Red Beans and Rice; Asian Style
More random thoughts on words:
Why do people refuse to understand and differentiate between similar sounding words…particularly if you are new to the language?
In Andorra mon mari and I were in a bar (place where beverages are served – orange juice to alcohol). He was starting to get comfortable with Spanish so he went up to order the coffee – 2 cortados (small espresso with hot milk…wonderful!) but he said cortadas (cut).
The guy handed him a knife and smirked.
I mean, come on, the words are not that different, especially when you remember the accent is on the second syllable, not the last.
If I went in to an American red-neck bar and ordered a bear, the bartender would probably smile and say 'Don't you mean a beer, little lady?' and hand me a brewski.
Of course, if my neighbor, Francois, did the same the guy would probably head out back looking for his pet grizzly….
When I was 3 my mother asked me what I wanted for lunch.
Even at that tender age I loved food! I asked for a Braunschweiger (liver sausage) sandwich.
Apparently mothers can be guilty of deliberate misunderstanding, as well. She made me a brown sugar sandwich! And made me eat it!
I was only 3!
(Jokes on her. Think about it – caramely brown sugar on fresh, creamery butter….how bad can that be?)
In Spain, after playing golf in the blistering heat, we would have a clara (beer and carbonated water - which was refreshing, thirst quenching and didn't get you dizzy like straight beer would)
Great… as long as you didn't say 'claro' to the waitress – meaning you agreed with whatever the last person ordered (hot tea anyone?).
I commented on this phenomenon to my Spanish teacher, who happened to be an English-speaking German.
She replied that Spanish was much harder to learn than English – the opposite of what I thought I knew. She went on to say how easy English was to learn to pronounce – everything was so orderly.
Okay, I'd had enough.
This was my native language, I knew where the pitfalls were for the unwary.
I gave her my ultimate test: pronounce 'bomb', 'tomb', and 'comb'.
She did.
Each word rhymed perfectly with 'bum'….
So, do you suppose that if a (insert nationality here), speaking less than perfect English, threatened to send a 'bum' to destroy your country, everybody would snicker and not 'understand' the stupid (insert pejorative descriptor here)?
So, do you suppose I'm going to get into trouble for deliberately cooking 'Red Rice and Beans' incorrectly?
Brown Rice and Beans, Oriental Style, for two
1/2 cup brown rice
1 cup chicken stock
15oz (450gr) red kidney beans
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 stalk celery
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1 tbs Balsamic vinegar
1 tbs dry sherry
2 tsp soy sauce
Cook rice in chicken stock, 15 minutes, or until done (check package directions).
While rice cooks, thinly slice onion and celery. Mince garlic. Open, drain and rinse beans. Heat oil in medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add paprika, onions and celery and sauté until tender, 6 – 8 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 2 minutes longer. Add beans, vinegar, sherry and soy sauce. Heat through. Cover and reduce heat to keep warm. When rice is done, stir into beans and serve.
This looks so yummy. I’m paralyzed until election day, though. Nothing special is coming out of my kitchen…
I love how you have such easy to make but nevertheless engaging and interesting recipes on your site.
Also I very much so admire your writing for it is colourful and has a lot to sink my teeth into.
Keep it up!
Smiles all the way, reminds of the tv-series “Állo, Állo” specifically one episode where they were in dire need of a pigeon to send a message, no pigeons available anymore, one of the characters asked: “but where is my flying dick”
There is no “wrong” way to do red beans and rice . . . all red beans and rice are good eating!!
I love words . . . great with the brown sugar sandwich – did you ask for it again and again 😉
Playing with words is fun! And yes Spanish is harder to learn than English!
Lots of english speaking people have laughed at me because instead of saying voice I pronounced boys… in Spanish b and v sound the same ;D
English is no better. My husband (who is Canadian and enunciates his words fairly well) went into a shop in London and asked for “garbage bags”. The fellow behind the counter (who looked like he had graduated from school) stared at my husband as if he were out of his mind. My husband tried another tack and asked for “plastic bags to put into the trash can in the kitchen”. Still no clue. A waiting customer jumped to the rescue by saying, “Did you mean ‘rubbish bin liners’?” Bingo! (But really, was it that much of a leap to have to make?)
Your red beans and rice look pretty correct to me. Good too, even though you used brown rice. 😉
Thanks for the lovely thoghts and comments, guys… I’m once again having more fun with words… Election? Hasn’t that happened yet? No internet, no TV… very isolated…
I’ll be reading and commenting again…some day…
LOL! I find this whenever I go to the continent. I’m one of those saddos who does in fact try to do basic things in a foreign language (tiene sellos por favor? Para Surafrica? etc etc) and the number of shop assistants that have pulled faces in total disgust, said “no English” and proceeded to serve somebody else because I was just making NO SENSE is just amazing.
I think over the age of 3 EVERY language is tricky. EUropeans seem to think English is easy just because we do not have 6 different verb forms and gendered nouns. But we have other issues – like through/tough/borough or mouse/mice, louse/lice and house/umm, houses of sheep/ummmmmm sheep!