Can you identify this vegetable?
If you can, congratulations. If you cannot, you must be a sad, sad person. I don't say that in a mean, condescending way. I just mean that if you have not experienced the goodness of okra, then your life is not entirely complete. And to that end, I have met many callow, lifeless shells of human beings walking around here in the North; almost zombie-like creatures who had never tasted the goodness of okra. But it's okay now. We are trying to save their culinary lives, one yankee at a time.
It started on Halloween night. We had some friends over for snacks and a couple of funny "scary" movies, including The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, which every human being should see at least twice in their life. During conversation, we talked about where we were from, and the funny things we'd seen in different places, and I mentioned the fact that while working for a few days in Harrison, AR, I noticed that every place I ate at from Sonic to the local Chinese Buffet, all of them served fried okra.
One of our friends, originally from Oregon, said "What's that?" Suddenly realizing that not everybody in the room had the same background as I did, I tried to clarify. "Well, Sonic is like a fast food drive-thru, kinda like they used to have back in the '50s and '60s. A carhop comes out to the car..." I thought it was fairly reasonable that perhaps Sonic was more of a fair-weather chain, and someplace as rainy and cool as Oregon might not be able to support the nostaligc franchise. But then he interrupted me, "No, okra. What's okra?"
I stared at him in disbelief and glanced around the room. Everyone was staring at me with a blank look on their face. Superman from upstairs, originally from the Bronx, had no clue. ZeWrestler from New Jersey had no clue, the girl from Central New York, the freshman from Philadelphia, even Hatty from Virginia had no idea what this thing "okra" was. For those of you who do know what okra is, I have a challenge for you. Go out, find a person who has absolutely no concept of okra, and then try to explain it to them. This is good for no less than a half hour of amusement. It's even more fun if you really like okra, and want to try and convince somebody else it's good.
I tried describing what they looked like.
ME: "They're shaped kinda like peppers, only flat at the top."
PEACHES: "And furry."
ME:"Yeah, they look like furry peppers"
GUESTS: "Are they hot?"
M:"No, they're not hot."
G:"What do they taste like?"
V:"They're kinda slimy if you boil or steam them."
G:"Fuzzy, slimy, peppers?"
M:"Well, they're not peppers, they're....they're.... they're OKRA. You seriously haven't ever had them?"
G:"No, how do you cook them?"
M:"They're best when fried."
G:"Fried, fuzzy, slimy peppers?"
M:"They're not peppers!"
G:"But they're slimy?"
V:"Not if you fry it."
Finally, our guests relented to just look at us like we were crazy, and we continued with our movies. But after that, I started asking people we hung out with, "Do you know what okra is?" I was absolutely aghast at the number of people who had absolutely no knowledge of what it was. So Peaches and I decided to make it for some of our friends.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to find okra in Central New York in January?
Okay, actually, it's not that hard. The grocery chain had it in the freezer section, but apparently the only people that bought it are displaced Southerners looking for a taste of home. So we invited our Friday night Bible study group, including the Californian, our friend from Vermont, Chicka, and a couple of others, and I made fried okra and Peaches made some oven fried chicken. Good times. A couple of weeks later we made gumbo and threw in some more there.
So we're spreading the good news of okra. If you yourself have never had it, or you haven't had it in a while, do yourself a favor. Go to your local grocery store and see if they've got it in the pickle aisle. Pickled okra is your safest bet. That's if your nearby barbecue pit doesn't have fried okra, in which case, I wouldn't trust their barbecue.
