All things considered, most of us are pretty lucky to live in the 21st century. Our current access to food and ingredients to make recipes is better than it ever was, with improved cultivation and innovation resulting in the availability of all kinds of things to help us make delicious recipes at home.
This, however, wasn’t always the case.
Emmy Cho, a food blogger and YouTuber, has a video series called Hard Times which focuses on recipes that were born from times of struggle and food shortage throughout history. From Depression-era desserts to meals that were born in Cuba during economic shortages, Cho makes all kinds of meals that are hard to even imagine consuming for most of us.
Surprisingly, however, Cho often finds that these off-the-wall and strange-sounding recipes turn out to be better than she would have imagined. For example, would you have ever thought that a faux “steak” made from grapefruit peel would ever be edible, much less good?
The Hard Times video series is a fascinating look at culinary innovation in times of struggle. Sometimes, adversity brings innovation like nothing else, and the interesting recipes that Cho prepares in this series are a perfect example of how.
