Brown Food

The Late Night Gourmet

The Late Night Gourmet

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Brown is a natural color in the following:
  • Chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter
  • Nuts
  • Grains
  • Mushrooms
Brown is also a shade of certain varieties of the following:
  • Beans
  • Rice
  • Bread
  • Sugar
And, brown is the end result of many cooked things, like meats, fried foods, tortillas, and breads. And, one of the most used vegetables in the world - the potato - has a brown exterior.

I'm thinking about this after posting the picture of another brown meal I served my family. Times I want to add not-brown things to the recipe often get scuttled: I know my family won't like it.
  • Peppers are green, red, yellow, and orange. They don't like bell peppers, which they'll pick around as they eat. Hot peppers can render a dish inedible if they're too spicy.
  • Green onions and cilantro make a beautiful garnish that goes nicely with Asian foods. But, no one else likes either of them.
  • Vegetables are usually green. To this day, I still make my adult children at least try vegetables I've prepared, but they will always avoid them. My wife loves different greens, however, so I often include Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and so on with a dish.
  • Squash, zucchini, and the like? Yeah, right.
  • Red is okay as long as it's a sauce on a (brown) pasta.
So, I often end up serving chicken or beef with potatoes (usually cut as fries). Most recently, I also served rice (also brown).

I think there's a sort of color-coding for food with some people:

brown = safe
not brown = risky

I prepare a brown meal that tasted great, and I see how boring it looks after I take a picture. So, I try to dress it up. I think modern "picture taking food culture" helps drive more interesting-looking foods. This is a good thing, even if most of my family doesn't agree.
 
We like colors.

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JAS_OH1 said:
I think it’s terribly sad to cook food for picky people who complain when you try to brighten it up.
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We all have our likes and dislikes, of course, but thankfully, MrsT isn’t picky overall. About some things, yes, but on the balance, she’s generally happy that someone else (me) is making her food.

It doesn’t happen much these days, but several years ago, we’d have family stay over, either adults or teens, and I used to dread cooking for them, because this one wouldn’t eat onions, and that one wouldn’t eat peppers, and this other one wouldn’t eat something else, and I always felt hamstrung cooking for them, and since I refused to make separate versions for others, I’d make recipes that left out whatever some people wouldn’t eat, and I’d eat it and think, “This could have been so much better…”
 
TastyReuben said:
We all have our likes and dislikes, of course, but thankfully, MrsT is picky overall. About some things, yes, but on the balance, she’s generally happy that someone else (me) is making her food.

It doesn’t happen much these days, but several years ago, we’d have family stay over, either adults or teens, and I used to dread cooking for them, because this one wouldn’t eat onions, and that one wouldn’t eat peppers, and this other one wouldn’t eat something else, and I always felt hamstrung cooking for them, and since I refused to make separate versions for others, I’d make recipes that left out whatever some people wouldn’t eat, and I’d eat it and think, “This could have been so much better…”
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Yes. Ifs bad enough when it's occasional guests. Thankfully my stepchildren were young enough when I came into their lives I was able to shape their tastes, except for my oldest (stepson) who had the brain tumor and never evolved. He could live on pepperoni pizza, which is mostly reddish brown and orange. But his sisters are all adventurous eaters. When I met them they all would only eat iceberg lettuce and carrots in salads and forget about tomatoes, onions, radish, ec.

Mr. OH and I would not be together if he was a very picky eater and didn't enjoy most of the same foods I love. Similar food tastes was on the top of my list, right up there with religion and politics. Which is probably why I didn't settle down until I was 37, lol!
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Similar food tastes was on the top of my list,
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We both saw our food similarities (heavy German comfort food, mainly) as a bonus more than a requirement, but I’m glad it worked out that way.

When we were dating and first married, I didn’t cook every night, like a do now (well, nearly every night). It was easy to have differing tastes, because she could order that nasty-ass shrimp she likes, I could order red-eye gravy, and it didn’t matter.

Now, though, if we had vastly different tastes…well, I guess she’d be eating pre-fab boxed stuff. 🤷🏻
 
I do think there's some hope, however. I made Jambalaya for the Rice challenge, and I didn't expect anyone to want it, since it was not only spicy, but also contained colors other than brown. But, some of the family liked it. I know that they aren't looking at the colors and demanding brown...it's just that few things that aren't brown seem to meet their approval.

I do think this has to do with getting into a comfort zone. My wife goes through stretches where she only orders grilled chicken sandwiches when we go out; of course, she wants the sandwich plain, with maybe ranch dressing as a dip. She likes grilled chicken sandwiches, so why not order it rather than taking a chance at something new? Then, she gets sick of grilled chicken sandwiches and wants something else. This does dictate where we go out to eat at times.

I will continue to make things I like at times, along with concessions to the more picky eaters when I make a family meal. I'm just glad I like burgers and grilled chicken, but I can't eat nothing but that.
 
I was pretty sure I didn't like lamb before I joined this forum. I'd tried lamb chops on hubby's plate at restaurants and it was just ok. But murphyscreek was the 1st to open my eyes and rascal was next. Now I adore it!

I am terribly picky with some colorful foods, such as sweet potatoes, cooked carrots (unless in soup or stew) and a few others. And sone spices are not my favorites. But I think there's always a way to introduce some color variations. With most people anyway.

But yeah, The Late Night Gourmet, if I was still cooking for my stepson constantly I'd be out of my head. Closing off part of the house for him after building the addition was a sanity saver.
 
This has got my brain going ... Brown Food ... this is why most restaurants/diners/grilles/pubs you get the idea... use white dishes?
To make the food "pop" for the diner? Make it more eye appealing?
I have all (well, mostly) white bowls, plates, platters, etc .... but I like the look of a clean white plate on the table.
I'm looking back at alot of my food photos and I don't make much brown - there's always some color on the plate, somewhere.
 
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