Text 20760, 92 rader
Skriven 2012-02-03 04:05:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: favorite foods 170
==========================
 ML> Sea urchins, anyplace. Probably the most glorious food
 ML> there is, but easy to overdose on.
 GJ> Agreed.  Tried once, on Crete.  Never forgotten.

People get really turned off by these. What you get are
the sex organs, which might be one issue. Also the strong
marine, briny, iodiney quality might have something to do.
But the underlying creamy sweet-salt with just a hint of
tart-bitter is so wonderful. Of course, raw is best: when
cooked, the taste and texture are both degraded, sort of
like a photo vs. real life.

 ML> Ttoro, anyplace. The third most glorious food there is,
 ML> impossible to overdose on unless one is really rich. The
 GJ> OK, you have me there.  What is it?

Belly tuna, best served raw. Every fish is said to have
only a few ounces of the best "o-ttoro," which has that
whitish pink look of high grade Kobe filet (which I've seen
only in pictures, though I've had high grade sirloin strip,
which was wonderful); the rest of the belly is "chu-ttoro,"
which is what I can afford, and only when I'm flush.

 GJ> Crustaceans figure highly in your memorables.
 GJ> As do pieces of beef, rare or raw.

Indeed. Though my everyday favorites might surprise.
Well-done chuck, for example, if very marbled: one dish
I travel for is short ribs, but one version is so like the
last that memories merge and fade: what doesn't fade is the
taste of the fat and the wonderful texture of the membrane
behind the bone. Fried chicken thighs. Actually, roast or
poached chicken breast done medium-rare with either chicken
gravy or soy-scallion sauce, with the rest of the bird
cooked medium. Fatty brisket. Fried onions. Spaghettini
Bolognese. Broiled bluefish. Tuna noodle casserole heavy
on the potato chips.

 -=> Jim Weller said to Glen Jamieson <=-

 JW> "Alternative medicine" that's proven to work is called, you know...
 JW> "Medicine".

Good one.

 GJ> Some quite simple meals remain in the memory because of their
 GJ> perfection and/or circumstances when eaten.
 ML> Sea urchins
 JW> My most memorable seafood meals were a lowly mackerel, ultra
 JW> fresh and pan fried on the beach in Newfoundland over a wood fire,
 JW> and served with scrambled eggs, summer of 72, and crab in black bean
 JW> sauce at a little Chinese place in a small village on the Trans
 JW> Canada Highway a few miles inland from Vancouver, mid 80s.

Mackerel can be decent if ultra-fresh; I prefer bluefish,
which is just a giant mackerellike thing.

 GJ> Best beef I have ever had was buffalo, not beef.
 JW> Mine was roasted muskox tenderloin. On New Year's Eve, 1979.

Cooked beef? Various steaks done at friends' homes. A
porterhouse at Ruth's Chris in Crystal City (I've never had
another really good meal at a Ruth's Chris, though the many
more than acceptable steaks at Morton's, the Texas Roadhouse,
Texas Steaks in Arnold, Cite (now I believe gone) in NYC do
not come up to the standard of this one). Short ribs, as
above. Red-cooked with basil, garlic, and I think citrus
peel, a place overlooking Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan - we were
on a tour, which threatened to drop us off at an American-style
restaurant, whereupon I said to the guide, take us where you
would choose to eat, and I'll pay for dinner. So that's what
happened.

Pork: shanks at Spaten in Munich; Haxn'bauer in Munich;
Smith and Wollensky in various places. Cutlet at a dive bar
("check your weapons") in Helsinki. Pearl's sausage, made
by the daughter of a slave, Capon Springs, WV. Bacon, made
by the moderator of the cooking echo. Red-cooked shoulder,
Joyce Chen, Cambridge, MA, 1969.

Lamb: crusted with parsley, thyme, and mustard, various
places, most notably as cooked by me on the day when the
Patriots lost the Superbowl to the Bears, who were spearheaded
by the supergiant Refrigerator Perry. Kidneys, in a very mild
mustard sauce, Bistro Francais, Washington.

Duck: smitane with my sister at La Caravelle, NYC. In a
salt crust, Ian's in Forges.

There are more of course, but these are off the top of my head.
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