As they return home, those people on
Survivor hold a clear advantage over the rest of us, even without winning a million bucks. They're all set for what could be the next hot food trend, and it isn't grilled rat.
It's "bowl food." Sure, food in bowls has been around six or seven millenniums, since someone first sensed that half a gourd or a coconut shell was just the ticket for containing a primitive version of bouillabaisse--or maybe just rice, as the
Survivor castaways have found.
But eating from a bowl now looks to be taking on new cachet beyond the popularity of breakfast cereal and the occasional soup or stew.
Suddenly, restaurants specializing in "bowl cuisine" are starting to pop up about the country, joining a growing number of fast-food chains that have added "bowl" choices to their menu boards. More cookbooks with "bowl" in the title are appearing on store shelves. And more space in supermarket freezer cases is being devoted to "bowl" entrees.
"Almost every meal I eat, in restaurant or home, I eat out of a bowl. It's the most comforting way to eat, and probably the fastest way to eat," says Lynne Aronson, owner of the New York restaurant Lola and co-author of BowlFood Cookbook: 200 Exciting, Eclectic Recipes To Spoon, Slurp, Twirl & Di (Workman, 1998), published last year as perhaps the first in a rising tide of "bowl" cookbooks.
What's more, each lunch period Aronson transforms Lola into Lola Bowla, where every dish on the menu is served in a bowl. Comfort and speed, as she says, explain the appeal of bowl cookery. The friendly, accessible shape of the vessel itself evokes a sense of the familiar, even the nostalgic.
A bowl, if not too hot, just naturally nestles in the palm of your hand, making it ideal to hold in front of a television set or computer terminal, important dining considerations in these multitasking times. And unless you just are learning to use chopsticks, bowl foods tend to be fast and easy to eat. At this early stage in their evolution, not many standards exist, but one expectation is that ingredients are to be eaten as served, without recourse to a knife.
The contents of bowl foods, in other words, are to be chopped and sliced into bite-size pieces before the dishes are prepared, except for noodles, which only need teeth to be cut down to manageable size.
Another common though not universal thread is that bowl foods provide a complete meal in a single bowl. "You have everything you need in one bowl--starch, protein and vegetable," says Ginna Shannon, vice president and supervising partner of Big Bowl, a Midwestern and East Coast restaurant chain based in Chicago.
In that respect, therefore, bowl foods are an updated version of the old-time casserole.
On the other hand, two cookbooks recently published almost simultaneously take a three-bowl approach to bowl cuisine. Both stem from the multi-bowl dining custom of Zen monasteries. Three Bowl Cookbook (Tuttle, 2000) is based on dishes prepared at the Zen Mountain Center in the San Jacinto Mountains of Southern California, while 3 Bowls (Houghton Mifflin, 2000) is based on the cooking at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, a monastery in New York's Catskill Mountains.
Each student at each Zen center is given a set of three bowls of varying sizes. At meals, the largest of the bowls customarily holds the base of the meal, usually a grain or noodle, explain authors Seppo Ed Farrey and Myochi Nancy O'Hara in 3 Bowls. Some sort of stew generally is served in the middle bowl. A vegetable side dish, beverage or salad goes into the third and smallest bowl.
In both books, the dishes are vegetarian. In general, they have been inspired by the cooking of Japan, but several are drawn from other cultures, such as the roasted vegetable lasagna in Three Bowl Cookbook and the rice with black-eyed peas, collard greens and sweet potato in 3 Bowls.
For the most part, however, the growing popularity of bowl food is acquiring an Asian accent. Last year, Uncle Ben's Inc. introduced a series of 10 individual-serving frozen rice bowls, most of which are spin-offs of such popular Asian dishes as sweet-and-sour chicken. In May, encouraged by the success of the rice bowls, Uncle Ben's extended the line with its first non-rice product, four noodle bowls such as orange-glazed beef and honey ginger chicken.
Other companies are jumping onto the bowl wagon, including Healthy Choice with its line of Bowl Creations, Lucca Foods with Express Bowls, Seapoint Farms with Edamame Soybean Rice Bowls, King's Hawaiian and Jose Ole.
That bowl foods are so closely associated with the cooking of Asia comes as no surprise to Harry Balzer, vice president of NPD Group Inc. of Port Washington, N.Y., where for 20 years he has been tracking the nation's food behavior. "I think you'll see a lot of bowls coming out," predicts Balzer. Their proliferation, he adds, reflects the intensifying popularity of Asian cooking in the United States.
"There is growing interest in Asian cuisine. We see it in our restaurant data," Balzer says. "The Chinese and other Asian category of restaurants has grown 13 percent faster than the restaurant industry overall since 1993. Today, one out of every 12 restaurant visits is to an Asian restaurant."
That interest is spilling over into the American home, especially with respect to convenience foods. Thus, many of those foods are being tagged with "bowl," the one component common to Asian cuisines, despite their diversity in other respects, Balzer says. "'Bowl' conjures up Asia," he says. "'Bowl' gives you the feeling that you are eating something Asian, just as 'pasta' suggests something Italian."
And no cuisine is more adept at packing flavor, color and all the essential nutrients into one inviting container, indicates Ginna Shannon of Chicago's Big Bowl, where the menu started out eclectic but has gone strictly Asian since then. "When you think of eating from a bowl, you think of a complete meal, and Asian food essentially is that--you start with rice or noodles and then add chicken or beef or shrimp, and finish with the vegetables. You have everything you need in one bowl," Shannon says.
David SooHoo, owner/chef of Bamboo in Sacramento, saw the bowl movement coming five years ago, when he made bowls the centerpiece of his cafe, SooHoo's, since closed. "I knew that was the answer to the way the world was moving," says SooHoo, who prepares bowl dishes at Bamboo. "People have shortened time, and bowls are the solution that provide a lot of better food in one package ... It's a concept that is here to stay."
As more fast-food and casual-dining chains adapt bowls to their menus, Americans will become increasingly fond of the convenience, wholesomeness and variety they offer, SooHoo says. "In just a very short time, they will be delivered to you (like pizza)," SooHoo predicts. "As gas prices go up, the ones able to bring you the bowls will be the winners."
Japanese-Style Curry
Residents of the Dai Bosatsu Zendo have dubbed this dish "curry in a hurry" because it is often served for lunch on busy Saturdays. It's a longtime favorite and a staple dish for large groups. Serve over a bed of basmati rice with raisins and walnuts and with beet raita with dill, lime and honey (recipe follows).
Ingredients:
2-1/2 Tbs. curry powder, plus more to taste
3 Tbs. canola or corn oil
2 medium onions, halved vertically and thinly sliced
1 tsp. sea salt, plus more to taste
1 lb. Portobello mushrooms (stems and caps), cut into 1" cubes, or 1 lb. white mushrooms, halved or quartered (depending on size)
1-1/2 lbs. potatoes, cut into 1-to-1-1/2"cubes
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. cornstarch or potato starch
2-1/2 Tbs. tamari, plus more to taste
1 lb. tofu, frozen, thawed and torn into bite-size pieces, or 1 lb. firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes (optional)
1 cup frozen peas
raisins (optional)
walnuts, toasted and chopped (optional)
Preparation:
Whisk the curry powder into one cup cold water in a small bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and salt and saute), stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent, about eight minutes.
Add the mushrooms and saute until they begin to soften--about two minutes. Stir in the potatoes and saute for one minute more. Add four cups cold water and the curry mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes can easily be pierced with a fork--about 20 minutes.
Whisk the cornstarch or potato starch with the tamari and two tablespoons cold water in a small bowl. Add to the curry and stir gently until the sauce thickens. Gently stir in the tofu, if using, and the peas and cook until heated through--five to 10 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings with additional curry powder, salt and/or tamari, if desired. If you like, serve with small bowls of raisins and walnuts on the side.
Prep time: 15 min.
Cook time: 50 min.
Serves 4
Per serving: 343 cal.; 10 g pro.; 60 carb.; 7 g fat (1 sat.; 4 monounsat.; 2 polyunsat.); 0 mg chol.; 1260 mg sod.; 7 g fiber; 20 percent calories from fat.
Beet Raita with Dill, Lime and Honey
Raitas are usually served with spicy dishes to cool the palate. This nontraditional version does that in a vibrantly colorful manner. Serve with Japanese-style curry.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
2 Tbs. chopped fresh dill
1-1/2 tsp. honey
1-1/2 tsp. fresh lime juice
1 medium beet (about 1/2 lb.), peeled and grated
Preparation:
Whisk together the yogurt, dill, honey and lime juice in a medium bowl. Add the beet and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate and serve cold.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Serves 6
Per serving: 48 cal.; 3 g pro.; 9 carb.; 1 g fat (0 sat.; 1 monounsat.; 0 polyunsat .); 2 mg chol.; 52 mg sod.; 2 g fiber; 15 percent calories from fat.
