Althouse: Xi Jinping's miracle of the tiny potatoes.

October 14, 2022

Xi Jinping's miracle of the tiny potatoes.

22 comments:

Carol said...: Gah I hope to never see another photo of someone talking with the mask under the chin.; 10/14/22, 8:52 AM
Paul said...: Long time ago my mother planted a garden under a pecan tree (large one.) Of course with little sun shine she ended up with small 'mini' potatoes....

Yea that was a 'miracle'...; 10/14/22, 8:55 AM
Rusty said...: "Communist Potatoes Are The Best Potatoes!" "Not At All Like Those Running Dog American Potatoes!!" Socialist propaganda sucks.
The 'tates would probably be bigger if the farm didn't get its water from the steel mill effluent pond.; 10/14/22, 9:01 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: https://archive.ph/GVCgW

An interesting metric about how dictators lie about economic growth.

"Plausibly the entire dictatorship “advantage” in GDP growth is just dictatorships lying about how much growth they had." - Scott Alexander; 10/14/22, 9:09 AM
Temujin said...: Jeez. 'Small potatoes' seems an appropriate name for this new movement.

The Great Leap Forward.
The Cultural Revolution.
Small Potatoes.

But at least he has warm hands. (Wait. Honey. Did he tell you where he kept his hand before he shook yours?); 10/14/22, 9:20 AM
gilbar said...: Do WE, as Humans.. CARE about the TERRORS of Global Warming? Or NOT?
These "improvements" the roads, irrigation, and housing.. Are JUST CO2
THESE PEOPLE ARE KILLING THE PLANET!
We MUST Rally Together, and STOP THEM, NOW!

IF Global Climate change Is the problem that we've been told. Immediate nuke strikes are The Only Answer; 10/14/22, 9:26 AM
NCMoss said...: With the high cost and shortage of commercial fertilizers, the growers need to post a whimsical tik-tok video about how it's done.; 10/14/22, 9:47 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: The advent of small potatoes in groceries has made recipes that include potatoes much easier to make -- for me. My arthritis hurts all the time and the small potato (perhaps) eliminates steps that are needed for larger spuds.
My Chinese national GF has not mentioned Xi in her conversations with me in the two years she has been with me. But she has spoken admiringly of the People's Liberation Army a few times. Politics rarely come up in our communications.

Marcus THEOLDMAN; 10/14/22, 9:49 AM
Original Mike said...: Must be great fun to peel.; 10/14/22, 9:53 AM
Howard said...: It's only working because of ChiCommie plot government building roads and irrigation along with crop price supports. We mustn't allow this sort of mission creep into our great farmland.; 10/14/22, 10:01 AM
Lurker21 said...: Brian Stelter is grateful to be able to spend more time at home with his mini-potatoes.; 10/14/22, 10:05 AM
Michael K said...: Interesting to see the "personality cult" reappear.; 10/14/22, 10:23 AM
mikee said...: In her epic Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West wrote about the chicken dinners served in pre-WWII hotels in Yugoslavia. The chickens were the size of squab, and were served up at the best hotel restaurants because that was all that was available from farmers, who couldn't feed the chickens much because there was no grain for humans, let alone for chicken feed.

If the potato plants were allowed to grow longer, the potatoes would be larger. But if you need to sell potatoes right now, or go out of business, you pull the plants as soon as you have a size that you can sell. And if you're buying potatoes to survive, you buy whatever size is available.; 10/14/22, 10:28 AM
Lurker21 said...: China knows how to do autocracy. If your media doesn't show that kind of abject fealty to the leader, you've got a long way to go.; 10/14/22, 10:33 AM
Jupiter said...: His hand was very warm!; 10/14/22, 10:36 AM
rrsafety said...: I really like Salt Potatoes, a specialty of supposedly New York state. The feature small potatoes boiled with skin on in very salty water. When they are removed from the water and dry, the salt forms a crust and served to be dipped in melted butter. Just learned of them recently and they are great. Thumbs up for small potatoes.; 10/14/22, 11:02 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Salt potatoes sound good!; 10/14/22, 11:43 AM
Original Mike said...: I miss potatoes, having drastically reduced them because of carbs.

You can make faux mashed-potatoes from cauliflower. Different taste but ok, especially as a carrier for gravy.; 10/14/22, 12:00 PM
Jupiter said...: "You can make faux mashed-potatoes from cauliflower. Different taste but ok, especially as a carrier for gravy."

How do you make low-carb gravy?; 10/14/22, 12:13 PM
Gospace said...: Ann Althouse said...
Salt potatoes sound good!

A staple in central and upstate NY at chicken barbecue fundraisers for VFDs, VFW, American Legion, and, well, any other organizations that hold dinner type fundraisers.

Original Mike said...
...
You can make faux mashed-potatoes from cauliflower. Different taste but ok, especially as a carrier for gravy.

I like mashed cauliflower. NOT a substitute for mashed potatoes in any way, but an entree entirely on it's own. Never even thought of gravy with them- butter, real butter, Amish roll butter in our house, is enough. I've tried a few times to mash them myself, but I find Green Giant does a better job. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Baby potatos are available during the fall here, and prominently displayed in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Often a mixture of red, yellow, and purple skins. Also fingerling potatoes, small and cylindrical, not round, always yellow skinned IIRC. Boiled and served slathered in butter they're all good. I don't have them often because my wife for some reason dislike eating ANY potato skins. She scoops the inside out of a perfectly good Idaho baked potato and leaves the yummy skin behind.

Living in an agricultural county I've learned a lot about basic food I had never known before. Like the difference between much and dry land potatoes. My town grows muck potatoes. And apple varieies- tehre are so many! Our county's apple orchards seem to be where Cornell extension develops new varieties. I found out we sell onions to FLorida. I didn't know Florida, with it's sunshine and soil, was too hot for onion growing. I knew we were too cold for oranges. BTW, as the powers that be continue to preach the dangers of global warming, the orange line, the line above which it's not possible to grow oranges commercially in volume, continues to migrate South.; 10/14/22, 12:50 PM
Original Mike said...: "How do you make low-carb gravy?"

In the case of gravy, you accept lower carb; light on the thickener.; 10/14/22, 2:48 PM
Marcus Bressler said...: In the case of "mashed cauliflower", try using a ricer to "mash" them. It makes a most superior potato side but it can be a PITA to deal with when the potatoes are hot if you are not careful.

Marcus THEOLDMAN; 10/16/22, 8:21 AM