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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2010 21:57:58 GMT
I was fortunate in that area K2. My mother had an aversion to alot of different seafoods because as a child,she had been forced to drink cod liver oil (w/out raspberries,perhaps a blessing,raspberries are one of her favorite foods.). Anyway,there were many foods I knew she didn't like but she never refused to cook them for my father and children and prided herself on her ability to cook them well. She never imposed her disdain upon us.Many seafoods(eels in particular and many of the fishy fishes,and liver were the big ones).I have no problems with any of these foods. I think the only one we both dislike is hog's head cheese. The one food that never ever was eaten in our home and mutually agreed upon by both my mother and father was rabbit. I've had 'thumper' on numerous occasions and enjoyed,but almost feel guilty eating
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Post by cristina on Jan 9, 2010 23:02:43 GMT
The only food that my mother refused to cook was squid. In Newfoundland, squid was used exclusively for bait (although I'm sure it surfaces in restaurants nowdays). I avoided it for a long time because the bait connotation made me identify them as equal to worms (which I also have no interest in eating, btw). However I do eat squid now and like it very much.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 9, 2010 23:27:21 GMT
cristina, when a friend and I hitchhiked around the Gaspé peninsula decades ago, it was hard to find seafood in "family-style" restaurants. Only fancy tourist restaurants had it, or else we had to buy it from fishermen at the dock where there was one - we had no camping gear but devised something with aluminium foil and hot embers. When local people went out to eat, they wanted meat - even lobster and crab had been something poor people ate. This has changed now of course.
I love squid. I know many cultures do eat worms, but they don't appeal to me (I don't like viscous things). Sure I'd eat them if I was starving, and eating them doesn't disgust me, but it doesn't appeal either.
An old Italian guy I knew (from the Northeast) couldn't understand why polenta had become "trendy" as where he lived it was what poor people ate when they couldn't afford proper wheaten bread.
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Post by cristina on Jan 9, 2010 23:50:31 GMT
An old Italian guy I knew (from the Northeast) couldn't understand why polenta had become "trendy" as where he lived it was what poor people ate when they couldn't afford proper wheaten bread. lagatta, I think this is an important observation. If you look at the food items that have been come trendy over recent times, I would guess that many of them had origins as either thrifty food, or as a way to use leftovers in another country, or region of the same country. And what is common to one person is exotic to another. When I talked to my mother earlier today, and asked her about squid, she disdainfully replied that "now they call it calamari so suddenly everyone wants to eat it. It still tastes like rubber to me."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2010 9:11:27 GMT
Of all the seafoods we had available and passed through our kitchen,squid was never one of them either Cristina. It was bait for fish as you said.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2010 16:59:58 GMT
When I went to Karachi with a Pakistani colleague and another person from the office, he knew that we absolutely loved dall and made a point of getting some for us in a restaurant. This greatly embarrassed the restaurant people because dall is the lowest of the low in Pakistani cooking, reserved for the indigent and times when there is absolutely nothing else left to eat in a family home.
Interestingly enough, it's the same for fried rice (riz cantonnais for French speakers), one of the most appreciated items in our Western countries. To the Chinese, it is just a way to get rid of leftovers that you don't want anymore. Never in a million years would they serve such an item to a guest. They must laugh their heads off when we order things like that in their restaurants here.
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Post by traveler63 on Jan 11, 2010 3:19:48 GMT
"Southwestern" food is a combination of four different geographic and ethnic backgrounds. Of course Mexico is a huge influence, but the "Mexican food" for the most part has been Americanized over many years. It was an absolute surprise to me when I started watching and reading Diana Kennedy's cooking show and cook books because I think most Americans seem to think that there is no Mexican cuisine. The Mexican food experience is generally border Mexican and that is all the most Americans have experienced. So, the influence is somewhat tainted when you think of Southwestern food. I am of the opinion that the majority of the influence for this is Mexican cuisine, New Mexican, Native American and primarily from the different Indian tribes primarily in New Mexico. The fourth which I will mention is Texas or as some say Tex Mex, but I personally don't think that this is a great influence. Any Tex Mex that I have sampled seems to be short on flavor but hot!!!!! I love hot but I also like complexity in the mix for for great Southwestern food.
If you have spent any time in our area, and know chefs, the major influence in my opinion is Mark Miller from Santa Fe. He opened a little restaurant in Santa Fe called Coyote Cafe back in 1987 and he is pretty well known to have changed the face of Southwestern cooking. New Mexican cuisine is steller and the ingredients, including New Mexican red chili powder, posole, red or green sauce. Native American influence is primarily corn and its by products, blue corn, roasted corn, etc.
The other chef that has had great influence in my opinion is Bobby Flay. He has taken the traditional items and really has given it his own style.
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Post by cristina on Jan 12, 2010 3:54:44 GMT
I have to confess that I am not a reliable mouthpiece for southwestern cuisine, so I defer to T63. With a few exceptions, I have not had Mexican-influenced meals that agreed with my tastes. I know they're out there, but I haven't found many yet. I do have a nearby source for the best ever freshly made tortillas, though. Oh, and a local woman who makes and sells exquisite tamales. Also, I am embarrassed to say that while I have lived in a border state for almost 15 years, I have never been to Mexico. So my point of reference (or point of view), sadly, is pretty much, non-existent.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 12, 2010 8:27:47 GMT
My mother refused to cook rabbit or hare. It was always my father's job to prepare them. Also eel. She once caught one on a fishing trip and when she pulled it out of the water she practically screamed away all the leaves on the tree and threw away the line (but it got caught in a bush so we did get to eat the eel )
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 18, 2010 15:23:42 GMT
Do you know why your mother rejected rabbit, HW?
It is interesting that certain fish are rejected because they're considered inferior or simply not food. Many years ago I lived on the Monterey Peninsula in California. At that time, most of the fishermen and seafood vendors were of Portuguese descent. One of them told me that well over 20 different kinds of seafood were caught locally and enjoyed by the traditional fishing community, but that they could sell fewer than half of those varieties. Customers simply refused to accept some of them.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2010 15:40:16 GMT
I think that I've been to many fishing areas around the world where the locals will accept to each some of the bonier fish, but they know that nobody will buy them, so most are thrown back anyway.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 21, 2010 10:00:19 GMT
Do you know why your mother rejected rabbit, HW? It is interesting that certain fish are rejected because they're considered inferior or simply not food. Many years ago I lived on the Monterey Peninsula in California. At that time, most of the fishermen and seafood vendors were of Portuguese descent. One of them told me that well over 20 different kinds of seafood were caught locally and enjoyed by the traditional fishing community, but that they could sell fewer than half of those varieties. Customers simply refused to accept some of them. It wasn't about the meat. She said they looked too much like skinned babies.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2010 10:05:31 GMT
I will not ask the question that begs to be asked.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 21, 2010 10:29:40 GMT
No, she hasn't.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 22, 2010 13:08:35 GMT
Far worse - they look like skinned CATS.
I love rabbit, but can't possibly cook a whole one for that reason.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 22, 2010 16:26:52 GMT
I'll bet you Renzo wouldn't have one second of hesitation about pouncing on a whole skinned rabbit!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2010 7:20:27 GMT
I bet that if entire skinned cows were displayed the way rabbits are displayed, a lot of people wouldn't want to eat beef. Cutting animals into little pieces makes it all more abstract and acceptable.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 23, 2010 7:38:46 GMT
Depends on the piece displayed. My sister and I saw a skinned beef head, all eye-sockety and redly flailed, setting on the sidewalk outside the market in Tlaxcala. We both blanched and for a brief, intense moment became vegetarians.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 24, 2010 15:42:19 GMT
kerouac, lots of Mediterranean butchers hereabouts (mostly southern Italians, and Maghrebis). Lots of skinned (and hairy) lambs and goats. Indeed one "fussy" neighbour thought it was dirty and disgusting.
Yeah bixi, the only reason Renzo would hesitate to kill a live, skin-on rabbit is that it would be at least his size.
This flows into something bazfaz said on another thread about the rise of fussiness, but one more and more sees meats displayed without even the bones. And sometimes pre-marinated etc.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2010 16:53:48 GMT
Moving along...
I have never tasted buttermilk because the idea disgusts me.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2010 17:00:42 GMT
I love buttermilk, shame it's so fattening.
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Post by cristina on Jan 24, 2010 17:13:55 GMT
Now I'm in the mood for some buttermilk pie.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 25, 2010 2:05:47 GMT
What, no buttermilk?! And disgusting? How do you feel about yogurt or kefir or lassi? They are not that different from buttermilk. Buttermilk is no more fattening than the whole or reduced fat milk from which it is made. It looks fattening because of it is thick and because of the butter flecks floating in it. This explanation is interesting.
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Post by cristina on Jan 25, 2010 2:29:41 GMT
What, no buttermilk?! And disgusting? How do you feel about yogurt or kefir or lassi? They are not that different from buttermilk. Buttermilk is no more fattening than the whole or reduced fat milk from which it is made. It looks fattening because of it is thick and because of the butter flecks floating in it. This explanation is interesting. Although I know people who like drinking buttermilk, I am not one of them. I do drink kefir, though, although it usually has fruit added so its more like having a slightly tart smoothie. I like to cook or bake with buttermilk though. A lot. And you're right Bixa, it is not fattening. It is really the equivalent of fat free or at least low fat milk.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 25, 2010 2:39:34 GMT
It is fermented, like yoghourt. That makes it thicker, not more fattening. In some places it is also made from whole milk, but since it is thick, one is unlikely to drink enough for it to be fattening.
A kind of buttermilk is combined with couscous in North Africa.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 25, 2010 3:18:49 GMT
since it is thick, one is unlikely to drink enough for it to be fattening. Speak for yourself on this! All dairy products except for butter flip the pleasure/addiction switch in my brain. I could easily glug a quart of buttermilk at a time, ditto yogurt, cream, etc. I'm not saying I would give in to the impulse, but the desire is there.
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Post by existentialcrisis on Jan 27, 2010 8:13:59 GMT
.... wasn't sure if people actually drank buttermilk ...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2010 13:55:41 GMT
Normal people don't. Has anybody (besides me) ever eaten chicken feet? I had a fond memory of them from childhood at my grandmother's house, at a time when absolutely nothing edible was ever thrown out. I only had them once since childhood, at a dim sum place in Vancouver with my Singaporean friends. We had just eaten some banana custard toward the end of the meal and one of them spied them. "Look! They have chicken's feet! Let's get some!" So we had that after dessert. But that must have been more than 10 years ago. So I bought some (at the Chinese supermarket obviously) last year and decided I needed to cook some myself, which I did in a pot of chicken bouillon and spices. They tasted good at first, but then I just started thinking about them too much, especially when I would have to pull the little claws out of my mouth and look at the other feet lying in the bowl. So I didn't finish them and I currently do not have any plans to eat them again.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 27, 2010 16:40:51 GMT
Normal adults are open to tastes & textures that they perhaps rejected as children. I get chicken feet served to me quite often, as they're standard in Mexican chicken soup. I do like using them to make the soup, but don't see much point in eating them. It's not that they taste bad or that they're too weird, more a sort of gelatinous so-what item.
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Post by lagatta on Feb 1, 2010 17:19:51 GMT
I often use them to make soup, little toenails or not. They add as much body as a calf knuckle does to meaty soups. But just for the broth.
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