And a Side of Imperialist Pasta Salad
Could Bob Evans be replacing Bill Knapp’s in the hearts of Ann Arborites? A “Connection” reader asks for the recipe for Evans’ “Colonial salad dressing.” The cornstarch, water, vinegar and margarine-based dressing also contains a lot of celery seed.
I don’t get it, is there even a Bob Evens in Ann Arbor ?
posted by Dan on March 5th, 2004 at 7:21 pmaaio
posted by ilya on March 5th, 2004 at 7:39 pmThings kind of slow “down on the farm.”
Is everyone on spring break or do you simply need a meatier topic?
Ilya
I kinda wonder if the colonists had the time to grow one of the highest-maintenance vegetables around. Celery needs lots of fertilizer and a ton of water and overall much more coddling then something like tomatoes…seems unlikely this difficult plant would be high on the list of someone just trying to grow enough food to scrape through another winter.
posted by sillyputty guy on March 5th, 2004 at 7:45 pmBut tomatos are poisonous!
posted by js on March 5th, 2004 at 9:12 pmThat’s why cabbage and potatos are the only safe foods.
js
Everyone is assuming that “colonial” refers to Great Britain’s colonies in North America in the 18th century. But there have been many colonies in many parts of the world in many eras, and each one of them is “colonial”.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on March 5th, 2004 at 11:39 pmOops, sorry about the double post.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on March 5th, 2004 at 11:39 pmHmm, maybe Larry’s right. If Bob Evans is really experimenting with a French-Algerian salad dressing I should really check it out.
posted by Nick on March 5th, 2004 at 11:42 pmUnenlightened souls here on AAIO may be terribly narrow-minded in assuming that a blandly all-American restaurant is referring to the American colonies when it uses the term “colonial,” but I for one am reassured to know that the worldly if nauseatingly PC AAite stroller-pusher Bob Evans clientele is doubtlessly interpreting the term “colonial” as referring to India, Algeria, Vietnam, et cetera, in all its historical complexity.
posted by Laura on March 6th, 2004 at 12:22 amDidn’t you just repeat Nick’s joke Laura? How bourgeois.
posted by Alan on March 6th, 2004 at 12:47 amI did, Nick. How bourgeois of me, indeed. I sentence myself to three weeks of sensitivity training by one af AA’s many “life coaches.” Pray for me please.
posted by Laura on March 6th, 2004 at 1:07 amThe first lesson the life coaches will teach you is that prayer is unnecessary — and doubly so for the bourgeois. Three more weeks, Laura.
posted by RDS on March 6th, 2004 at 1:36 amThe sad thing is my cupboards are pretty bare but I have all of the ingredients for that dressing. I am SET.
posted by Sara on March 6th, 2004 at 7:47 amIt’s depression-era food. You’re supposed to have all the ingredients even when your cupboards are bare.
posted by js on March 6th, 2004 at 12:41 pmjs
I wish there were more, um, non-colonial recipes like that, after cooking out of books where every recipe leaves me with mostly-unused containers of four kinds of fresh herbs.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 6th, 2004 at 2:40 pmColonial dressing is passe. I wonder if the Annarbour News can give us a good recipe for Post-Colonial Salad Dressing.
posted by Boris on March 6th, 2004 at 3:08 pmCan somebody tell me what a “life coach” is?
posted by Alex on March 6th, 2004 at 5:34 pmLaura - Heh.
posted by Anna on March 6th, 2004 at 6:10 pmActually, Laura, I didn’t get the impression you were making the same joke as me. Nor would I recommend consulting a “life coach” even if you had - if I learned anything in my time in Los Angeles, it’s that a steady regimen of yoga, tantra, aromatherapy, past-life regression, kabbalah, pilates, rolfing, insight meditation, New Age therapy, and Ramakrishna Hinduism can make any problem even more intractable than it was before.
posted by Nick on March 6th, 2004 at 9:00 pmIt’s too late, Nick: I’ve already signed up for six weeks, due to RDS’s recommendation. And I agree with Boris; in this postmodern, postcolonial age, it’s nothing short of blood-curdling to see an Ann Arbor (!) institution stubbornly clinging to discredited and repressive ideologies.
posted by Laura on March 7th, 2004 at 12:20 amI have to say, Nick, that Rolfing is the funniest massage term there is. And the actual procedure seems even more ludicrous. An exceptionally painful resetting of all of your bones? Sign me up! I hear you even have to adjust your rear-view mirrors afterwards!
posted by js on March 7th, 2004 at 11:30 am(Why couldn’t it just be a dog teaching you to play piano? Or theraputic vomiting?)
js
Actually, the most amusing people in LA are the kabbalah people. Who would have thought that all you needed to do to gain riches and good fortune from God was to trace the Hebrew letters from the Torah with your fingers? I wonder if they recognize Gutenberg as a prophet.
Enjoy your 6 weeks, Laura. May these help you on your journey:
posted by Nick on March 7th, 2004 at 12:10 pmhttp://here-and-now.org/IMSB/pages/IMSB.home.html
http://www.vedanta.org/wiv/monastic/wim.html
Thanks Nick. The Santa Barbara spot is tucked away in such a beautiful area that–heck–anyone would feel better just by being there. However, the vedanta folks specify that a convert to the monastic life must be 35 or younger–so I missed that by a year, unfortunately. They also require that a monastic have a high school diploma, for some mysterious reason.
posted by Laura on March 7th, 2004 at 10:13 pm