Text 11267, 139 rader
Skriven 2007-02-03 08:18:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE SACERDOTE
Ärende: smorgasbord 998
=======================
 -=> Dave Sacerdote said to Dale Shipp <=-

 DS> It's quite common for AYCE Asian places around here to have raw
 DS> oysters, and cherrystone clams on the half shell as well.  Most
 DS> of the Asian buffets here feature a LOT of seafood.  Typically,
 DS> there is a shellfish section, well iced, where one can get oysters,
 DS> clams, peel-and-eat shrimp, and chilled green-lipped mussels.

I don't see oysters that often at Chinese buffets - only
regular buffets. The other things you cite, all the time.

 DS> Like the reviewer you quoted, I find it easy to eat my money's
 DS> worth of clams, shrimp, and oyster.

But you and I and this reviewer are not typical, either in
our tastes (and our assessment of value), or in our stomach
capacity. If we were the average customer, let's face it, the
price of the buffet would be double.

 DS> As for crabs:  no, they are not "dungeness" crabs.  For some 
 DS> reason, it has become common to call any largish hardshell
 DS> crab a "dungeness".  I would be willing to bet the reviewer was
 DS> actually encountering stone crabs, which are somewhat smaller
 DS> and rounder in the shell than true dungeness.

I've not seen Dungeness (real or so-described) on a buffet table
anywhere except in Dungeness (where I once ate 5 half crabs at
a sitting). That said, they are available here, and at less than
extortionate prices (see my comment to Dale about Otto's). It
might be worth while to truck the hour down to Waldorf sometime
to see if the reviewer was right.

 And that reviewer
 DS> was not alone.  I have seen stone crabs labeled as dungeness even
 DS> in supermarkets.

Interesting too that Dungies are that popular - it was not so
long ago that it was the stone crabs (especially stone crab claws)
that were the cat's pajamas.

 -=> Dave Sacerdote said to Jim Weller <=-

 JW> Protestants would call it that but I have married into a 
 JW> Catholic family. One can poke fun at one's own religion 
 JW> but not the other guy's. There's a rule about that somewhere.
 DS> In the US, that rule is in your imagination, pal.

What you said.

 DS> Canadians are so damn polite!  In the US, the term "pope's nose"
 DS> in reference to the part of the chicken that goes over the fence
 DS> last was almost exclusively used by Protestants, as a good-natured
 DS> but still insulting jibe at Catholics.

Not only is the chicken tail unsightly, it's next to the, er,
excretory canal. I've seen people whose noses are sort of that
shape. None of them have been high up in the clergy, but I
guess they could have been.

 And not that good-natured
 DS> originally - Irish, Italians, French, etc. weren't discriminated
 DS> against just because they spoke with accents and ate funny food,
 DS> the Papist bastards.

I used to go with a woman (some of you have met her) who
grew up in an isolated northern New Hampshire town that was
to all intents and purposes a Catholic monoculture. People
used to cross the street when they saw they were about to
encounter her and her sisters (the Dirty Prods) on the
sidewalk. Her friend Roberta Donahue (herself a minority, as
most of the population was French Canadian) said once, "you're
so nice, it's a pity you're going to go to Hell."

 DS> In the town where I grew up, Catholics, Protestants, and Jews
 DS> lived together in pretty seamless harmony - so much so that
 DS> Catholic vs. Protestant violence in Northern Ireland in the 70s
 DS> and early 80s was completely incomprehensible to me and my friends -
 DS> we could not imagine anyone so much as _insulting_ another over
 DS> something as trivial as a difference in religion!

But you don't know what the people of other denominations who
weren't your friends said about you!

 -=> Dave Sacerdote also said to Jim Weller <=-

 JW> Cuba makes most excellant rum, but Americans wouldn't 
 JW> (or shouldn't) know that.

I'd prefer Jamaican anyway. How can rum be better than Appleton's?

 DS> You know, before the embargo, the very best top-of-the-line Cuban
 DS> cigars were wrapped in Connecticut Valley leaf tobacco.  My area
 DS> took an economic kick in the groin because trade was cut off, and
 DS> now much of the land that used to turn a nice profit thanks to 
 DS> smokeweed is occupied by factories and houses.  We might have held
 DS> onto our rural heritage somewhat longer if it weren't for the idiots
 DS> in Washington.

Washington could have instituted subsidies, if they were interested
in "our rural heritage," which they're not, to make the growers
change over to some other crop, such as rutabagas. 

By the way, I see in the catalogs (how do I get these catalogs?
I don't know, either) that there are still cigar makers who use
Connecticut leaf as wrapper, as it's said to be some of the best.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

      Title: Creole Gumbo
 Categories: Main-dish
      Yield: 12 servings

      1 c  Butter
      1 c  Onion, minced
      1 c  Celery, minced
    1/2 c  Flour
      4 c  Water
      2 c  Whole canned tomatoes
      4    Bay leaves
      3    Doz oysters, shucked
     12    Crabs, cleaned, big claws
           -(cracked) and bodies
           -(halved) only
      2 c  Shrimp, peeled and deveined
      3 c  Okra, sliced thin
      4 ts Salt
    3/4 ts White pepper
        ds Cayenne

  Saute vegetables in butter in a 4-qt saucepan. Stir in flour and cook until
  golden brown. Add water, liquid from oysters, tomatoes; bring to just below
  a boil and simmer 5 min. Add all other ingredients; reduce heat to low;
  cook 20 min. Serve with white rice.

  Adapted from Hermann B. Deutsch, Brennan's New Orleans Cookbook

MMMMM
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