Food that is bad for you (by K2)

[kerouac2]

I cannot for the life of me understand how they manage to put credible crunchy crusts around the gooey items.

[lagatta]

I believe the Scots deep-fry even stranger items.

[bixaorellana]

Stranger than gravy? What would be stranger deep-fried than that -- water?

[patricklondon]

Jul 5, 2018 8:07:35 GMT bixaorellana said:

Stranger than gravy?

I'm imagining it was gravy as in the line from Tony Hancock that sums up 1950s cooking : "I thought my mother was a bad cook, but at least her gravy moved about".

And as for Scottish frying, I well remember the QI episode where Doon McKichan discussed a deep-fried Curly-Wurly, which involved hand gestures such that Stephen Fry had to say "Would you stop doing that!"

[kerouac2]

When I was bringing my mother back to France after my father died, we had to go from Florida to Dallas to Paris (because I had free tickets) and got stuck for the night in Dallas due to a delayed flight. We were at some isolated airport motel so the only solution was to order something from one of the multiple delivery menus in the room. I do not at all recall what I ordered for the meal, but one of the desserts was "deep fried Snickers" so I was obliged to order it. It did not leave a lasting memory since it was a pretty weird situation, but now I know that just about anything can be deep fried.

[lagatta]

That is definitely among the weird Scottish deep-fry concoctions, though I think it is usually a Mars. I have no idea if those are the same, or different.

Here is a fryer "challenge" - be careful if you are feeling woozy from the heat, for example: www.buzzfeed.com/hilarywardle/deep-fried-everything?utm_term=.lnGOLORaD#.xhbpEpgNb

[kerouac2]

Warning -- do not ever buy a giant pot (700g) of crystallized ginger slices if you do not have sufficient will power.

[bixaorellana]

I probably wouldn't get all the way home from the store without savaging it.

If I did, I can see myself sitting down in front of an hour-long tv program with the ginger jar at hand. At around 40 minutes into the program, I'd be wondering what happened to my snack.

[kerouac2]

Children have certainly changed. When I was young, there were no sweets for sale by the name of "Acid Bomb Fizz." But since I bought some, I must be a modern child.

[lagatta]

Removing sweets and crisps from supermarket checkouts can dramatically reduce their consumption: www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/18/removing-sweets-from-checkouts-could-help-tackle-obesity-study

A large "dollar store" chain here, Dollarama, has been changing their checkout system to make it a single file with several cashiers at the end. It may be more efficient, but as it snakes around, there is junk food everywhere at a level children can grab it and pester their parents. And recently I've seen the same thing at a pharmacy chain, also with junk on either side of the queue.

Err, "Acid Bomb Fizz" reminds me of the morning after a few very serious overindulgences in food and drink in younger years! Oh, I still like to wine and dine, but the proportions are far more modest...

[kerouac2]

At Hema this afternoon, I decided that I needed to buy one of those big plastic tubs of jelly beans that they sell. And I actually pawed over the display until I found the container that seemed to have more than the other ones.

[whatagain]

Wasabi in large amounts (meaning more than your stomach accepts).
Bad the next day.

[kerouac2]

For home use, I buy my wasabi in powdered form now (it only takes 10 seconds and a few drops of water to turn it into the paste that we know and love). What is good about the powdered form is that you can sprinkle it on popcorn.

[lagatta]

Kerouac, do you have children or grandchildren? Why would an adult want jelly beans?

[kerouac2]

Because some of us like sugar, believe it or not.

[lagatta]

Yes of course, but it is a sweet I'd associate more with children. There are so many tasty things in Paris, whether one craves sweet or savoury!

[mich64]

I enjoy a handful of jelly beans every now and again. Actually, I admit to not much discipline when there is a candy bowl around. I keep mine empty except during the Christmas season.

[kerouac2]

I think that all of us responsible adults know not to keep too much of these things around since so many of us are irresponsible.

As for other sorts of sweet items. I don't think I have bought any pastry for the last three years. I really only bought it for my mother, because I am not interested in that stuff.

[lagatta]

I can't touch that kind of sweet, because my teeth are soft and full of fillings, due to my milk allergy as a child, back when there weren't the many alternative sources of calcium available nowadays. I can have a bit of dark chocolate, or biscuits (cookies) that aren't very sweet. We are getting a lot of such items from France now, as there is such a huge French-from-France immigration now. Especially in central districts such as Plateau Mont-Royal and mine which is just north of the Plateau.

I'm definitely picking up something sweet for this weekend, as it is a friend's birthday, and another friend has a definite sweet tooth. No shortage of choices here. I'm braising a duck; haven't decided whether to use red or white wine. I'd love to make a tart with dark plums, but don't think I will; simpler to pick something up at a pâtisserie.

[kerouac2]

You should soak the duck in honey. (Ewww... the thought of that, but that is the continent of honey glazed hams...)

[bixaorellana]

Gaaaack!

Teaming some sweet with salty is a venerable cooking technique -- adding sugar to some dishes cooked with soy sauce, for example. But in those cases the sugar is meant to boost other flavors, not to make the dish sweet, much as salt is usually meant to enhance flavor as opposed to making the food salty.

Cooking ham the old fashioned way with some brown sugar or yes, Coca-Cola, renders a delicious result that tastes of ham, not syrup. "Honey-baked" hams with their ridiculous spiral cut are just wrong.

[kerouac2]

And the pineapple rings and cloves!

But this is not necessarily appropriate in the category of "food that is bad for you" -- more likely "food that is disgusting"!

[kerouac2]

very very bad

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imagizer.imageshack.com/img921/3564/EA3q3l.jpg

[lagatta]

If you are referring to North America, it is a large continent (obviously not as large as Asia or Africa) which also includes where Bixa lives now. Here if there is sweet with meats, ideally it is maple syrup, which is far more subtle. Yes, it could sometimes be brown sugar, but that is disdained as "sirop de poteau" (pole syrup, as in telephone or electric pole). If I wanted a sweet duck, I'd simply buy a bbq one from the Vietnamese supermarket nearby. Braised in wine can include fruit if one wants the bird to be a bit sweeter, or of course add a bit of maple syrup. Are the honey hams typical of somewhere, or just corporate frankenfood?

[lagatta]

Those are very pretty.

As for honey-baked ham, the company did not come out of the Southern US, but Detroit, and the founder's name sounds Dutch, not common among the many Southerners (African-Americans but also poor Whites) among the Great Migration.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honey_Baked_Ham_Company And postwar.

Indeed, it is possible to flavour hams and other smoked pork with honey and many other things without it covering any other taste.

[lugg]

I am having dirty fries tonight - very, very bad for me but I don't care ... at least I won't tonight.

[lugg]

My sis loves jelly beans and I think that your sweet and sour mix would be perfect for her K2 - I am more of a fruit gum person; just as bad.

[kerouac2]

Ha ha, I bought some fruit gums at Hema, too, but I have not opened the bag yet.

[kerouac2]

[bixaorellana]

What are dirty fries?

The other night I wanted something crunchy -- dry crunchy & not sweet. Since I never allow myself to buy potato chips or any of those kinds of snacks, my prospects were slim. But then I remembered I had a package of saltines, which I sat and champed on until I forcibly took them away from myself.