An observation about food [Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος]

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It is difficult to eat a stuffed grape leaf (dolma).

Eating two or three is much easier. So care must be taken not to leave a single lonely dolma to be finished off later. I suppose eating a single one might be a little easier to do when there isn't another next to it. But I don't know that I'm willing to risk that frustration, my mouth asking my brain, "Okay wiseguy, where's the next one?" Much safer, if there are three left, to eat all three.

If one is distracted by conversation, eating six or eight dolmades (or "dolmas" depending on what language you form the plural in) without meaning to is not unlikely. Or an entire package of them. ("Oh, those were meant to just be an appetizer? Whoops.")

(For the record, I have repeatedly demonstrated my ability to eat a single potato chip or a single peanut. So there.)

I'm going to have to learn how to roll my own. I wonder how hard it is to get the leaves to stay tucked/folded correctly.

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There are 13 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

It doesn't look too difficult - The recipe I have says to hold the leaf with the stem end towards you, put a spoonful of filling on it, fold the sides over, then roll it up away from you. My grandmother used to make a Polish dish using cabbage leaves and a meat filling, and she claimed that it was more time-consuming than difficult.

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Mmmm. I have to make those again, sometime. Your grandmother's right about the easy but time-consuming part. I guess that's why I just buy the dolmathes ready-made.

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:-)

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Yeah, but folding burritos looks and sounds easy too, and I can never get those to stay together when I try to make them.

Still, what you said is a good sign....

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Tip: Fold up the stem end over the filling, *then* fold in the sides. It will look a little like an envelope. Then roll the whole thing up.

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...or dolmar if you're speaking Swedish.

Karl XII lived for a few years in Turkey, and one of the things he imported were the dolma. Of course, since we don't have grape leaves, we use cabbage instead, and they went from appetizers to whole dinner dishes.

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Does that make it easier to eat just one?

Actually, before I posted that I searched the web to check whether the singular was in fact what I thought it was, and to sort out why the writing on the package I had said "Dolmas" when I'd always heard "dolmades" growing up. And the most informative thing I found was an archive of a newsgroup or mailing list discussion (I didn't pay attention to the origin) that started off being about making them, turned into a discussion of the origins of the dish and of the name, and then degenerated into a Greeks-vs.-Turks argument (*sigh*) with bits of everybody-vs.-everybody mocking and flaming thrown in just to keep the main flamefest from being too repetetive. The Swedish cabbage-leaf dish was mentioned. Eventually someone asked why folks were discussing millennia-old politics on a forum about sourdough.

The main claim was that "dolma" means "stuffing" in Turkish. I figure I can ascertain the truth of that statement by asking

silmaril ...

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So why do the Greek restaurants in London (and some of the Toronto ones) call them "dolmathes"? Is that some regional pronunciation?

I ate an entire can of dolmas/dolmades/dolmathes just the other week. I'd been craving them, and I finally found a grocery store that stocks the ready-mades in a can. FYI, I can also eat only one potato chip, and will pass up the opportunity to eat peanuts almost anytime (blech, peanuts), but eat only one stuffed grape leaf?! Ferpeckly unpossible, Diggory.

If I make it to Pennsic this year (I may, as I just landed a contract that'll probably pay me about $1600!), bring some and we'll fight over the last one -- three ways, if Anniemal is there... Aleksandr doesn't like them, more fool him. ;-)

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Personally I find it very easy to limit myself to just one cabbage roll. Most often even less than that.

What makes it weird is that the selfsame ingredients made into a casserole is something I eat with great appetite.

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Not hard at all. Of course, it's harder to get the little dolmar (Swedish plural, but most often made with cabbage, instead of grape, leaves here) to stay uneaten for long enough to finish rolling the whole batch.

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