Text 25433, 76 rader
Skriven 2012-05-28 00:02:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE SACERDOTE
Ärende: seafood etc 719
=======================
 ML> How people can sell surimi as crab and
 ML> not be put in jail is way beyond me. 
 DS> Indeed. I've seen different extrusion methods of surimi sold
 DS> as scallops, crab, lobster, and shrimp. It tastes nothing like
 DS> ANY of these, and it really pisses me off when surimi is labeled

Surimi scallops taste not much worse than the processed real
ones I've eaten lately.

 DS> as another product on a restaurant menu. Are consumers this stupid?
 DS> Do they actually have such wooden palates?

It is really hard to fathom. But now one sees phenomena such
as meat glue - I remember the first time I had a filet whose
grain was wrong but that tasted sort of like filet (not
really, there was a lot of briny bouillionish aroma going on
as well), and I was really flummoxed. I couldn't very well
send it back, as it was on an airplane. I'm thinking of a
couple of pieces of writing that are favorites from yester
century - one, The Marching Morons by I believe C. M. Kornbluth,
which depicts a dystopian future in which (among other things)
automobile speedometers are in kph so that people can get the
thrill of going fast without endangering themselves too much;
the other an article in I believe Reader's Digest by I believe
Richard Condon that contains the wonderful coinage "soyrloyn
stayk" - unfortunately, he diverges from this also dystopian
view and describes the wonders of freeze-drying with what
appears to be genuine wonder.

 ML> Three. Scallops. Nothing to do with the (probably false) rumor
 ML> that they used to be counterfeited using skate meat and cookie
 ML> cutters. 
...
 DS> I actually had opportunity to chat with a fisherman who showed
 DS> me how the grains of the meat in skate muscle and a scallop's
 DS> adductor muscle are totally different and would be instantly
 DS> recognizable by someone with a little knowledge of seafood.

Indeed. It's up-and-down vs. sideways, and my early hypothesis
is that the people who proposed the rumor were palate-deads such
as we have described earlier.

 DS> But I also know that scallops will suck up water like a sponge
 DS> when left to soak, and that there are plenty of processors who
 DS> would have no problem with pumping up their scallops in order
 DS> to sell water at shellfish prices. 

True, but current scallops taste so darn bad! In the olden days,
frozen fried off-brand scallops tasted like real food.

 ML> They used to brown up nice; now they exude grayish liquid. 
 DS> This is consistent with the scallops being "watered down."

Yep, but back previously when one boiled off that up to whatever
percentage of solution, the underlying muscle would taste at least
okay. Now, there's nothing but a vague fishiness and a strange and
distressing alumlike pucker on the tongue.

 DS> And personally, I haven't had a really good scallop in about
 DS> three years.

This being why my suggestion of species substitution is not
wholly tongue-in-cheek.

 ML> I reserve the right to continue this rant at some point.
 DS> I should hope so.

Next. Caviar. Firstoff, 99% of it isn't real. Next,
when it is real, it tastes like salty sardine jello,
which you may or may not like (I kind of do), but
not for $100 an ounce. Maybe, but it's not something
I feel particularly passionate about.

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