I crunched my empty rice cake and dreamed of lefse, mu-shu and spanakopetes. My hungry family frolicked in the surf on beautiful San Gregorio State Beach in Half Moon Bay, California while I laid out a pathetic picnic of celery sticks and peanut butter and wondered why in the world I hadn't thought of rissoles, samosas or lumpia. Wouldn't my swimmers just delight in rellenos or roti or any of the other endless varieties of wrapped foods that have come in handy at picnics ever since humans first took a liking to the mobile meal.
The Pacific Ocean sparkled and I thought of Balboa on these shores, surely he'd have had a handy wrapped lunch, an empanada at least, tucked away behind his wine flask.I guiltily remembered my own childhood picnics at Brooklyn's Coney Island where calzone, knish and blintzes were our standard "let's hit the beach" fare (along with the obligatory Dr. Brown's creme soda). New York was and still is a constant picnic, where wrapped foods from Chinatown's wonderful pork buns to the Polish/Ukrainian Lower East Side's incomparable perogies keep Knickerbockers moving and munching.
I sighed and salted the hard boiled eggs.
Wrapped foods prevail in the present and past of every culture I can name. Nicole Routhier, in her excellent book Cooking Under Wraps says:
"The traditional art of encasing food in wrappers such as noodles, edible leaves, vegetables, or pastry doughs is enjoying a big surge in popularity.... They are easy-to-eat, fun foods that combine the pleasure of eating something with your hands with the surprise of what's hidden inside the wrapper...Flatbreads may have been the first convenience food in history. As a good case in point, the Bible tells us that the Israelites carried unleavened dough with them in their hasty departure form Egypt....It is easy to imagine that these early breads may also have served as wrappers around stew like concoctions or pieces of cooked meats. Today's Mexican tortilla and Indian chapati, the Chinese po ping, and the American pancake are all direct descendants of those early unleavened flatbreads....In the seventh century, fried and steamed dumplings of meat encased in noodle dough were popular street snakes in China and Japan. These and other sophisticated noodle dishes were an important part of Asian cuisine. The Mongols and Tartars who swept across Asia into eurpope may have helped introduce or popularize them in eastern Europe, Russia, and Italy."
