hmmmm....Food!!!! What we like to eat!

Re: Your Favorite Foods...What you like to eat

bladerunner said:

They love it, we hosted a Japanese rugby team two yrs ago and we gave them some to try. From then on they weren't interested in the scenic sites, just point them in the direction of the local Bro......

Seriously they are extremely nice, I dont do any fancy cooking with it I just boil it like one would a lobster, (not too long) wait for it to cool and slice it like you would with salami. The taste really grows on you.

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In one episode of Dirty Jobs, they said all you need to do is to boil them for 20 seconds. Is it true?

Re: Your Favorite Foods...What you like to eat

vesicles said:

In one episode of Dirty Jobs, they said all you need to do is to boil them for 20 seconds. Is it true?

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Seems a little short, but he might have cut into pieces already. Its been a while since I had any but I usually put the whole thing in boiling water , Im sure its closer to a minute, but its a matter of trial and error and taste.

Re: Your Favorite Foods...What you like to eat

We can still get it here in the States. but my mom says it is too hard to tell if it's authentic. Some people fake it with some sort of sphagetti

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Wait, wah? Spaghetti/pasta????
Shark fin is easy to be faked though, with bean-vermicelli. There is literally a poor man's version of the soup. (Which is very good.)

As for geoduck, I think the mollusk is dipped in hot water for 20 seconds in order to loosen its outer covering..... now you guys need to stop thinking of it the wrong way....
You don't eat that covering. If you want to eat it as Sushi, slice and serve. Cantonese style is stir fry with yellow chives.... but I could never taste the clam that way....

Weird foods here in SF...... raw wise, I can't think of any that can't be found elsewhere really....
Common here but not around the world: Durian, Avocado, Tomatillo, Squash, and chives(韭菜) (Very good item to carry cooked if you want to get away from your German professor. )

Vesicles, has your wife introduce you to Swiss Chard? (2 names for it, 1 very lowly, 1 royally...)

Cuisine wise: (SF is an epicenter of cultural contacts)
(From the South, off the top of my head.)
Menudo (Mexican offal stew)
Tamales (Latino Zhong zi)
Chile Reilino (Stuffed Bell Peppers)

Phillipines: Balut

Regular Chinese(well, Cantonese) accessories that outsiders are likely to drop dead from or stare blank at:
shrimp paste 蝦醬
notorious thousand year old egg 皮蛋
tofu sticks? Soy stick? 枝竹 It's not nasty in anyway, just apparently unknown by most people.
salted fish 咸魚 (DO NOT BRING TO WORK OR ANY SORT OF GATHERING IF FRIED!!!!!!!)

More edible stuff:
salted duck eggs 咸蛋
Preserved mustard green 梅菜

Re: Your Favorite Foods...What you like to eat

sumdud said:

Wait, wah? Spaghetti/pasta????
Shark fin is easy to be faked though, with bean-vermicelli. There is literally a poor man's version of the soup. (Which is very good.)

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I might have confused it with shark fin soup, I don't know

sumdud said:

Vesicles, has your wife introduce you to Swiss Chard? (2 names for it, 1 very lowly, 1 royally...)

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I've never heard of it...

sumdud said:

Common here but not around the world: Durian, Avocado, Tomatillo, Squash, and chives(韭菜)

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Hold on a second, durian! Is that the infamous stinky fruit? I tried it for the first time when we went back to China to visit in 2000. It actually tasted OK if I try my very best to ignore the smell. But it was so hard though. On my first bite, I told my in-laws that I actually liked it (partly true, partly trying to please my in-laws). So they got excited and kept buying me the fruit almost daily. And after the third one, I simply could not ignore the stinky smell and it got worse after every bite. Finally, a week after I'd been in Shenzhen, I had to ask my wife to tell her parents to stop buying me durian. The funny thing was my wife told me that her parents were actually relieved that I decied to stop eating it. My mother-in-law was getting worried that she could never get rid of the nasty smell in her house. And when I came back, I told my parents about it and my mom gave me this look that says "don't ever bring that stinky fruit in my house!"

I have to say that I sort of expected my mom would say that. As a typical Northern Chinese, she hates that kind of "exotic" stuff. I still remember the first time we tried stinky tofu (we were still in beijing at the time and I was about 8 years old). After one bite, my mom threw the whole thing in the trash can and immediately dumped the trash in the garbage bin that was farthest away from our house to prevent any possibility that any of that smell might creep back into our house. I think she also did a thorough cleaning of the house after the meal since "she could still smell it".

My mom also has some negative feelings toward internal organs. She thinks it's nasty and unhealthy to eat the part of the animal body that is in constant contact with poop. I personally love that kind of stuff (tripes and things), provided that it's cooked properly.

Re: Your Favorite Foods...What you like to eat

vesicles said:

Hold on a second, durian! Is that the infamous stinky fruit?

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What does it smell like .....Smelly socks?

My mom also has some negative feelings toward internal organs. She thinks it's nasty and unhealthy to eat the part of the animal body that is in constant contact with poop. I personally love that kind of stuff (tripes and things), provided that it's cooked properly.

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Well your mum couldnt have cooked you tripe so how did you acquire a taste for it. I like tripe, kidneys and liver. Oxtail stew makes a good winter feed.
Have you ever tried lambs brains, the French love them, so the Chinese must like them also

Re: Your Favorite Foods...What you like to eat

bladerunner said:

Well your mum couldnt have cooked you tripe so how did you acquire a taste for it.

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Well, from going out with buddies.

bladerunner said:

Have you ever tried lambs brains, the French love them, so the Chinese must like them also

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I'm always hesitant about eating brains. Ever heard about Mad Cow Disease? It's pretty scary stuff. Sometimes, one doesn't have any symptoms until years after the meal. In graduate school, we actually did some experiments with prions, which is a type of peptide that induces protein misfolding and lead to Mad Cow disease. Ever since then, I always avoid that kind of stuff.

I was once fooled into eating bull penis. This was also back in 2000 (I had quite an advanture on that trip back to China). They cut the thing into cross-sections and it looked harmless (gelatin-looking and actually looked peices of white flower). I didn't know what it was until I had 2 or 3 pieces of it. It actually was tasteless and the texture was just like gelatin, pretty harmless.

So a peice of advice. Next time, know what's on the plate before you eat it!

Re: Your Favorite Foods...What you like to eat

vesicles said:

I've never heard of it...

Hold on a second, durian! Is that the infamous stinky fruit? I tried it for the first time when we went back to China to visit in 2000. It actually tasted OK if I try my very best to ignore the smell. But it was so hard though. On my first bite, I told my in-laws that I actually liked it (partly true, partly trying to please my in-laws). So they got excited and kept buying me the fruit almost daily. And after the third one, I simply could not ignore the stinky smell and it got worse after every bite. Finally, a week after I'd been in Shenzhen, I had to ask my wife to tell her parents to stop buying me durian. The funny thing was my wife told me that her parents were actually relieved that I decied to stop eating it. My mother-in-law was getting worried that she could never get rid of the nasty smell in her house. And when I came back, I told my parents about it and my mom gave me this look that says "don't ever bring that stinky fruit in my house!"

I have to say that I sort of expected my mom would say that. As a typical Northern Chinese, she hates that kind of "exotic" stuff. I still remember the first time we tried stinky tofu (we were still in beijing at the time and I was about 8 years old). After one bite, my mom threw the whole thing in the trash can and immediately dumped the trash in the garbage bin that was farthest away from our house to prevent any possibility that any of that smell might creep back into our house. I think she also did a thorough cleaning of the house after the meal since "she could still smell it".

My mom also has some negative feelings toward internal organs. She thinks it's nasty and unhealthy to eat the part of the animal body that is in constant contact with poop. I personally love that kind of stuff (tripes and things), provided that it's cooked properly.

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Not even in America markets? Love that stuff. Looks like a giant bok choy, but it actually has a taste!
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Yes, that stinky sh1t! Actually, not a good example... fresh available but never at the rite moment..... dam, we have the regulars of all cultures here but none of the exotics..... we don't even have pigeon or goose.
I don't care for the taste, but I will never eat durian due to the smell, or thousand year old eggs due to the look. (When I don't even eat hard boiled eggs! Yolk is yuck!)

Hehehe, I can't imagine your mom surviving on a trip to Ningnan.

Oxtail <3 (How's that offal? Just bones and meat, regular meat.)
And tongue is so good....!

Yes, Chinese loves brain.... but that's a rather distasteful way to prove......
I don't like brains either. Too much cholesterol for one thing. Fois Grau, Monk fish liver, stinky cheese, uni, they are all close enough.

Re: Your Favorite Foods...What you like to eat

sumdud said:

Not even in America markets? Love that stuff. Looks like a giant bok choy, but it actually has a taste!

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What looks like bok choy?

sumdud said:

Yes, Chinese loves brain.... but that's a rather distasteful way to prove......
I don't like brains either. Too much cholesterol for one thing. Fois Grau, Monk fish liver, stinky cheese, uni, they are all close enough.

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Yep. One disadvantage of knowing the biology is that too much of that stuff seriously quenches your appetite. After my toxicoloy class, I was hesitant about eating meat in general for about a month. After learning all kinds of worms that call our lovely beef and pork home and kinds of nasty things those worms can do to you (eating your brains and things) , it's hard not to get nervous about it. I actually started to order my steak medium well after that class, just to be sure all the possible worms were well cooked and killed in my steak. It took about a year for me to finally say "the heck with it" and go back to medium rear for my steak (my ideal doneness).

Re: Your Favorite Foods...What you like to eat

vesicles said:

Yep. to medium rear for my steak (my ideal doneness).

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Thats too well done. Sometimes i make what my chefy mate calls a blue steak:
Well aged Fillet, shade under 2" thick using a cast iron pan , and getting it red hot and searing it about 20 seconds each side, beautiful, with the blood oozing out.

I just put in Oxtail because it makes the best stew.The bone adds the extra taste.

You ever eaten those Chinese tree lichen?

Re: Your Favorite Foods...What you like to eat

bladerunner said:

Thats too well done. Sometimes i make what my chefy mate calls a blue steak:
Well aged Fillet, shade under 2" thick using a cast iron pan , and getting it red hot and searing it about 20 seconds each side, beautiful, with the blood oozing out.

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I hope you are talking about tuna steak?

bladerunner said:

You ever eaten those Chinese tree lichen?

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Again, never heard of it. I might've had it once or twice when I go out with my wife or my buddies and tried something on the plate that I had no idea what it was. It happens so often now since it's most often Southern Chinese food we eat, I don't even bother to ask what I'm eating any more.

There is only a handful of Northern style places in Houston out of thousands of chinese restaurants. Man, these places are my heaven. I know exactly what I want and I know exactly how it should taste. No surprises, no unknown creatures...