Text 20800, 101 rader
Skriven 2012-02-04 10:42:00 av Glen Jamieson
     Kommentar till en text av Michael Loo
Ärende: FAVORITE FOODS 170 20204
================================
 -=> Quoting Michael Loo to Glen Jamieson <=-

 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.

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

I have never tried them cooked, or even considered it.  The flavour,
raw, is the essence of all that is best in marine crustacean 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?

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

Ah, thanks.  Yes, I had a tiny taste of that in Pt Lincoln, during a
boat tour of the tuna farms.  I didn't remember the name of that belly
fat.  We were given some of the darker flesh from elsewhere, which was
an excellent sashimi, but the ttoro was truly remarkable, with an
overtone of very fresh local oyster, which I had also eaten in one of
the sheds where they were being sorted.
 
 GJ> Crustaceans figure highly in your memorables.
 GJ> As do pieces of beef, rare or raw.

 ML> Indeed. Though my everyday favorites might surprise.
 ML> Well-done chuck, for example, if very marbled: one dish
 ML> I travel for is short ribs, but one version is so like the
 ML> last that memories merge and fade: what doesn't fade is the
 ML> taste of the fat and the wonderful texture of the membrane
 ML> behind the bone. Fried chicken thighs. Actually, roast or

My favourite chicken meat was prepared by the cook at the plantation
canteen in Sumatra where I was working.  Those chickens were lean,
athletic birds that fed on insects and anything else they could pick
up in their daily struggle for existance around the houses.

 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.

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

My favourite mackerel was eaten on a beach on Tiwi Island, near PNG.
The barbecue was already hot when the spear fisherman waded out of the
sea with a fish kicking on his spear.  It was cleaned, scaled and cut
into cutlets within seconds and thrown onto the barbecue.  Perfection!
 
 ML> not come up to the standard of this one). Short ribs, as
 ML> above. Red-cooked with basil, garlic, and I think citrus
 ML> peel, a place overlooking Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan - we were
 ML> on a tour, which threatened to drop us off at an American-style
 ML> restaurant, whereupon I said to the guide, take us where you
 ML> would choose to eat, and I'll pay for dinner. So that's what
 ML> happened.

A good plan, and the cost of the guide's dinner was probably equal to
his commission from the American eatery - and you had a much more
interesting meal.  Another idea is to ask for the same as the chef
will be having for his/her meal.

 ML> Pork: shanks at Spaten in Munich; Haxn'bauer in Munich;

Smoked pig's trotters from my friend's favourite butcher in Vienna,
and barbecued baby wild pig bought from local tribesmen in Sumatra.

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

Roast leg of Spear Creek saltbush Dorper lamb, Ian's Western Hotel, Pt
Augusta, South Australia, last October.

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

It is fun to taste again in memory.
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