I was recently talking about wines with a person who insisted on the well-known reflection that The best wine is the one you like the most. It’s not like that. That you like something horrible does not make it good, it just makes you a person with bad taste in wine.
Although in tastes it is not possible to speak of absolutes, and that it is a subject in which there will always be a lot of subjectivity, we cannot be so lax as not to accept that parameters must be set, referential frameworks that serve as guides of what it is good and bad, rich or poor in flavor. Otherwise, there could be no aesthetics as a discipline, one that studies the conditions of the beautiful. Obviously not everything beautiful or rich is going to be our predilection, just as you may prefer a Gothic cathedral over a Baroque one, or cubist painting to the impressionist one, you cannot deny that Poppies Monet’s is a great painting.
In the same way, we can refer to certain ingrained eating habits in the idiosyncrasy and the ways of our people that little enrich our gastronomy.
The first is the omnipresence of rice. Not everything has to be eaten with rice. The casserole, for example, is a wonderful dish from our kitchen, a typical Spanish-influenced stew that was fully adapted to our basket of products. Rice has nothing to do with this dish.
The second, the mixtures and combinations. Rice, again, is not a good mix with other pastas. Lasagna and rice, for example, are a terrible idea on the same plate. The composition of a dish must have a certain coherence, as well as the management of light or angles in a painting, you have to think about certain details when structuring a dish and choosing the ingredients and their accompaniments. Maybe at this point one of the most disturbing things is the famous flag, a mixture of the unthinkable, all on the same plate, in addition to a plate without divisions, which allows the juices and fluids of each one to mix with each other. Here again we find rice, which is usually used as a bed, on which guatita, casserole and onion are combined, although I have also seen ceviche, guatita and dry flags. This dish, which has been a tradition for 40 years, seems more like an aberration to me.
Another custom to observe is the use of juices or sodas as a companion to food. They are a terrible pairing due to their high sugar level, 18 and 22 grams respectively per glass. The effect that this bombshell sugar -natural or synthetic- produces in the aftertaste modifies or dulls the other flavors. Wine or beer, among others, are great drinks to pair with meals, with just 1 or 2 grams of sugar per glass. (OR)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
