It is all about the flavor and taste

I have always heard that "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Now days, I am beginning to believe that this thought has been replaced by "through his eyes". You see, I enjoy watching the cooking shows on television. Just about all the fancy chefs on these shows have gotten away from the taste and replaced it with how it looks on a plate.When I was growing up in the country, the gravy went on top of the mash taters. Now you see the chefs starting out with the gravy or sauce on the plate, then comes the taters and on top of that the meat or maybe the taters on top of the meat which ever the mood the chef is in. Then comes the vegetables on top of that. Who ever heard of piling all your food up in one stack.
Over the years I have known lots of people that in fact do not want the food items to touch each other on the plate. Well, I am not that picky. But I do believe in tradition. I like to taste my food items separate. I really think that the most important thing about cooking is making the food taste good. I want my food to taste so good that I want another serving, and another, and damn I am so full I could burst.
So many people want to go to a "cafe" that serves home cooking. They remember the way grandma cooked. Well, grandma believed in making it taste good. She flavored her food. She wanted it to taste good first of all. Some where down the line the world got in to such a fast pace that most folks did not take time to learn how to cook like grandma. And hey, these so called home cook buffet lines are not home cook meals. Most of the food taste like they open a can and dump the food into a hot bar pan. No seasoning what so ever. A good ole piece of ham hock in the Lima beans give them a lot of more flavor...... Don't you think?
I believe that flavors of our meals should blend. Make sure that your diner items blend together. One item should compliment the other. Like say for instance, you want french fries with those fried shrimp. Or maybe a bake potato with that steak. Then who ever sat down to a platter of country fried chicken with out good old mash potatoes and gravy.
You know it don't stop there either. Take a sandwich for instance. I hate it when you order a sandwich in a fast food joint, and they will pile up mayo, and cat sup on top of a bun, then pile lettuce, a skimpy slice of tomato on top of a piece of UN-seasoned meat then slap that on top of a dry piece of bun.
Flavors should blend right? So, lets build a sandwich here. First: take a toasted bun and apply mustard to the bottom, then maybe a little cat sup and pickle if you like. Next we would put a piece of well seasoned meat. Now if you are a cheese lover, you would put a piece of cheese here and melt it. Now comes the salad fix ins. You get plenty of ripe red tomato, salt and pepper to taste, then the lettuce. Now comes the mayo on the top piece of toasted bun. How that is a good hamburger. You see, the way I am thinking mustard tends to blend with the flavors of the meats and mayo tends to blend itself with salads, AKA lettuce and tomatoes.
You can make any sandwich by using this same formula from hamburgers to cold cuts. What ever you cook or fix to eat, remember to blend the flavors and heck fire, make it taste good. Remember this, a lot of people in this old world eat food to survive. Then there are a whole lot more of us that survive to eat......

from down on The Sugar Farm