|
Published
in Gulf News, December 19, 2006
The breath
of a wok
Guacamole
has been in the American news recently… or rather, Kraft's
version of the avocado-based dip. A woman from Los Angeles is suing
Kraft Foods Inc. because its guacamole is less than two per cent
avocado, the rest being modified food starch and coconut and soybean
oils. Customers, she asserts, expect their guacamole to be mainly
avocado, so she's pressing for a class action suit.
But
with packaged foods, it's not as if having the right ingredients
is any guarantee. If she was suing in terms of promised flavour
versus actual flavour, she could have worked her way bottle by bottle
and packet by packet through most of ready made foods section.
I remember
when a friend wanted to make Thai green chicken, she bought a bottle
of curry paste by a well-known brand. The instructions said to use
two tablespoons of it, so she added the paste and tasted, expecting
a nice chilli bite. It didn't taste of anything, so she added more.
Still nothing. She added more. Nothing. She kept adding until she
had emptied the whole bottle into the pan. Finally, there was a
reluctant hint of chilli - but even so, it didn't really taste like
Thai green curry.
How
many times have you bought a packaged product that promises a taste
explosion of flavours such as tomatoes sun-dried in Italian valleys,
herb-fed lamb roasted over aromatic woods, and forest mushrooms
hand-picked by elves, only to find a flash of flavour that's indiscernible
from common salt and onion powder after two bites?
But
supermarkets love processed foods. They can be transported and stored
easily, and usually offer high profit margins. This is why it's
impossible to just walk into a supermarket, grab some milk and eggs
and walk out. Oh yes, they'll tell you that for freshness, the coolers
need to be at the back, near the supply areas. But it hardly hurts
them that, on your way to the essentials, you have to pass the piles
of chips, dips, sauces and instant dinners - all promising that
fresh-picked/fresh-cooked taste.
The
trouble is, not even fresh-cooked food is guaranteed to have that
fresh-cooked taste. The Cantonese call the elusive quality "wok
hay" which translates to "wok energy" or the "breath
of a wok". It's the hot, smoky taste of good stir-fry ingredients
just off a well-seasoned wok. It's hard to achieve and lasts only
a few minutes, but you know when it's there.
I believe that wok hay doesn't apply only to stir fries. Mortar
and pestles also have this energy. The difference in "hay"
between throwing basil, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic and olive oil
into a food processor and bashing pesto by hand is significant.
Pounding spices or herbs seems to release their very souls.
The
trouble with hay's elusiveness is that humans are adaptable creatures.
After dipping a teaspoon into a jar of ginger-garlic paste, it's
hard to remember why you need to go about pounding the fresh stuff.
Especially when it's 8pm and you're just home after a hard days'
work.
But
we must not forget wok hay. After all, people who've always been
too busy to exercise, suddenly find time to be in a gym four days
a week when their hearts threaten to give out. It may seem like
there's no time to reduce jar dependency, but achieving wok hay
shows us that food free of artificial tastes and chemical aftertastes
is truly sublime.
So,
to the woman suing Kraft, good work - but you'd do far better to
simply expect it of the packaged food section, and spend your time
making "hay". Whether or not the sun shines.
Site
designed and maintained by Gautam Raja.
© Gautam Raja, unless stated otherwise.
|