Rolled ice-cream - food as theatre
"Your flash is your cash"
They charge around US$6.00 for this in New York. Well you actually get four or five of these rolls in a cup with various toppings. I learnt about this from one of the ladies in my Italian class who had just returned from there. She had a video - and I did find one on YouTube - which you can also see by clicking here. It's a really fun thing so do watch it. As far as I can see, in Melbourne there is Scroll in Windsor where you can get it but it's hardly a big thing yet. In NYC it is big.
It's actually sometimes called Thai stir-fried ice cream because it originated in Thailand around 2009 (why? how?), quickly spread to Malaysia and Cambodia and then to the US. It's called stir-fried because it's made on something that looks like a teppanyaki plate, but obviously isn't - the plate is not heated - it's frozen. And that's just about all I can tell you about rolled ice cream but it got me to thinking about other food experiences that are a bit of a performance, and why we like them.
I mean, does this ice cream actually taste any better than a good 'normal' ice cream? Yes it's made with fresh fruit but who knows how good the actual ice cream bit is? The excitement, even joy, of eating something like this is that you have the bonus of watching someone do apparently clever things - it's a kind of magic and the food will seem to taste better for it. And also, it must be said, you might well be on holiday too - which also adds its own special bit of magic.
At home, cooking is usually something that just happens. There is no flashy theatricals about it. But even at home and in our little everyday lives there are sometimes magical performance things. I used to love watching the fish and chips cooking in the chip shop - all that golden hot fat bubbling away - and it was a really special thing when we made pancakes - will it get dropped on the floor when you try and toss it? Should you try and toss it at all? Rolling brandy snaps around a rolling pin was pretty magical and also making toffee. One of my most vivid memories is of making one kind of toffee that you had in a long kind of rope that you had to fold and pull, fold and pull until it was shiny and streaky - and then of course it all went hard. Alchemy in the kitchen and so exciting for children. I'm not sure we do such things much anymore - though I did see my daughter-in-law making pitta at home the other day which apparently the grandchildren like doing too.
Outside we have barbecues - an everyday thing which men especially seem to enjoy. It's more than just cooking sausages isn't it?
Not sure how magical barbecues are foodwise though, because the food often ends up burnt but it is indeed a lot of fun standing round the flames with a beer in hand. I fondly remember several holiday barbecues (and home ones too) and also what I guess was my first experience of barbecued food, when they barbecued almost everything in Yugoslavia. And speaking of fire, what about roasting potatoes wrapped in foil in the Guy Fawkes bonfire? All simple things but more than just an ordinary meal. It turns dinner into an occasion with memories. And I suppose a sausage sizzle outside Bunnings or at the football game is a fun thing too. A step up and you have the spit roast. I can't say I have ever done one but I have friends who once spit roast a lamb in their garden for a big party for a special occasion - and yes, that did seem to taste better. Maybe it was something to do with the occasion, with the drink that goes with it or the flames - I sometimes think that men are minor pyromaniacs at heart.
Then there are the not at home, but these days pretty ordinary things, like tossing pizzas and the tandoori oven. It's showmanship to get you in and as a side benefit it keeps the children amused whilst you wait for your food.
These things could be done behind the scenes after all - there is no need to have them out front on view. But again - fun. And candy floss - so pink, so fluffy, so seemingly something out of nothing.
There is most likely a very long history of street food - not just food being sold in the streets, but food being made in the streets too. After all they have found such places in Pompeii and other ancient sites, so why not? In fact it was probably easier to cook in the open air in a warm climate than out. I found one quote that seemed to suggest that it was a more recent thing - but I don't think this is right - maybe it just applies to aristocrats and the middle classes and in England at that.
“When people wore hats and gloves, nobody would dream of eating on the street. Then white golves went out of style and, suddenly, eating just about anything in the street became OK." Jane Addison
I really think this is completely wrong. There were village fairs and fetes and picnics, so even if you are only talking about England I think it doesn't quite ring true.
And of course, all over the world people have been preparing and eating street food for centuries. Not just in Asia, which is traditionally thought of as the home of street food. Here are two from Europe - paella from Spain - very usually found in French markets too - and crèpes in Brittany. The paella shown here is a modest size - there are sometimes absolutely massive ones made at festival time and competitions to see who can make the biggest.
Nowadays it's a fashionable thing to eat street food. Local farmer's markets always have a few food stalls cooking something, and then there are happenings like the Night Market at the Queen Victoria Market which runs all through the summer. Pop-ups are a recent trend and they almost always involve cooking something for all to see - and the more panache and showmanship you have as you do it the better. It makes people part with their money. "Your flash is your cash."
And finally there is the restaurant scene. There are two aspects to this.
Firstly there is the fact that increasingly the kitchen - or at least the flashy part of it - is on show and not hidden away at the back. Washing up and chopping up stuff is still hidden away - nothing flashy about that - but the final cooking and plating is on show. It must be an extra component of chef training these days.
The second part is the preparing food at the table thing. I suspect this is mostly a thing of the past - remember Crèpes Suzette, and Caesar Salad and the general craze for flambéed things? It was really exciting stuff, and my boys got hooked on to Caesar salad because of it. So I shall be forever grateful for that.
I don't think they do as much of that as before. But there is teppanyaki where Japanese chefs do amazing things with knives and flames right in front of your eyes. I guess Korean barbecues are a bit the same - well not really - because it's you who do the cooking, but it's definitely a performance thing.
A recent memory of food as theatre is a meal at Vue de Monde in Melbourne. The whole evening was theatre really but I particularly remember the cucumber sorbet - in which some herbs were placed in a stone bowl, liquid nitrogen was poured over them - imagine the flourish and complete surprise of that, and then the most delicious cucumber sorbet placed on top. Superb. And there was also a kangaroo fillet cooked on a hot rock at the table. I don't think this photo is the kangaroo fillet, but obviously the same performance. It was all more than theatre really. It was art. And it added substantially to the specialness of the occasion even though without it the food would have tasted just as superb. Very expensive but worth every penny.
So keep an eye out for performance food and think of little things you could do at home to make it all a tiny bit more exciting. Have a bonfire (not in summer please), and roast potatoes in the ashes and marshmallows in the flames. Yum.
