pennylane

Oh yeah, I have this one too. And I can't bear to use food colouring in cooking at all, even though I do know that it isn't that bad for you and also it's not like I avoid it in prepackaged foods and drinks.

Most of these food neuroses seem to do with eating food, but I have some strange ones concerned with preparing food. I guess I must have been at an impressionable age when I first read that boiling vegetables leaches all the vitamins out into the water. But I don't have a steamer, so I generally try to cook vegetables in as little water as possible, in the hope that most of them are essentially steamed. Only I still can't bear to throw out any water that might be left in the pan, because I'd feel too guilty for throwing out all the vitamins - and here's the crazy part - I actually pick the vegetables out of the water one by one, so that by the time I'm done most of the water will have evaporated and I won't have to feel guilty about throwing away the vitamins. I've just realised that the second food neurosis I was going to describe is also vitamin-related. I must come across like an enzyme-obsessed raw-foodist or something. Anyway, my method for peeling potatoes is to boil them first, then peel them by hand while they're still hot enough for the skin to come off easily while hopefully preserving the vitamins which are supposedly just underneath. Leading to some pretty scalded fingers from time to time.

Same here - in fact, whenever people outside of France mentioned the upcoming law, I would always pooh-pooh it, saying that it was meaningless because it would never actually be enforced, it would be just like the dog excrement law, etc. etc. But then when the law actually went into effect, I couldn't have been more bouleversee by what happened. I have yet to hear one person complain, including smokers. But if you think about it, it was always a little weird how the French, supposedly so gastronomically inclined, could put up with clouds of smoke billowing around them as they ate. And reading old restaurant reviews on cityvox and other such sites, I've come across a lot of negative reviews, even from smokers, about poorly-ventilated restaurants. So perhaps that could be part of the reason they've been so seemingly happy to comply.

Actually, the Indian section is rather inactive. I think most people go to other, more Indian-orientated sites....that's where I go to talk about Indian cooking. ← Yeah, a lot of people on this board are also on anothersubcontinent.com. In fact that's how I found out about this board.

God!! How do you guys make your desserts look so good?! I feel like devouring things which I normally wouldn't think I'd like at all (am thinking of the burnt sugar cake and cranberry upside down cake in particular, but there have been countless examples on this thread... I went back and read all 108 pages of it!)!

Whoa. Why would garlic & onions be ruled out? ← They believe it excites the passions. It's not really a vegetarian thing. But I think it's a Hindu/Jain thing. I think it was originally widows who were not allowed to eat garlic and onions (because spicy food excites the passions) but since they were often confined to the kitchen this gave rise to a tradition of preparing food without garlic and onions.

St Agur??

Hmm. That's a tough one. I guess I feel like the things beyond the scope of some of my quasi-purist tendeicies don't taste good. Honestly, I couldn't imagine drinking a vodka "martini" and I'd rather have nothing than a Domino's pizza. Is there anyone who really won't eat something that tastes good to them because of some kind of foodie purism? ← Well, I refrained from posting to this thread for as long as possible, as being a meat-substitute-loving vegetarian, I find food fascism irritating and think that there's already quite enough of it on this board without creating a thread solely for the purpose of inciting it. But when I read this question I was forced to accept the horrible truth about myself: that, in fact, I am one of these people. For instance, ever since I moved to Europe I avoid brownies like the plague, for fear of coming across one of those European-style chocolate cakes masquerading as a brownie, even though I actually prefer chocolate cake to brownies. The same goes for bagels - I've turned up my nose at many a soft and fluffy round roll with a hole in it, just for pretending to be something it's not. I also won't touch a Liege waffle made without yeast. To my mind, they must have yeast or they're just not Liege waffles. For a long time I refused to eat savoury crepes made from regular wheat, as opposed to buckwheat, flour. Though I knew I would really like them if I ever deigned to taste them (which eventually I did). Oh and pesto. As many others have stated, I won't touch walnut pesto with a ten-foot pole. Even though I love walnuts, and don't particularly care for pine nuts. And I don't think I would ever eat brown rice sushi, though I greatly prefer brown rice to white. Then there's the famous "cheese naan", mainstay of Indian restaurants in France. Everyone loves it and raves about it, but I will never, never try it. I love cheese, I love naan, but I just cannot sanction this unholy union.

Abbaye de Belloc? Bleu de Gex?

I certainly don't (yet) know enough about cheese to take a guess, but let me just throw this out there: Ossau-Iraty?

I have also been known to eat a whole galette des rois, provoking the same comments from my co-workers!

Well this may be somewhat sacrilegious but my husband and I once used it as a dip for carrot sticks and slices of apple and grapes and so forth... it was pretty addictive that way... before we knew it we had finished the lot.

You bet; my husband has forbidden me from cooking anything cheesy for a long, long time (after gobbling most of it up himself, I might add). But I don't regret it - I had read a suggestion on a French website that non-aficionados might appreciate the cheese more easily this way as its taste mellows with cooking, while its texture is smooth and unctuous. Which I found to be the case!

Q: So how did "Old Stinky" come to be finished all in one night? (forgive the poor pictures - I am new to this business...) A: Goyere au Maroilles

I can't believe they didn't like the Mont d'Or!

There is something called "three sisters stew", with pumpkin, corn and beans, which were supposedly staple crops for the Native Americans.

What?! How can that be? Also you say that Germany and France are the same, but Italy is different? How come?

Oh, those are so cute! Especially the aubergine penguins! And the cauliflower sheep! And I love the way black-eyed peas are used for the eyes for everything. I must remember that if I ever need to make something with eyes!

The thing is, it would be such a waste of a nice bread, to have it with this cheese. The taste just overpowers everything else, and stays that way for the rest of the day. And the taste... it just tastes like something one shouldn't be eating. I have never thrown away a cheese, but I am really tempted this time. I will let you all know what happens!

Throw it out?! Oh no, I've already eaten some of it!! And believe me, the taste of putrefaction lingered in my mouth for the rest of the day, even after I bit off the end of a jalapeno pepper! The funny thing is that I also have a highly impaired sense of smell, but I think the fact that the cheese came wrapped in its own layer of seran wrap, and then a layer of paper, and then another layer of plastic, and then a plastic bag - well that says it all. It took a lot of courage to gingerly peel away the layers with the tip of a long knife, especially the innermost layer, from which dripped a putrid orange pus. As you can see, my vieux lille looks nothing like the picture David Hatfield posted! Where is the "pinkish grey viscous rind"? Well, scroll down: Here is the vieux lille looking relatively innocuous: And here, you get just a glimpse of its true slimy nature: And here it is in its full putrid glory! I must say, that after getting up close and personal with my vieux lille, I don't know if I will actually be able to eat any more of this vile and rotting gunk. I was thinking of using it up in a recipe which consists of cooking it in beer and then coating it in breadcrumbs and frying it, but I don't know if even that will be enough to mask its taste...

True, I've never seen anyone sneer when I didn't tip, but sometimes they seem disproportionately happy and almost amazed when I do, leading me to believe that perhaps they didn't expect it. This is particularly true with pizza delivery guys, but it seems I can't break the tipping habit, even though I was once roundly scolded for it by a friend of mine in London when we were teenagers and could scarcely afford it...

If you've only oversalted it a little, I would say just leave it as it is... it probably won't taste that salty in the finished product, with the pastry and whatever else you're planning to serve with it. Plus most people seem to have quite a high threshold for salt, at least compared to me...

I know I am probably in a minority here, but I have lived in Paris for 8 years and have never seen a French person tip, not even so much as a cent. (That's why I brought up this question in the other thread John Talbott mentioned - this is something I just can't get used to.) When I eat out with my husband we always leave a couple of euros, and when I go out with my parents they leave a massive tip, but none of us are French. But this brings to mind a common belief - that the waiters here expect bigger tips from foreign (especially American) customers? Certainly they never seem offended when the French people I know don't leave a tip.

Not supposed to start before 8:00 p.m.? I read that it was bad luck to make crepes after sunset. And hubby wanted waffles so I just made crepes for 1 (me). Chevre with honey and macadamia nuts, followed by banana chocolate chip. Bit of an odd combination perhaps but it hit the spot. Tried flipping the first one but it broke into three pieces.

VIEUX LILLE. Now what am I to do with this glob of putrifying animal matter in the refrigerator? (Should have done an eGullet search before I bought it...)