[email protected]

In a message dated 6/8/2003 6:29:35 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:

> grlynbl@... wrote:
>
> >I guess he will start using a fork all the time whenever he wants to.
> >
>
> Or not. LOL I use my fingers way more than I use forks -- always have.
> My dad used to punish me by forcing me to wear mittens to the dinner
> table because I liked to eat that way. I still don't see what the heck
> the big deal was all about.
>
>

One of the most fun things about Morocco was that everyone ate with their
hands most of the time. (Only the right hand--the left was for Other Things, and
people would get grossed out if you ate with the left.) The food was also the
best I've ever had.

Kathryn


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Julie Bogart

--- In [email protected], KathrynJB@a...
wrote:

> One of the most fun things about Morocco was that everyone
ate with their
> hands most of the time. (Only the right hand--the left was for
Other Things, and
> people would get grossed out if you ate with the left.) The food
was also the
> best I've ever had.
>
> Kathryn


Double, double take! Did you say Morocco? Did you live there?
My first born was born in Rabat and I lived there with my dh for
four years. My kids love it when we eat tagine so they can use
their fingers with impunity.

And Moroccans used to say that using steel (forks) ruined the
flavor of the foods and it also cooled the food down too quickly.
Fingers preserve flavor and heat! :)

Julie B

[email protected]

Julie Bogart wrote:

>My kids love it when we eat tagine so they can use their fingers with impunity.
>

Oooh -- I've been collecting (vegetarian) tagine from online sources.
If you have any great ones I'd really appreciate you passing it on to
me. I'm eyeing a tagine by Le Creuset over at Amazon. LOL

There's an awesome Ethiopian restaurant near us and the whole family
loves the food there. Best part about it (besides the great food) is
using soft, flat, spongy bread to pick up the food instead of forks.
I'm in my element! :)

TreeGoddess

[email protected]

In a message dated 6/8/03 6:09:36 PM, julie@... writes:

<< And Moroccans used to say that using steel (forks) ruined the

flavor of the foods and it also cooled the food down too quickly.

Fingers preserve flavor and heat! :)


Julie B >>

I have a bread machine that I use to do the first kneading, because I have a
hard time on long projects. I get bored and distracted. But if I just come
in and do the last kneading, forming and put in pans to rise part after the
machine beeps, that's about my speed.

I've wondered seriously, though, whether the kneading by hand from the
beginning might be an important part of making the bread be "right" and good. The
warmth of human hands to get the yeast going, the positive human energy, maybe
the salt off people's skin, maybe who knows what off skin that we don't even
know, that has for thousands of years made bread good and real?

Sandra

jmcseals SEALS

<<One of the most fun things about Morocco was that everyone ate with their
hands most of the time. (Only the right hand--the left was for Other Things,
and
people would get grossed out if you ate with the left.) The food was also
the
best I've ever had.>>

ROFLOL!! I started to reply...EEEEWWWW! But the more I think about it, the
more I think WE are the eewwy ones!

Jennifer

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Julie Bogart

--- In [email protected],
SandraDodd@a... wrote:

>
> I have a bread machine that I use to do the first kneading,
because I have a
> hard time on long projects. I get bored and distracted. But if I
just come
> in and do the last kneading, forming and put in pans to rise
part after the
> machine beeps, that's about my speed.
>
> I've wondered seriously, though, whether the kneading by hand
from the
> beginning might be an important part of making the bread be
"right" and good. The
> warmth of human hands to get the yeast going, the positive
human energy, maybe
> the salt off people's skin, maybe who knows what off skin that
we don't even
> know, that has for thousands of years made bread good and
real?
>
> Sandra

Funny you should mention that...

When we lived in Morocco, I did make our own bread. They mix
the ingredients "backwards." They start with the dry and use cake
yeast. They don't measure anything. It's all by "touch." You slowly
add warm water from a tea kettle as you knead the dough. I loved
the squish, squish of the flour as the water would soak into the
flour. It was like playing! Once the proper texture was achieved
(only known by experience), it was shaped into circular loaves
and left to rest on a bread board with a tea towel over it. The
hands-on experience was everything in bread making.

I would then carry this board to the local ferhran (public oven)
and there it would be baked in a wood burning oven with dozens
of other loaves. You could smell the bread baking down the
street.

Later in the morning, I'd return to pick up the two loaves.

Such memories. I'll bet if you could walk in the sweet sunshine
of Morocco to a public oven, you'd enjoy bread making more. I
know I did.

Julie B

glad2bmadly

I have thought about this too. I have a bread book called The Tassajahara Bread Book by Edward Brown. In his intro. to the 1995 edition that I have he writes,

"Someone told me recently that learning how to bake bread from my book was like regaining his life from corporate America. "A rite of passage" he said,... "an initiation", a reconnection with the earth, our roots, our common heritage...Please carry on the work of feeding, the work of the heart... What you knead is what you get"

The baker/writer, Ed Brown, lives in a zen community. His book is good. I don't know that it convinced me completely however since I use a corporate American Kitchenaid to do most of my kneading! But I got inspired by his recipes to make my own bread, several kinds. And I know that the more I knead, the better it tastes. Though I have never asked anyone else eating my bread if they noticed a difference : )
-Madeline ( who also loves to eat with her fingers but tries to mostly eat with utensils at the table)

SandraDodd@... wrote:

In a message dated 6/8/03 6:09:36 PM, julie@... writes:

<< And Moroccans used to say that using steel (forks) ruined the

flavor of the foods and it also cooled the food down too quickly.

Fingers preserve flavor and heat! :)


Julie B >>

I have a bread machine that I use to do the first kneading, because I have a
hard time on long projects. I get bored and distracted. But if I just come
in and do the last kneading, forming and put in pans to rise part after the
machine beeps, that's about my speed.

I've wondered seriously, though, whether the kneading by hand from the
beginning might be an important part of making the bread be "right" and good. The
warmth of human hands to get the yeast going, the positive human energy, maybe
the salt off people's skin, maybe who knows what off skin that we don't even
know, that has for thousands of years made bread good and real?

Sandra

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Karen McLaughlin

Julie wrote:
" I would then carry this board to the local ferhran (public oven)
and there it would be baked in a wood burning oven with dozens
of other loaves. You could smell the bread baking down the
street.

Later in the morning, I'd return to pick up the two loaves."


OMG, this is too cool!

Morocco is getting higher and higher on my list of places to visit!!!

Karen