Peter the eater

I found some ostrich jerky at the market -- it's pretty good. The maker says it's essentially raw, but it's marinaded and dried using very low heat. She also makes turkey jerky but not chicken jerky because "it's too bland". Foods like pemmican or bitlong can be also be made with bird meat, according to traditional recipes that I've seen. Still, it's a far cry from biting into a plump raw chicken breast.

Seasonal, pricey and traditional -- I want some! How does it work when you're collecting wild nest eggs? In a hen house, you can always tell what's fresh and unfertilized. What species are harvested? My neighborhood is overrun with gulls, there's a dozen on my roof right now. Herring, Ring-billed, Glaucous, they're all there. Probably some uber-hybrids that will ultimately inherit the earth, along with cockroaches and rats. Extermination is not my motivation, I'm just practical.

There is a mountain of egg info in the eGullet forums, but only one topic mentioning gull eggs specifically. Who's using gull eggs? What do you do with them? How do you get them? How do they compare to other egg types?

There's a classic beef stew from Brazil that uses coffee, but I've never had it nor can I remember its Portuguese name. If you searched for traditional dishes from coffee-producing countries you'll likely get some ideas.

June bugs three ways? Well I didn't see that coming. At a glance I thought maybe they were honey dates (from Maine?) being called june bugs -- but of course they're real insects. So how does someone come up with a dish like that? Sitting around the porch listening to the rat-a-tat-tat of june bugs on the lamp, and then thinking yum? Why not dig up the larvae -- harder to clean, but no crunchy exoskeleton to slow you down. Maybe I'm not the omnivore I'd like to think I am, I believe I would've passed on the june bugs.

This year I used a lot of cranberries in with the apples. Nice and tart, plus extra redness.

Somebody needs to write a book called "Cooking With Coniferous Trees". There's an old French tradition of preparing seafood with pine needles, but my understanding is that they combust and flavor the food with smoke. Here's 2 recipes for spruce beer from Nova Scotia’s Traditional Foods:

Yes, they're the same. There was a bit of a discussion on this topic: Lobster Prices Tank. Some say cold nutrient-rich seawater makes for a better lobster. The Northumberland Strait (which separates Prince Edward Island from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) has the warmest waters north of the Carolinas. Good for swimming, not so good for lobsters.

I despise KFC. The problem is consistency from restaurant to restaurant. Years ago I enjoyed the chicken and side salads, but I've had one too many negative experiences to ever set foot in a KFC again. I like Swiss Chalet. St. Hubert's not bad. I've never been to Popeye's. I think there's still one on Yonge Street in Toronto near where I used to live -- not a very inviting place.

I like their bold slogan on the homepage: "Get a whiff of the best smelling museum ever created". I remember The Prado having an agreeable scent.

Goose breast + salt + time = goose breast prosciutto! At 10 o'clock on the round board:

Yes. . . I saw that enticing ad. Weston Corp. knows what buttons to push and when -- more power to them. I want to try them, and I'm pro-farm when it comes to Atlantic salmon. In my experience, for every excellent PC product there are one or two disasters. Still, the proof is in the pudding.

What makes a potato salad Japanese-style?I'm with you about cold previously deep fried food -- yuck -- unless it's good chicken with a still-crunchy crust. I associate tangy tonkatsu with grilled pork. Is that normal?

Are chip butties associated with football (Gaelic or soccer) in Ireland? I'm thinking it might be like baseball's ballpark frank in the US, or strawberries at Wimbledon, etc.

Lilija, I'm glad it struck a chord with you. Read, chew, discuss, right? Well maybe not chew in this case. I can take anything a good sashimi chef can throw at me, and a blue Beefeater steak brings out my inner vampire, but raw chicken in my mouth just doesn't cut it. I wonder why that is.

Is that really what I think it is? A cold french fry entombed in chocolate? White chocolate? ← Nope, fake frites made from white chocolate! ← Fake french fries? Phony freedom fries? False frites? Phew. They look a little yellow and blistered. Have you tried one?

That amazing! And the museum reopens in just four days (Nov.21, 2008) after major renos by SOM architects. Next time I'm in DC . . . Who here wouldn't recognize that kitchen? I've always wondered about those famous pegboard walls with the tools outlined in blackline, like a high school shop class. I could never do that. Teflon pans last a year or two in my kitchen -- I'd have to find exactly the same shape of pan to fill the silhouette.

Is that really what I think it is? A cold french fry entombed in chocolate? White chocolate?

That's a great document, suzilightning. I've also seen a homemade platform for hog slaughtering on a small family farm. It was a dedicated structure made of 2X4's and plywood. I didn't see it in action but instead of hanging or hoisting, it had a trough for containing the vic while being stuck. Everything was elevated off the ground with various large plastic containers around.

Your chips sound and look better than mine. What kind of oil do you use?

I didn't know it had a name -- vivid, but not very appetizing. I guess that makes my suggestion simply a "log".

Oooh, I have another idea: Make stalk stock -- concentrated celery broth has amazing flavour when reduced to a green syrup.

Fill the groove with peanut butter -- my kids love it.

Interesting. There's a restaurant in my town that will "poutinize" your roast beef sandwich by loading it with french fries, cheese curds and gravy. Yikes.

That doesn't sound very good.