What is on your personal checklist of culinary discoveries?
Apr 23rd, 2008, 12:24 PM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,804
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What is on your personal checklist of culinary discoveries?
Are there certain foods that you've stumbled on your travels that you wearily ate only to find that you loved them?
Would love to hear about some of the stranger things you've tried and enjoyed.
For starters, I had some pretty tasty frog legs at a restaurant in Paris last spring.
Would love to hear about some of the stranger things you've tried and enjoyed.
For starters, I had some pretty tasty frog legs at a restaurant in Paris last spring.
Apr 23rd, 2008, 01:22 PM
#2
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 7,313
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Absolutely! Haggis, black pudding, and white pudding. I prefer the black pudding over the white 
Also, fried smelt... with ketchup. My husband cooked them for me, it was evidently something he ate up in Maine frequently. His niece (age 8) loves them, too - she calls them 'the bony things'
Also, fried smelt... with ketchup. My husband cooked them for me, it was evidently something he ate up in Maine frequently. His niece (age 8) loves them, too - she calls them 'the bony things'
Apr 23rd, 2008, 02:30 PM
#5
hi katie,
not sure what counts as "strange", but here goes:
weird things eaten abroad:
chicken gizzard salad in the pyrenees,
pickled sea-urchin in northen spain
weird things we eat at home in cornwall:
samphire [a sort of sea-weed, grows in brackish water, nice in buttter with fish]
hog's pudding - a sort of white black-pudding, popular in the west of england.
braised lambs hearts.
regards, ann
not sure what counts as "strange", but here goes:
weird things eaten abroad:
chicken gizzard salad in the pyrenees,
pickled sea-urchin in northen spain
weird things we eat at home in cornwall:
samphire [a sort of sea-weed, grows in brackish water, nice in buttter with fish]
hog's pudding - a sort of white black-pudding, popular in the west of england.
braised lambs hearts.
regards, ann
Apr 23rd, 2008, 05:07 PM
#8
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 8,798
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We ate a lot the "fifth quarter" items while we were in Rome.
Zampino are veal hoves braised and served in a warm salad of beans, carrots and celery. "B"
Pajata is the instestine of a suckling calf. There is milk in the intestine which when cooked turns into a sort of ricotta-like substance. The Pajata is served over Rigatoni. "A+"
Coda all Vaccinara is brasied oxtail cooked and served in a complex and delicious sauce that includes chocolate I think. "A"
Braised lamb heart. "B"
Other things I ate in Rome that I normally wouldn't eat around home.
Deep fried anchiovies. "A"
Deep Fried baby (they were about two inches long) octopus.
Baccala - fried salt cod
Zampino are veal hoves braised and served in a warm salad of beans, carrots and celery. "B"
Pajata is the instestine of a suckling calf. There is milk in the intestine which when cooked turns into a sort of ricotta-like substance. The Pajata is served over Rigatoni. "A+"
Coda all Vaccinara is brasied oxtail cooked and served in a complex and delicious sauce that includes chocolate I think. "A"
Braised lamb heart. "B"
Other things I ate in Rome that I normally wouldn't eat around home.
Deep fried anchiovies. "A"
Deep Fried baby (they were about two inches long) octopus.
Baccala - fried salt cod
Apr 24th, 2008, 06:29 AM
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,804
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I don't know... Muskrat sounds kind of crazy to me. It all is really relative to your experience--- my mother was floored when she visited me here in New York and we ordered rabbit ravioli out at dinner one night for an appetizer. It was delicious but she kept making references to Thumper--and felt really bad eating it (like you loru).
Apr 24th, 2008, 12:46 PM
#13
Hi again Katie,
here's another "local" [well, north Devon, and wales i think] delicacy -"laverbread".
it's another seaweed, this time boiled for many hours to make it edible, supposedly. strangely it's sold mostly in butchers' shops.
IMO it's vile.
no-one's mentioned tripe - the stomach lining of a lamb or a pig. it used to be very popular in the UK - my mum made it for my dad by cooking it gently in an onion sauce. again, IMO it's pretty horrible. there might be better ways of cooking it!
iamq - talking of octopus, on our last night in Rome we had the seafood antipasti - which turned out to be 6 different ways of cooking baby octopus, all of them delicious.
regards, ann
here's another "local" [well, north Devon, and wales i think] delicacy -"laverbread".
it's another seaweed, this time boiled for many hours to make it edible, supposedly. strangely it's sold mostly in butchers' shops.
IMO it's vile.
no-one's mentioned tripe - the stomach lining of a lamb or a pig. it used to be very popular in the UK - my mum made it for my dad by cooking it gently in an onion sauce. again, IMO it's pretty horrible. there might be better ways of cooking it!
iamq - talking of octopus, on our last night in Rome we had the seafood antipasti - which turned out to be 6 different ways of cooking baby octopus, all of them delicious.
regards, ann
Apr 24th, 2008, 01:05 PM
#15
hi again, Katie,
yep - officially in soup in germany where they use it as a garnish for consome or when I''ve been lucky enough to cook/order osso buco or oxtail stew.
unofficially when there's a particularly juicy bit in a lamb chop!
waste not, want not.
it has a subtle sweet meaty flavour.
anybody else eat dripping?
regards, ann
yep - officially in soup in germany where they use it as a garnish for consome or when I''ve been lucky enough to cook/order osso buco or oxtail stew.
unofficially when there's a particularly juicy bit in a lamb chop!
waste not, want not.
it has a subtle sweet meaty flavour.
anybody else eat dripping?
regards, ann
Apr 24th, 2008, 02:44 PM
#16
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 25,877
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I grew up in Chinese culture where we pretty much eat anything and everything...
Tripe, organ meat, chicken feet, duck tongue, oxtail etc.
So, very few food items on my travels scare me.
Not so much of a fan of sweatbread - I don't usually order it.
I do LOVE tripe and oxtail. DH never had tripe before he met me. Now we have to fight over it!
I had tried haggis in Scotland, not something I would want to eat again.
One food item I absolutely love now is spargel (german term for white asparagus). I am not a fan of its green cousin, but after the first time I've had it (in Salzburg May 2003), I always order it when I'm in that part of Europe during harvest season (mid-April to mid-June I believe).
Tripe, organ meat, chicken feet, duck tongue, oxtail etc.
So, very few food items on my travels scare me.
Not so much of a fan of sweatbread - I don't usually order it.
I do LOVE tripe and oxtail. DH never had tripe before he met me. Now we have to fight over it!
I had tried haggis in Scotland, not something I would want to eat again.
One food item I absolutely love now is spargel (german term for white asparagus). I am not a fan of its green cousin, but after the first time I've had it (in Salzburg May 2003), I always order it when I'm in that part of Europe during harvest season (mid-April to mid-June I believe).
Apr 24th, 2008, 02:58 PM
#17
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 25,877
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Oh, there are a few food items I didn't grow up eating but I love them now - acquired taste I guess:
Sushi/sashimi - I like raw fish but I haven't mastered the texture/taste of raw shellfish. So no raw clam or oysters for me
Foie Gras
Sushi/sashimi - I like raw fish but I haven't mastered the texture/taste of raw shellfish. So no raw clam or oysters for me
Foie Gras
Apr 25th, 2008, 11:22 AM
#18
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 311
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I ate jellyfish in a Chinese restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. It was served in a sort of julienne and when I chewed it sort of reminded me of chewing on rubber bands. Not much flavor. I ordered it the low-risk way, as an appetizer. The chef came out of the kitchen and said he wanted to meet the person who had ordered the jellyfish!
Apr 25th, 2008, 12:09 PM
#19
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 25,877
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
< I ate jellyfish in a Chinese restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. It was served in a sort of julienne and when I chewed it sort of reminded me of chewing on rubber bands. >
The jellyfish is considered a "delicacy" in Chinese meals - it is usually served on the side at banquets. When I was a kid, me and my brother/cousins always called it "rubber band" because that's what it looks like.
Let me just say it, it is an "acquired taste." I introduced it to my husband and he doesn't mind eating it these days.
The jellyfish is considered a "delicacy" in Chinese meals - it is usually served on the side at banquets. When I was a kid, me and my brother/cousins always called it "rubber band" because that's what it looks like.
Let me just say it, it is an "acquired taste." I introduced it to my husband and he doesn't mind eating it these days.
Apr 25th, 2008, 12:24 PM
#20
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 7,313
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Low risk is how I tried the haggis - as an appetizer before my smoked salmon. It was served in a small dish, rather than it's traditional sausage casing, and with oat crackers to spread it on. Sort of like spicy sausage - I rather liked it.
