Text 22884, 97 rader
Skriven 2007-11-16 16:39:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: ODDITIES 443
====================
 ML> The kid won the bet. We had Sizzlying Rice Soup, followed by
 ML> some standards, such as lo mein and beef with broccoli (I
 ML> forget the exact dishes).
 ML> The interesting thing was that he had never played the piano before.
 GJ> Amazing!  Was there a piano set up at the restaurant so that the bet
 GJ> could be settled on site before the bill was received?  And where is
 GJ> that prodigy now?

He was a [ital]very[/ital] sharp guy, but not super adventurous.
He got a job as a bureaucrat for, I believe, the Social Security
Administration.

==

 GJ> A recent re-run of the Iron Chef had an American chef who came to
 GJ> Japan to challenge the establishment.  He was Takayoshi Kawai, head
 GJ> chef of the Pan Pacific restaurant in San Francisco.  I forget what the
 GJ> ingredient of the day was, but rather predictably the challenger lost
 GJ> to the resident Iron Chef, Hiroyuki Sakai, mainly because the judges
 GJ> considered his sauces, made to USAn tastes, were too sweet.  What I

I agree that USAn tastes run to the sweet, a stereotype that holds
for once. My flight the other day was cancelled, so I ended up
hungry in an airport with fast-food franchises closing up left and
right. So I found the one that didn't have a huge line, which was
Quizno's. Had the Specialty Angus Beef Sub, which was sweet supposedly
whole-wheat bread, sweet onions, bland mushy beef (and not too much
of it), sweet BBQ sauce, incredibly sweet "honey" mustard sauce, and
two kinds of cheese, plastic Cheddar and rubber mozzarella. Plus a
mushroom slice or two. The vast quantities of sauce actually made the
sub appear to be a big, sloppy sandwich, whereas in reality it was
sub-par. Before I started eating, I took a sip of root beer, which
was quite syrupy. After a couple bites of sandwich, the next sip of
root beer had no discernible sweetness, that having been obliterated
by the order-of-magnitude-greater sweetness.

 GJ> found interesting was that one dish had cooked corn silk as a garnish.
 GJ> I think it was deep fried.  The tasters praised it highly, and said it
 GJ> had a sweet flavour.  One of these days I might try it.  Have you?

I've had raw and boiled corn silk. Never had it fried, though it
probably would take well to frying. So the tasters liked the sweet
garnish but not sweet sauces?

 GJ> Tiger Airlines is opening shortly, with daily flights between Adelaide
 GJ> and Melbourne.  An initial allocation of 8000 seats at $9.99 each have
 GJ> already been sold.  JetStar has promised to sell cheaper seats.

That's Tiger Airways, the joint venture among SIA, Temasek, and
Ryanair, right?

=

 GJ> Interesting that USAns are waking up to the virtues of good red wine.
 GJ> My faith in its benefits has been rock solid for over half a century.

Wait a sec. Junipero Serra started making wine in California
before any of your criminal immigrants were even born, and
with the exception of the Prohibition Era, Americans have been
drinking good red wine for at least 300 years. Not at the per
caput level of your Antipodes, but you have the unfair advantage
of harboring the likes of Symons and yourself.

 ML> Pinot Noir - light colored, interesting unidentifiable tropical
 ML> fruity estery type of taste, at best guess pears with passion
 GJ> [Why do people keep including pear juice as "tropical"?]

What do half-ripe cherimoyas taste like? Pears. What do half-ripe
mangosteens taste like? Pears.

 ML> Actually, meat isn't poisonous, although in the early stages
 ML> of putrefaction it may harbor some embarrassing microorganisms.
 ML> When it's actually green, these bacteria and such probably have
 ML> died off, hence "safe to eat." This is different from the green
 GJ> That sounds logical.  Have you tried the really green meat?

Yep, but not often and not with pleasure.

 GJ> I have had SB which has the cat pee flavour to a revolting degree, but
 GJ> perhaps I am fortunate in that I have been unable to detect it in some
 GJ> of the better NZ (and the deviant) SBs, just getting the firmness and
 GJ> complexity of that assertive wine.  You have the mixed blessing of an
 GJ> ultra-sensitivity to many flavours, such as cat pee.

I am so antipathetic to cat pee that we're giving the entire
Gisbourne, Hawke's Bay, and Marlborough provinces a miss
next week.

 GJ> It would have to be a very brave - or desperate - person who would
 GJ> sample that brew.  He has now finished that brew, and has suggested
 GJ> making a sugar-based liquor; a sort of rum wash.

Not unlike some of the oddities you have aging on the top shelf
of your kitchen cabinet?
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