This is my long-awaited column on everything saucy. Ok, maybe not awaited by many but still, who doesn't love sauce, gravy, dips - all that fun stuff. For those of you counting calories, I promise you that today's column has zero calories.
We as a society, I really believe, just love to put stuff on our food. It makes bland food palatable and good food amazing.
I think we can start with gravy - the king of all sauces. Being that Thanksgiving was only a week ago, I'm sure many people are still adding turkey gravy to everything. Can you imagine turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing without gravy. I bet some of you put it on your vegetables. That's acceptable, right? I won't tell.
Chicken, roast beef, roast pork - all better with gravy. Chicken-fried steak or steak-fried chicken? Who knows? Who cares? It just sounds so yummy. Swiss Chalet built an industry around their dipping sauce. No one goes there for the chicken or fries. You go there for that delicious sauce.
Now let's move on to the sides. Funny that sides are meant to bolster the main meat dish but they in fact seem incomplete themselves without some sort of sauce. French fries are the big daddy of the sides. When you order fries what's the first thing the waiter asks? Do you want gravy with that? Of course. You've already got ketchup. Some like vinegar - white, malt, heck I'm sure some even like balsamic. Why not add gravy. Can you eat (slurp) soup plain? That's just silly. It's a liquid (mostly) but hey we can add spices and hot sauce and crackers. Pretty soon you can barely recognize what you're eating.
Burgers and hot dogs are a backyard barbecue staple. Everybody knows you can't have a burger or dog without the proper accoutrements: ketchup, mustard, mayo, cheese, bacon, pickles, peppers, pickled peppers, etc. Of course, cheese and bacon are another subset. They make damn near everything taste better. Not exactly a sauce, although cheese can be melted down.
Nowadays there are entire aisles dedicated to sauces. Everything from Asian styles like Szechuan, Hoison, Thai and so on. The aforementioned ketchup, mustard and mayo are now available in multiple flavours including spicy, honey and most likely Szechuan.
And we all know that pumpkin pie, really any pie, is just a whipped cream delivery device. Mmm pie.
- Lindsay is the Mountain View Gazette reporter
