Whip up
Today’s culinary expression is to “whip up.” To whip up is to quickly make a meal or something to eat. I’m just going to whip something up real quick—that means you’re just going to prepare something quick, usually with whatever you have in the house.
We’re coming up on our American Thanksgiving holiday—they had theirs already in Canada—but at Thanksgiving, we make a huge meal, with a turkey and lots of side dishes, veggies, potatoes, stuffing, sauce, lots of things on the table. You can’t just whip up a Thanksgiving dinner! You need to plan it way in advance and cook the whole day.
What kind of food can you whip up? You can whip up some pasta. You can whip up an omelet. You can whip up a salad. You can use it in a general sense. What are we going to have for dinner tonight? “I don’t know,” you might answer. “I’ll whip something up.” That generally means you’ll make something out of the ingredients you have. JR can whip something up in the kitchen. A couple of tomatoes, chiles, garlic, a tortilla, some type of chicken—in 20 minutes, he can whip up a good Mexican meal, no problem.
Can you whip up a cake? Not really. That’s too much effort. Can you whip up a sandwich? I would also say “no.” To whip up means you have to be mixing ingredients. Making a sandwich is not sophisticated enough.
Wasn’t there a TV show, one of those reality kitchen shows, in which the contestants have to use whatever they can find in the kitchen to make a sophisticated meal in like 20 minutes? The whole show was based on the contestants’ ability to whip something up in a short period of time.
Quote of the week
Today’s quote of the week is by Vikas Khanna, a famous Indian chef, and the chef at my favorite Indian restaurant outside of India itself—Junoon in New York City, right near the Flatiron building. Here’s the quote: “A great introduction to cultures is their cuisine. It not only reflects their evolution, but also their beliefs and traditions.” Vikas Khanna has a great story—he’s now the host of MasterChef India, a television show over there. If you’re a foodie, he’s got a mouth-watering Instagram account. And he produced a film called “The Last Color,” so he’s jumping from one art to another. Here’s the quote again: A great introduction to cultures is their cuisine. It not only reflects their evolution, but also their beliefs and traditions.” Indeed.
That brings us to the end of today’s program. I mentioned before I’m not really into the restaurant meal delivery, but I am into grocery delivery. That’s another thing that’s becoming popular here. I won’t do one right away, but let me know if you want to hear an episode about that—that’s also a trend that’s reshaping the economics of a big industry here in the US.
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