Dr. Suess is one of the great literary figures of any child growing up. Green Eggs and Ham will typically be one of the first books a child will read once they can. It was one of the first books Janda and I read to our kids. And eventually, if you're like me, you will inevitably find a way to cook green eggs.
Just a little tangent before I get too far. You see, I can't confirm or deny that my brother or I convinced our dad to cook green eggs for us (dad was the resident kitchen adventure seeking type in our house). I can and will confirm that if in fact he did cook them for us, mom had no part in it. However, since I don't remember an enormous amount from my childhood, you are stuck with a mystery as to when I first consumed green eggs (but rest assured, my kids have seen green eggs they could consume). Green eggs though is where the food alteration experiments have ended as green ham doesn't look or sound right. Nor does it taste right. This is in fact something I know. My father would love to explain how we know green ham (or byproduct/pig byproduct) is slightly repulsive (thank you Kingdome memories).
Okay, back to the subject. When one reads Green Eggs & Ham, you are blessed with pictures of green eggs and green ham. Now, go read the story with out pictures. Really, please do! What do you read? Do you read anything stating the ham was green? Sure! The story does read "green eggs and ham." However, I beginning to believe that it was only the eggs that were green. Yes, the picture is of green eggs and green ham. But where in the story does it specifically state the ham was green? I believe Mr. Dr. Suess was taking liberty in his story telling and drawings of making the ham green. Why do I believe this? You try to make a pinkish/brownish meat green!!! Who cares if The Food Network has all sorts of recipe's for Green Eggs and Ham! None of their pictures show the ham as a solid green!
So, what do you think? Was the ham really green? Is it just a story to get kids to see if mom and dad will make food like this? Regardless, I love the story. Artistic liberty or not, still one of my favorite fun reads.
Oh yeah! The whole reason I thought about this is a little amusing in itself. Janda and I were having a conversation about her finger being blue due to adding blue food coloring to water. And in order to have green eggs, you have to add blue food coloring to the egg. Thank you Janda and your blue finger for causing mental stimulus for me tonight!
That must have been before I was eating solid foods, because I do not remember dad ever cooking green eggs for us.
ReplyDeleteI do recall a dozen other food experiments that went horribly wrong, but the green eggs are not one of them.