Mjx

I thought that slight metallic tang had to do with its being aged; is that incorrect? I don't care for it myself, and since meat tenderness isn't a top priority for me, I tend to steer clear of aged beef, because of this impression.

Every time this topic has caught my eye, I've noticed I felt fleetingly uneasy, so I decided to figure out why. I think it's this: Most of the 'signs' that have been mentioned (including my own previously-noted nothing but nuke-and-eat food to be seen) are likely to make for a poor meal, or a poorer meal than could be created with better ingredients/equipment, but I think I'd still hesitate to conclude that the person is a poor cook; he or she might just be (at least temporarily) poor, period. I know plenty of people who are competent to excellent cooks, who (particularly as students), resorted at least on occasion to the most appalling food, just to put something, anything in their stomachs (instant mash made with hot water from the tap, ketchup sandwiches, giant boxes of cheap breakfast cereal... whatever gave the most food mass/cash unit), and during these lean times, about all you'd find in their kitchens would be some sort of crap instant thing, and a bunch of aging condiments, spices, and herbs for which they'd have no use for quite a while, but cannot bring themselves to throw out, since they figure things will get better eventually. So, like I said, I think these may well be red flags about an upcoming meal, but may not say much about the cook .

Apologies if I should know the answer to this, but do you mean the chain? I'm asking, because I had no idea they sold anything like actual food, just hot dogs, might-be-chicken on skewers, and depressing pastry. Or is that just in Denmark (I don't think I've been inside one anywhere else)?

It was only a subjective notion, based on a vague hunch, nothing there to disagree about For the rest, you may well be right, although I'm not sure how xenophobia fits into the picture ('neophobia', on the other hand, does apply).

I was wondering about that! I remembered hysteresis from physics, and was wondering how that was possible. BTW, thanks for the coffee gelatin mention, it inspired me to gelatinize my breakfast (and lunch, and ongoing... there was a litre of water involved) coffee.

I have a hunch that many restaurants aren't that enthusiastic about having children about, so the kids' menu is a distinct (and possibly intentionally discouraging) afterthought.

May be a long shot, but could you blend in a little liquid lecithin? I had a friend who routinely did this, and claimed wonderful success (I'm not big on peanut butter, so I never tried it, and can't personally vouch for the result).

I decided to reformat my coffee, this morning. Konnjaku powder, instant coffee, black pepper, cacao, some freshly ground cinnamon, a few flakes of salt. Topped with a little more cacao, and some chestnut honey (since this made me think of grass jelly, which I've usually had with golden syrup over it).

Oh, of course it's easier to "over-umami" with MSG, just as it's easier to oversalt with pure sodium chloride! But regardless of how you get there, the end result is the same. Unless it's used really sparingly, though, MSG makes for very one-dimensional umami, which (to my taste, anyway) makes it hit the 'too-much' mark really easily. So, although you can have too much umami, it's seems an unlikely outcome when using ingredients other than MSG, since you'd usually have a fair chance of catching the trend in that direction, and not add further umami-enhancing ingredients, or stop reducing, that sort of thing. The only times I've encountered something with too much umami, MSG has been involved.

Not very fishy - just a hint of dry shrimp. They are baked and quite light. There is another style I have not purchased in a while, and whose brand name I do not recall, that is more intense. They are imperfectly round and perhaps a 32nd inch thick. Perhaps someone else knows what I am referring to? Uncooked krupuk, I think; they puff up when you cook them. I didn't know you could eat them uncooked!

I've definitely over umamied a dish before. It was a pasta sauce made from braised goat, cream, dried porcinis, dried morels & truffle salt and it just tasted too umami for me to eat more than a tiny portion of. That does sound a bit...overcrowded. But I also think that falls in the 'over-concentrated for the given volume' category, what with the braised goat cheese, and all the dried mushrooms (just my subjective opinion, obviously).

I don't think I know anyone who hasn't had at least one fairly severe frontal head injury, and the interest in food among them seems to reflect the general one in the population (i.e. a few don't care at all, or are intensely interested, most fall somewhere in the middle; my mother, thanks to many years of intractable epilepsy, must have one of the most bashed-up anterior cerebral cortices of anyone I know, and is in the middle ground). The research paper is suggestive, but it isn't intended as evidence, and the abstract, at least, doesn't mention the (at least as numerous) cases of people who have sustained severe head injuries to the right anterior cortex, and just become run-of-the-mill sociopaths with no special interest in food.

I'm not certain whether you're distinguishing between MSG-created umami, and any other sort (I'm not reflexively anti-MSG, by the way). Umami from most sources is pretty hard to overdo, since you usually get it from sources that don't become excessive unless they get really concentrated (e.g. by reduction, dehydration), and even then, I think that you start to get some breakdown products, with bitter/salty compounds forming/becoming too prominent. MSG is just concentrated umami, so it's pretty easy to hit 'too much umami' with it, what Shalmanese described as 'the taste of bad Chinese restaurants', or the taste of cheap snack food (I've noticed this in a lot of seasoned peanuts).

Cabinets/freezer filled with nuke-and-eat food, not a single raw ingredient to be seen.

Not certain about the US, but here a fair number of fruit juices (same brand and ingredient list)--both concentrate you add water to, and ready-to-drink--may be found in both cans and aseptic packaging. Pineapple and black-currant juice, in particular.

The eggs were just firm enough to pick up with the fingers, which is what we did. Wood, twigs and straw? Wood is just very traditional (and makes for nice warm surfaces in a climate that runs to the cold and clammy), and I'm guessing the straw and twigs are about 'being in touch with nature', or something. I can check their prices – I know they're listed on their site – but don't know offhand, because it was a birthday present, so I made a point of not looking. I do know that it's not cheap, however.

Have to agree with the consensus on the Trip Advisor reviews, although you do get better information if you look at the forum discussions (e.g. that's where you find out that the 'charming... great deal!' has no actual physical existence in this dimension).

Are those crayfish? Because those you can catch pretty much all over, the stream behind out house in Western NYS was bristling with them.

Curious, here: How do you feel, physically? Anything different? Growing up vegetarian was a problem for me, because my parents relied heavily on wheat-based products (which I don't handle well), but several of my friends mention feeling significantly better when they remove meat from their diets.

By 'blackish', do you mean that when you look into the pot-ful of liquid it looks murky, or that even if scoop up a little in a spoon it looks like that? Nothing that you put into the pot sounds like a problem, so perhaps the quantity you used just oxidized (or something similar: a lot of beans contain a fair number of sulfur compounds, if I remember correctly, and those can go black pretty easily) as it cooled, which I can't imagine being dangerous.

Have you experimented with using small amounts of avocado (about 17% fat, according to USDA stats) to give a richer mouth feel to foods? It's surprisingly neutral tasting (McGee even recommends it as an addition to sorbets, in The Curious Cook), and does the job extremely well.

The scenes around the meal in Airplane never cease to enchant me. 'I haven't felt this awful since we saw that Ronald Reagan film.' Brilliant.

I'm on board with non-alcoholic drinks for adults, but I don't see the point of calling them 'cocktails'... what's wrong with 'drink', even if they contain ingredients that are often used in cocktails?

It's sort of an acquired taste, too... for me, it has the nostalgia factor going for it. Cavolo nero is excellent in a traditional Tuscan soup that also includes borlotti (I've had in other soups and stew, and really liked in those, too). It takes a good age to cook, however, and is not something I'd recommend trying, if my sister's reports of the temperatures there are to be trusted. As far as I can remember, cavolo nero is regarded as a winter vegetable, anyway.

Coconut oil has no emulsifier; evidently the very little that is present in butter is necessary to keep it in solution.