Colorful food presentation

I like attractive presentation of food on the plate. One criterion is the color of the food, which does have an effect on perceived palatability (for example, blue-dyed mashed potatoes don't taste right to people).

The worst example I ever experienced was years ago in a diner across the street from my store. I had the special of the day: chicken-fried steak with white gravy, mashed potatoes with white gravy, and cauliflower--all on a white plate. White on white. The effect was really weird; everything just disappeared into the plate. (If you're not familiar with chicken-fried steak, it's a tenderized steak coated in flour and sauteed--so it looks kinda white.)

On the other hand, last night I prepared Swiss steak (I was cleaning out my freezer and used some leftover inexpensive cuts of beef), pasta sea shells, and green peas--on a white plate. The presentation was bright red, white and green--enough so that my favorite wife commented on the colors. Very tasty.

Any color tales from you?

Unfortunately, we're very familiar with the white-on-white thing. We have an tendency to end up with beige meals unless we really think about the color aspect.

Mike

Oncde when I was first starting out on my own I made Pennsylvania Dutch style Chicken Bott Boi (pronounced chicken pot pie, sort of an Amish style chicken and noodles) and corn with yellow corn muffins. Yellow, yellow and yellow. I tasted great, but as far as looks go . . .

Larry,

If your chicken fried steak comes out of the kitchen looking white?...send it back, man...its not cooked! It ought to be golden brown.



Richard

Notice I didn't say "white," I said "kinda white." At that restaurant it came out beige and when covered with white gravy, it looked "kinda white."

One of the most popular days at KFC around here is Tuesday, when chicken-fried steak dinners are offered for $2. Always a big line.

In a few days, the NM State Fair starts. Ahh, three weeks of grease.

Are you working your aunt's trailer this year? What is her speciality?

No, my stroke was a good excuse to stop working there. I don't miss it. The hours were horrible and the workload was incredible. And the blood connection was my uncle who died during the fair. Over the years afterward, the fun in it drained out and I was slowly made more of a slave. Besides, I'm far too busy running SouthWest Writers (http://www.southwestwriters.org) and my writing career.

I do plan on visiting the fair and flipping a burger or two for myself. And, especially, making myself a Philly steak sandwich. I like to think I made the best ones that came out of the trailer--I certainly got a lot of compliments.

For those who haven't heard this story before: one year my friend showed up and wanted to taste his first ever corndog. I made him a very special one: a quadruple-dipped multiple-deep-fried corn dog that was about 4 inches in diameter and must have weighed a pound. He was not impressed.

BTW, I ran a SouthWest Writers program on Saturday. While introducing the board of directors, I pointed out my wife who is the chair of the critique service. I told the audience that after watching the story last week of the Austrian girl who was kidnapped when she was ten years old, I had an epiphany. I finally figured out why she has stayed married to me for almost forty years--she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.