cook what you like and if
it happens to be, say, ice-cream in your mashed potato then I say
"Enjoy!". I was really talking about bought foods and chillis don't belong
in <everything>, particularly sweet/fruity food to my taste.
Post by Stephen WolstenholmeI certainly don't add chilli to dishes randomly.
That's what appears to be happening at present.
Post by Stephen WolstenholmeI'll use them when it
makes sense to include them in dishes which require them be it
Chinese, Indian, Thai, Italian etc. I like spicy food but I'm not
really a "death by chilli" advocate.
Agreed.
As you say, one of the reasons may well be the interest in imported food
types.
Cheers
Jane
Jane
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Jane Gillett : ***@higherstert.co.uk : Totnes, Devon.