New World Tapas dishes for everyday gourmet-ours
So, you decided to step out of the ordinary and try some Tapas foods. Nice... very courageous indeed. Now, conventional Chef’s wisdom gives us 3 different approaches to foods in general: flavours, ease of preparation and worthiness.
Considering that one must challenge inner taboos about diversity in foods, how do we try or even... attempt on tasting many dishes without going through the painful experience of “which one do I start with?”
For instance, most people react to spices, not spiciness, in Latin American foods. And contrary to popular knowledge, not only Mexicans enjoy spiciness in their foods. New World cuisine is a good example of this approach: It relies on many flavours, easiness to prepare, in addition quickly, and very inexpensive.
And most TV cooking shows, Chefs and critique bloggers take advantage of this hidden culinary resource for their everyday recipes. Take for instance leftovers.
You have a big dinner... say, for 25 people, and only half show up. What do you do with the rest of food? I’d be careful in thinking that something was not right with the food. Seconds anyone? And discarding it, what a shame.
Like in most daily situations, we all have been there. We’ve come up short of paladins for our own cooking tastes. Lack of interest in our flavours, the complexity of its ingredients and probably, the high cost of imported ingredients such as saffron.
I mean... why would you rate a restaurant’s menu and not your close family or friend’s based on value alone? What’s the difference? Who set-up standards when it comes this etiquette.
So, hence enter Tapas. The history is a bit blurry even for someone like myself. Ahh... those exquisite dishes that add cheer to our lives. These small dishes leave you with a desire for more. Its crunchiness and smell doing a symphony in our palate. And how inexpensive?
Tapas is the best approach to this conventional wisdom. Very tasty, easy to digest and inexpensive dishes. Most Spanish tapas mesones carry a wide variety of them. Now, its time to bring them to a whole new level by experiencing with our own cuisine.
We’ll venture in our very own recipes, and would love to try yours too. Please send me your own recipe to jorgelonejr@gmail.com and let me try it for myself. We’d compile a whole bunch of them in a Tapas menu and have Chefs tasting and rating them around the world.
After all... if its about your food, its worth to try and share that uniqueness. Feel free to add any comments or suggestions to your recipes, (Eg.: Grandma’s bean soup!)
Until next time... buen provecho!
Jorge Lone Jr.
ironchef jr
