Was talking to a Japanese friend a while back and she mentioned how much she liked okra. I was a bit surprised as I’d not thought of that as popular in Asia (but why wouldn’t it be, I guess), but she said yeah, her grandparents lived in the sticks and had a vegetable patch and that was one of their favorites. They’d eat it sauteed or tempura fried.
I sent her a recipe for seafood gumbo featuring okra, as all Japanese are statutorily required to love seafood. I noticed that the recipe called for file gumbo (it serves as a thickener among other things). Knowing there was no way they’d have that over there, I sent her a jar of good file gumbo powder (hope Japanese customs is not reading this as I’m not sure food imports are quite kosher, especially when the contents are described as “books”).
Well, something got lost in translation, as it emerged today that she believed the file powder to be not sassafrass that would thicken an okra-containing stew, but some powdered version of okra that was meant as a general condiment. She enthused about how much she’s been enjoying putting it on salad, tofu, and rice to enhance the taste.
Well, I’m certainly not going to rain on her parade. But I had never given much thought to any use for file powder outside of stews and gumbos.
Anyone else experimented with file powder as an ingredient or condiment outside of that context? If so, how were the results?