Can We Talk 2

State Plate

         There's a show on INSP that I love to watch. It's a half hour show devoted to a different state each week. Taylor Hicks, a singer, is the amiable host. They try to pick out the most iconic food from each state, starting with an appetizer, and ending with dessert. Taylor samples the dishes, helps to prepare them, and sometimes to fish or hunt for the ingredients.

         For example, last season California was featured. I can't remember all categories, but they showcased avocados, almonds, and artichokes. I guess they got stuck at the beginning of the alphabet. Almost all artichokes in the USA come from California. Taylor had to go to the fields and harvest the artichokes, which involves tossing them into a pack on your back. Various cooks prepare each dish, so you only see them one at a time. There is never a whole meal at once.

         In Oregon, the main dish was the Dungeness crab, which he had to fetch himself. A side dish involved hunting for truffles which are buried in moist, sandy soil in the woods. These truffles are mixed into a macaroni and cheese. In maryland, the main dish was the blue crab, steamed, not boiled. The side dish was oyster stew. This is served with beaten biscuits. The dough has no yeast or leavening. It is beaten literally until it rises.

         Minnesota featured a strange mushroom, that we can't get in my part of the world. They promise it has a hearty, earthy flavor. They saute it in butter and use as an appetizer. The side is a potato batter flat bread from Northern Europe. It's cooked on a griddle like a pancake, handled carefully, and rolled up. It's eaten plain. Taylor had to make his own, and it took a lot of practice.

         Today I watched the Washington state episode. The appetizer is made of geoduck (pronounced gooey duck-that's how they tell if you're a stranger). It's a type of clam (a bivalve) that has been planted in the mud along the ocean.When they're a few years old, you have to dig elbow deep into the mud and feel around. This weird looking thing comes up out of the mud. There are lots of recipes for it, cooked and raw. For the state plate, they sliced up the clean geoduck and mixed it with salad greens and edible flowers. The main dish was salmon. There are several types in Washington. They catch them as they swim back from Alaska. Each has a slightly different flavor. The fisherman feathered favored the coho, which is what Taylor hooked from the boat.

         For the side dish, he picked apples from this cool place. A city bought a small orchard that was about to be closed. Now it's a public orchard and park, featuring concerts, cider pressing, and fairs. They have several varieties of apples, which they mixed to make stewed apples outdoors. It sounds like the recipe my grandmother used on the east coast, apples, butter, sugar, and cinnamon. That was the side dish.

         Dessert was a cream tart with freshly picked raspberries. Taylor showed us how to pick a good raspberry. Washington produces about 90% of America's raspberries. To go with the tart, he showed how to make expresso one cup at a time. Washington is known its blends of coffee and pressing specialties. There's even an art to how you add the milk.

         I would love to have a book with all 50 states. Not only do you get some food ideas and recipe overviews, you learn about your country the way you never did in school. I'm already guessing what he'll feature for my state.