Hi, emglow:
Taste-wise? To me, most starches are vehicles for other flavors.
Texture-wise? Hard to beat crisped potatoes, al dente grains and crusty breads.
Addiction-wise? My body craves corn, and I have zero control to stop shoveling it in.
Aloha,
Kaleo
Cake, Bread, Pasta. White rice drives my blood sugar right through the roof.
How do you like your corn? I love corn tortillas, will eat them just plain and warm though with butter and salt or hot sauce is nice too.
Hi, Babette:
While corn in general is my downfall, fresh corn tortillas arenāt my weakness. But I am so addicted to corn I can down unlimited quantities of corn tortilla chips, Fritos and the like. When it comes to fresh tortillas, I usually prefer flour ones.
Polenta is like mainlining heroin for me.
Aloha,
Kaleo
Potatoes for me. Speaking of themā¦why does it seem so hard to find good potatoes up in the PNW? The proximity to prime potatoe lands should mean I could find good potatoes, but that seems like a prayer.
Hi, abc:
Hard? Youāre not looking in the right places.
In little Skagit County, Washington alone, there are >14,000 acres of potato production. There would be even more, were it not necessary to rotate this crop. These include virtually all of the red potatoes grown in WA, but also whites, yellows, purples, heirloom, chippers and fingerlings. Many quality local offerings available here. Hit the farmersā markets and roadside stands.
Aloha,
Kaleo
Yea, I hear you. I only recently moved here from overseas and it surprised me that most of the local super markets were all terrible. Sadly, the downtown Bellevue farmers market is overpriced and lacks selection. It doesnāt help that Iām without a car, but I guess Iāll have to see if Trader Joes is any better and also try the Redmond farmers market.
Redmond should be better. Try to get to Ballard or West Seattle. Those street markets are good.
PCC, Whole Paycheck and Metropolitan grocery stores have better spuds usually. Sometimes Grocery Outlet and Cash & Carry have good finds, just not dependable. TJās not so much.
Hie thee hither to the Pike Place stallsāspuds keep a long time. Do you have a spot in your garden or yard to hill them?
Thanks kaleo. Youāre one of the reasons I came over here from chā¦not to mention the atrocious web design they had.
Iāll try and get out to Seattle once the weather gets nicer. I miss having fresh markets within walking distance where I could buy items for that day. No need for a fridge except milk (could also buy fresh, but I drink too much) and ice cream etc.
No garden for now. Only renting and looking to buy in the next year or two. Any good suggestions?
The Bellevue farmers markets are pretty meager, I donāt know where people over there shop. Kaleoās reccs are good.
Italian or Spanish or Korean rice (Carnaroli, Bombaā¦).
Bintje potato.
If I had to choose one, it would be bread. That being said, you canāt beat a baked potato with steak, potatoes au gratin with ham, fresh corn on the cob (yellow, please), pasta in all forms, Thai fried riceā¦Yep, the starch love is endless:-)
Should we start the new trend? All starch diet!
Unfortunately, a great deal of the potatoes grown in WA are grown under contract for food processors (like Oreida), who turn them into frozen prepared french fries, hash browns and the like. Fewer and fewer farms are growing āfancyā potatoes meant for eating straight, and those potatoes definitely command a price premium. I work for a company that owns a large farm in the PNW as an investment, so I read a lot of farm and crop market reports about the area!
Yes, the same can be said about every region that grows potatoes. Not everyone is growing heirloom or Kennebec (yet), but where thereās a market, people are willing to fill it. Yukon Golds and small reds are recent examples.
Big Ag, big operations, big contractsāthey like to fill trucks and have that be the end of it, one big buyer. Same thing happened with apples, but thatās changing, too.
Sweet potatoes
Yukon Gold spuds
Wild Rice
Spinach pasta
Yes!!
Add polenta, please!
And spelt (tricky, this. Two species. The one you use for A risotto-like dish, called āfarro,ā and the other for flour. )
Count me in. Farro, polenta, all the grainsš
Hi. The grains get a lot of hate because they are ācarbs.ā Welp. Iāve struggled w/weight since I was a chubby kid and I know for me, if I exercise, whole grains are healty, sustaining, have a lot of fiber, donāt cause blood sugar spikes, and they are Tasty. Others may have an issue. But to me the old Jane Brody food pyramid works.
And they make the other foods, veg and protein, really sing!! Halleleulia!
No hate here. I am glad these grains are finally easy to buy at markets. My dr. encouraged me to eat the ancient grain list years ago and I was buying them thru the mailā¦no more.
