Learning to eat bitter

"Cuisine (from French cuisine, "cooking; culinary art; kitchen"; ultimately from Latin coquere, "to cook") is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture. Religious food laws can also exercise a strong influence on cuisine. For example, Indian cuisine is characterized by its wide varieties of vegetarian dishes because Hinduism discourages consumption of meat. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade. For example, the American-Chinese dish chop suey clearly reflected the adaptation of Chinese cuisine to the ingredients available in North America." (copied from wikipedia)

I enjoy trying foods from all over the world. I did before I went to Hawaii, but being there really allowed me to expand my horizons. (I guess many large cities offer a variety of cuisines. I do miss that about big city living, now that I am in a small town in Georgia.)

From the first place I was invited to in Hawaii, a Korean restaurant, I was introduced to new foods. On that occasion, I remember trying the kalbi a delicious ginger/garlic flavoring of ribs, that in Hawaii is called barbeque. It was quite like a recipe that my mom used to prepare, a dish she called simply "short ribs". Of course it came with rice, and kimchee. Kimchee an aquired taste, that over time I finally did begin to like, is a kind of pickled, spicy cabbage.

My mom liked to try different recipes and I had tried many dishes from around the world before I ever left home. But in Hawaii, I got to add to my list Hawaiian, Vietnamese, Thai, Filipino, Polish- namely pierogi, (curiously at a place that also offered Korean), many Chinese foods that I had never seen before, and probably some other I can't think of right now.

There's a place called Harry's Market in suburb on the north side of Atlanta which I enjoy going to. They offer things like bitter melon which is an ingredient of a Filipino dish that I love called pinacbet. If your lucky enough to be able to buy bitter melon, here's a recipe I found on line (I like the typo under yield):

Title: Pinacbet (Mixed Vegetable Dish)
Yield: 1 Servings

Ingredients

4 long eggplants
2 long bittermelons
1/4 lb sweet peppers
1/4 lb fresh or frozen okra
1/4 lb long beans
3 c water
1/4 c patis (fish sauce)
3 in ginger root, crushed
1 c fresh or frozen lima beans
2 md tomatoes, chopped
1 salt to taste

Instructions

Make lengthwise slit in eggplants and bittermelons, cut in 3" pcs. Remove seeds from bittermelons. Slit peppers. Cut off and discard okra stems. Cut beans in 3" lengths. In a large saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add patis, ginger, limas, and tomatoes; cover and cook on medium-high 10 min. Add the other vegetables. Cover and cook 15 min, or until tender, occasionally tossing vegetables in pot. Add salt if needed. Makes 6 servings.

Rudy Tamayo from Hawaiian Electric Company.

I will only add that another recipe I have says to stir gently or to kind of shake the pot gently.

I read recently that bitter foods aid in digestion.

Which reminds of a phrase that I learned from a movie that I saw a while ago. I wish I could remember what is was called. The Chinese have a phrase "eat bitter." They are taught the value of enduring hardship to "eat bitter". Sometimes we need to "eat bitter" to overcome problems in our lives. It was really well described in the movie, I would love to watch it again if I could remember what it was called.

Okay, I just googled "eat bitter movie". And with just a little bit of effort I found out the movie was called "Iron and Silk". I highly recommend it.

"You must eat bitter to taste sweet."