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My experience with a very exotic American meal: Macaroni & Cheese
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| Lira |
I'm 27 years old and tonight, for the first time, I had Macaroni & Cheese for dinner. The purpose of this thread is to show how something very familiar to you may be completely exotic to someone else not so far away. Because, believe me, it was nothing like I imagined!
My brother's ex came back from the US and brought me some Macaroni & Cheese. I didn't even know what it looked like: I remember hearing about it in American sitcoms but I don't think I've ever seen someone actually eating the stuff. In my naive imagination, I just thought they bought pasta and laid slices of cheese on top of it. Because, you know, that's what I do. I was surprised to find out it was actually a product that came in a box: I didn't expect people to buy a box of pasta and cheese slices when you simply could slice the cheese yourself.
My first shock was the moment I actually saw the box. Macarrão in Portuguese is used to describe any sort of pasta that is made of smallish pieces (except for gnocchi). Spaghetti, fettuccine, penne - they're all macarrão, but spaghetti is the quintessential macarrão. I was therefore very disappointed to see that the so-called macaroni was just a bunch of small pasta tubes cut into short pieces - as though a ninja had played with my noodles before I had the chance to. I didn't really expect it to be hollow either, but I didn't mind that.
I then read the instructions. I should first cook the macaroni, drain it, put it back in the pan and then recook it with milk, butter... and cheese powder!? I'm used to buying cheese in big chunks, and sliced cheese isn't really unusual -- but powder? How processed does cheese need to be until it becomes powder?
So I did it according to the instructions. Cooked it, drained it (though it was hard not to rinse it because some macaroni got stuck in the pan), put it back in the pain with some butter, milk, and the orange substance also known as cheese powder. I was very suspicious in the beginning because I've never seen cheese that orange and no matter how much I heated it, it just wouldn't melt. Slowly I realised that cheese powder is just like chocolate powder: it's not really chocolate until I put some milk on it. So I poured some more milk on the powde -- JESUS CHRIST, THE CHEESE IS LIQUID!!!
Now that's something entirely knew to me. I had seen cheese in almost all possible states of matter: cheese is solid when I buy it, cheese is gassy when it makes you fart, and I like to think that plasma is somewhat like melted cheese. But, liquid!? Well, there's cheese sauce, but that's semi-solid because it's semi-cheesy. That isn't semi-solid, that's liquid right there, you can actually slurp it down!
Stunned and astounded, I waited for the magic to end and, when the milk and the powder became one, I poured it in a plate with lettuce because... well, pasta is supposed to be healthy and it didn't look healthy at all.
It tasted delicious, like cheddar... but it was hard as hell to eat with a fork, and it soon proved to be a challenge. The pasta is too tiny! After three or four frustrated attempts in which I spilled liquid cheese all over my desk, I decided to eat it with a spoon. The length of the macaroni had already made me feel like a kid: eating it with a spoon didn't make me feel any more adult. But, it was tasty and exotic, so I gave it a try.
Finally, I managed to eat it. It felt strange and new, but it was really good. I can now tell people I ate "Macaroni & Cheese" and that it tasted better (and looks more childish) than "Spaghetti with Mozzarella", which is the closest thing we have down here. What sort of cheese is that anyway? Cheddar? Cheddar is not supposed to be orange. I'm afraid to find out that didn't come originally from a cow, but from a meth lab in Kentucky. On second thought, that would be kind of awesome. Someone could add some more caffeine to the powder and I'd feel hyped up after I finish my meal. However, there was no caffeine in my liquid cheddar, so I'm just sleepy and sluggish now.
But, boy, was it worth it! |
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| Sunsnail |
| cheddar is orange :wtf: |
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| MeLLyMeL |
fallingmoon just instant messaged me saying she wanted to do mac & cheese for dinner.. but... not the box kind. She wanted to make it herself with white cheese.
w-t-f
like 2 mins ago, too! |
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| Capitalizt |
| It is even more tasty with breaded fish sticks. Get some of those in the frozen section next time and bake/fry them up. Fish sticks for entree...Mac n cheese as a side dish. Mmmm...Mmmmm |
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| Lira |
^^^ I'm a vegetarian, but that's interesting. Do you like fish sticks? I mean, do you like to put fish sticks in your mouth? :p
| quote: | Originally posted by Sunsnail
cheddar is orange :wtf: |
I looked it up on Wikipedia and found this:
Looks yellow to me :D
Well, to be fair, I scrolled down a bit and found this other picture:
Not all Cheddar cheese is orange, but it can be. Heh, the more you know... |
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| EddieZilker |
Nice story.
My kids use the orange stuff with slices of American Cheese. As a kid, myself, I used to have that with fried fish at the local cafeterias, in Austin, TX. |
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| Lira |
You know, I don't think we have breaded fish sticks down here. At least, I've never seen anyone around here buying it, talking about it, or having it. I didn't know it existed until last year, because of that South Park episode with Kanye West.
I wonder if that's yet another North American thing. |
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| Chris Crossland |
Now mix in tuna fish!
You have new adventure ahead of you!:D |
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| leph555 |
| Cheese makes me A LOT |
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| Lira |
| I'm a vegetarian, Chriss... and I don't have any more Mac & Cheese :( |
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| igottaknow |
| What's next Lira experiences a P&J sandwich? |
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| bas |
The powdered cheese kind is not that great, the "premium" stuff comes with a cheese sauce. Much better :p
Some of the gastropubs out here get crazy with the mac & cheese, blending several different cheeses together, adding spices etc. The best is oven baked black truffle mac & cheese :crazy: |
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