Not the same

[beetiger]

It's snowing like anything, so no one's left the building for lunch and Donna the cafeteria lady's nearly run out of food. I've gotten the one thing she has left, which she has billed as "Maryland crab and corn chowder". Only it hasn't got crab in it. It's got surimi. That's "imitation crabmeat" or "crabstick" for those of you not up on the technical names of weird foodstuffs -- those sticks of pollack and stabilizers, rolled so that they flake in sort of the way fish does, dyed red on the outside. I'll forgive you if you don't know the word, as the only place I've really seen it in use on a menu was in a Kosher sushi restaurant, where I suppose they wanted to make extra sure their customers knew there was no crab on the menu.

I actually like surimi quite a bit. California rolls are high on my list of favorite snack foods. When I was a young person, I used to eat chunk surimi with cocktail sauce all the time, pulling apart the layers of white with my chubby little fingers. When I'm feeling protein-deprived, I'll still do this. But the stuff should not be used in cooked dishes! It's dreadful in crab soup. It's indescribably horrid in stuffed mushrooms. It loses its texture entirely, and it's like eating flavorless strings of cotton.

Most "substitute" foods only work in some of the realms that their authentic counterpart inhabits. Butter "spreads" don't work well in cooking. Nutrasweet falls apart entirely in baked goods. You won't want to use fruit-based fat substitutes in delicate foods like croissants. Hummus may "substitute" for cheese in sythyry's healthy breakfast diet, but I wouldn't make a quiche with it.

When we were at my mother's house for New Year's, at one point my mother laughed and proclaimed that lediva was "another Vicki". I have no idea what she meant. Was it the fact that she and I were having some sort of a mini-debate using largish words, the details of which I've forgotten? Was it the fact that we were both talking over my mom's boyfriend, not allowing him to get a word in on the topic? Did she see the same sort of spark in each of us that we see in each other, some deep commonality or strangeness? Did she think she could love lediva like a daughter? Or was that just her way of saying that she didn't understand the conversation at all, but was sure that we must?

Comments

[queenofstripes.livejournal.com]

"Surimi has generally played a positive role in human history, Poko!"

I like surimi. When it was still something novel, my mom used to top tortilla chips with it, Monterey Jack, and a dash of paprika. Do you happen to know how old of a technique it is? The Japanese have always impressed me with their ingenuity with food, of course. It wouldn't surprise me to hear they've been doing this with cheap whitefish for hundreds of years.

You know, this post reminded me that I sort of miss carob. It's tasty in its own right. And though it's really a very poor substitute for chocolate, attempts to use it as such give me a cozy nostalgia for other trappings of crunchy 1970's progressivism: instructional television, government-funded dental hygiene programs, animated public service announcements for self-esteem on Saturday morning TV, the metric system, fuel efficiency...

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Given that the Japanese didn't have Monterey Jack, tortilla chips, or paprika until comparitivly recent times, I somehow doubt the snack is a time-honored classic.

Sounds yummy, though.

Re:

[queenofstripes.livejournal.com]

I meant surimi in general, doof. :)

Free to Be Me

[freeko.livejournal.com]

Also do not forget "Free to Be Me" the children's album that was put out by Marlo Thomas and the Ms. Foundation. My Catholic Aunt, too concerned about the Rolling Stones and their demonic influence did not have a problem with this, thinking that it was a safe children's record. Not knowing the subversiveness of "Free to Be Me", "William Want's a Doll" and of course "It's Alright to Cry" sung by ex-Football Player Rosey Grier, a big 280 pound-mountain of a man, who also did needlepoint. It formed who I am and give me an inkling at the age of 5, that gender stereotypes were stupid.

Re: Free to Be Me

[eetmewithtoast.livejournal.com]

Hooray for egalitarian retellings of the Atlanta story! And tender sweet young things. And toy-breaking.

I love that record.

Re: Free to Be Me

[fenton.livejournal.com]

Somewhere (that I found within the past year or so), I still have an audio tape of that. I really need to pull it onto a computer, clean it up, and burn it to CD before the tape gives up the ghost...

(Actually, it's in relatively good condition, for a tape, it just has the inevitable hiss and audio artifacts).

Hooray for Atalanta, indeed.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

From a random web-search, via the "Surimi all information center" at surimithailand.com:

"History and Popularity of Surimi

Surimi is known in Asia dietary long time ago, but recorded in Japanese in 1100 A. D. and the most popular uses of Surimi in Asia has been the fish ball or "Komoboko". The Japanese food technique crafts has made it well known worldwide.

Surimi final imitated food products are not just for to feed the man appetite for it's taste, but as well to feed the imaginative mind of man for perception of food for it's imitation shape and form. An imitated crab meat stick or craw, which have the taste, the shape and looks like crabmeat or craw.

The artistry of Surimi now is beyond just the block of flash frozen minced fish, but it's the art and craft of food history and development to feed the human need. Surimi widely spread and well known in America around 1970 and in Europe around 1980 and the popularity and demand explored sometimes in 1983. Since then, Surimi could be found in any supermarket near you. Surimi is very high nutrition with fat content less than 1%."

So a food with both ancient echoes, and that 1970's utalitarianism we all loved...