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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 15:49:20 GMT
Now that we have begun a new year, is there any food item that you have never eaten that you have promised yourself that you will try some day?
I don't want to die without having tried a Chinese "century egg" at least once. I'm sure I'll think of other things.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2010 17:48:30 GMT
Ha! Coincidentally I just finished posting in the culinary roots thread about wanting to try eel. For years I have been yearning to try authentic gravlax. I know I'll think of other things.
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Post by bazfaz on Jan 3, 2010 18:37:00 GMT
Bixa, you will love smoked eel.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2010 20:44:15 GMT
I think so, Baz! I carry around a mental copy of a photograph from one of the Time-Life Cooking of the World series. I think it was taken in Holland, & is of a happy person lowering a huge piece of eel topped with chopped raw onion into her mouth.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 20:48:01 GMT
There are many different types of eel though.Not all of them are the same.I am most familiar with the salt water,blue eel. I've had some others that I didn't care for as much. Wish I could expound on this some more.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Jan 4, 2010 0:22:24 GMT
I've had canned smoked eel, and it wasn't bad. However, a "caldereida de congrío", I found very unpleasant, due to the strong taste, the oiliness, and the many small bones. The black, snake-like skin didn't aid my appetite, either.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 4, 2010 1:57:59 GMT
Oh, I know something I want to eat at least once before I die ~~
I want to have sachertorte and schlagobers in Vienna.
One of my favorite scenes ever from a movie is Glenda Jackson enjoying it at a winter resort as Oliver Reed stamps into his snow boots right there on the table next to her.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 2:18:31 GMT
What is the name of the raw pork dish that was mentioned on here a few ties,available in France? I would like to try it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 4, 2010 3:06:48 GMT
Speaking of raw meat, right after seeing this OP earlier today I opened the book I'm reading to the paragraph quoted below, which takes place in Addis Ababa. I would love to try everything mentioned.
... Soon the tables sagged with beakers of tej and plates of food. The kitfo -- coarsely ground raw meat mixed with kibe (a spiced and clarified butter) -- was my favorite dish. ... The injera was stacked on the table like napkins. The gored-gored was the dish everyone went after: cubes of raw meat, which you dipped in a fiery red pepper sauce. The dishes kept coming: meatballs, meat curry, lentil curry, tongue, and kidney.
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Post by cristina on Jan 4, 2010 4:24:33 GMT
My mother gets nostalgic for cod tongue and cod cheeks. I've never had them but would like to try them once. Although I keep thinking that an awful lot of cod would need to be sacrificed to make a decent meal of either.
And DC, were you trying to attach a picture?
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Post by imec on Jan 4, 2010 18:04:26 GMT
What is the name of the raw pork dish that was mentioned on here a few ties,available in France? I would like to try it. Speaking of raw meat, right after seeing this OP earlier today I opened the book I'm reading to the paragraph quoted below, which takes place in Addis Ababa. I would love to try everything mentioned.
... Soon the tables sagged with beakers of tej and plates of food. The kitfo -- coarsely ground raw meat mixed with kibe (a spiced and clarified butter) -- was my favorite dish. ... The injera was stacked on the table like napkins. The gored-gored was the dish everyone went after: cubes of raw meat, which you dipped in a fiery red pepper sauce. The dishes kept coming: meatballs, meat curry, lentil curry, tongue, and kidney. While living in Riyadh I was fortunate to be the guest of a Druze family (from Lebanon) for a meal of Kibbeh Nayeh - a mixture of raw, ground lean lamb, bulgur, onions and spices drizzled with olive oil and served with Tabbouleh and Pita - it was truly delicious. The meal was preceded by the ritual of the mate (pronounced mahtay) - the brewing of a sort of tea made from the dried leaves of yerba mate which is served in a dried calabash gourd and drank through a silver straw. As per the custom, the serving of the mate is the responsibility of one of the hosts (in this case the wife of my colleague) who refills the gourd wipes the straw clean with lemon peel and passes the gourd and straw to the next guest. (not my images)
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Post by imec on Jan 4, 2010 18:09:45 GMT
Although not "totally new" in the sense that I've eaten Cashews as well as Wasabi - and perhaps, more of a vice than a food - I found these at the Chinese supermarket yesterday and they are ridiculously addictive - hotter than hell when you pop them in your mouth - they are coated with this fantastically crunchy coating - the fire subsides quickly causing you to immediately reach for another. Can't stay away from them. They're imported from Vietnam.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 4, 2010 19:29:14 GMT
You can find kibbe (kibbé, kibbeh) at many of the Lebanese restaurants we are blessed with here in Montréal. It is as imec describes it. Kibbe is also used cooked (fried or baked) in a sort of rugby-ball shaped "meatball" in which the kibbe mixture is the outer layer, around a layer of lamb and spices, sometimes raisins or something else a bit sweet, or nuts such as pine nuts, or a similar baked dish of kibbe and lamb layers. The raw kibbe is similar to a sort of tartare.
The wonderful "Ethnic Paris Cookbook" has two kibbeh recipes: as in tartare, there is a fish variation for raw kibbeh (kibbeh nayye aux deux saumons - raw and smoked salmon), and baked kibbe (kibbeh bil Sanniye) in which the kibbeh mixture envellops a stuffing of onion, pine nust, cinnamon and more meat. Some cooks use beef instead of lamb.
I've had wasabi peanuts, but not cashews. Am sure I could find them at one of the Chinese/Southeast Asian supermarkets hereabouts.
And bixa, I have to get to Vienna for the cafés. A Viennese friend also gave me a cookbook, to help me study German.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 23:23:13 GMT
My favorite NYC ethnic street food is kibbe. I used to take the subway cross town to one vendor that had the best kibbe I ever ate. The Lebanese restaurant in our neighborhood has it but it is too dry for my taste. I gave up hope awhile back.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 4, 2010 23:45:45 GMT
Is that the raw kibbeh or the cooked kibbeh? I'd be surprised to find raw kibbeh as a street food in NYC.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 23:53:01 GMT
Is that the raw kibbeh or the cooked kibbeh? I'd be surprised to find raw kibbeh as a street food in NYC. Ah yes,cooked,fried.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 5, 2010 6:55:42 GMT
I was really surprised about the yerba mate, as I'd associated it exclusively with South America. Interesting! What beautiful utensils are used with it, as well.
I bought one of those mixed snack bag to take on the airplane. Mostly it was little differently shaped crackers of rice flour, some with seaweed. It was called the wasabi mix because it contained green peas coated with that crunchy wasabi coating. Yes, addictive!
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 5, 2010 7:38:38 GMT
Those utensils for drinking mate are nifty, Imec. No idea they had that, certainly never saw it myself.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2010 9:05:24 GMT
Anything with wasabi flavoring I love.
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Post by bazfaz on Jan 5, 2010 10:01:03 GMT
Not one totally new food but a whole meal of new foods. I would like to have a meal at El Bulli. It is only open for a few months a year. When reservations for the next year are open, it is booked out in about 3 days. I read an article by a man who was lucky enough to get a reservation - and came all the way from Australia for his dinner.
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Post by bjd on Jan 5, 2010 10:01:22 GMT
Another surprised person about the yerba mate here. I thought it was only in Argentina or Uruguay. Are you sure they were Druze, Imec? Maybe they had gone to S America for a while? -- there are Lebanese everywhere.
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Post by existentialcrisis on Jan 5, 2010 13:15:06 GMT
I finally tried my first oyster over the holidays! It was lovely!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2010 13:40:22 GMT
It takes a leap of faith to eat one's first raw oyster.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2010 13:54:37 GMT
I finally tried my first oyster over the holidays! It was lovely! Another rite of passage out of the way Existensia.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 5, 2010 16:04:07 GMT
Hooray! You are a living example of how much more enjoyable life is when approached with an open, eager mind, Existentia!
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Post by lagatta on Jan 5, 2010 16:07:07 GMT
Argentine president Carlos Menem was of Syrian origin. There are many Levantines in Argentina and Brazil, as, er, everywhere.
Yerba mate is definitely of southern South American origin and grows wild in parts of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. (So far no google or wikipedia; all stuff told by friends from that part of the world). Now wikipedia tells me that is now cultivated in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. No reason Druze communities could not taken part in temporary migration to South America - there are Christians, Muslims and Jews from the Levantine countries and Turkey in Argentina and Brazil.
cristina, somehow I doubt the cod were caught just for the tongues and cheeks. I haven't had the tongues - the cheeks are very tasty, as fish cheeks usually are.
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Post by fumobici on Jan 5, 2010 21:41:33 GMT
Halibut cheeks have a tender yet fibrous texture and mild sweetness that is reminiscent of crab meat.
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Post by cristina on Jan 6, 2010 2:12:37 GMT
I know that cod isn't fished just for cheeks and tongues... I was just being a bit flippant. But I have never eaten the cheek or tongue of any fish. And I would like to at some point.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 6, 2010 3:05:44 GMT
Flippant, or tongue in cheek? ;D
Not to make waves, but if you can't be flippant on the topic of fish, where can you? I'd scale fish very highly for that.
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Post by cristina on Jan 6, 2010 3:12:57 GMT
Flippant, or tongue in cheek? ;D Not to make waves, but if you can't be flippant on the topic of fish, where can you? I'd scale fish very highly for that. ;D I wish I had been that quit-witted when I wrote my original post!
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