Mjx

Every time I've brined veal, it's made it mushy. But veal never really seems to need it, anyway (not that that stopped me from experimenting, obviously).

I'm thinking a prep. similar to shrimp (I know lots of people cook all sorts of arthropods intact, but I have a squeamish boyfriend, so shrimp prep means removing head, carapace, legs, etc, so what remains is just a lump of meat, not a recognizable creature).

Dakki? guymovingon? I'm thinking, one of the people active on the knife topics.

Mash your potatoes, add the tiniest drizzle of olive oil, and a lot of mashed, roasted garlic. But you know, we're talking mashed potatoes, so it's going to be a major carb.-fest, regardless

Lots of detailed and well-argued advice upthread. Bottom line is 'Yes', qualified by 'If you keep the temperature low (apart from an initial quick sear, to build flavour) the entire cooking time, which is likely to be quite a few hours'. Hey, curiosity is good, without it we'd probably still be eating a very limited selection of things. Slicing across the grain cuts the meat fibres into very short lengths, so they no longer require much breaking apart with your teeth, so the meat registers as 'tender'.

Vanillin doesn't seem 'bad', as such, just... cheap. It seems strange to find it in an upmarket product; I would expect anything containing vanillin to be priced accordingly. Even if the difference can't be tasted (and this isn't consistently so, at least in my case), if I'm going to give my wallet a kick in the teeth, I want it to be justified.

Those look as though they could be very tasty: they look fresh and crisp. Yesterday (by an odd coincidence) I had the opportunity to buy bagged cricket and meal worm snacks, and felt that, in the interests of, well, everything, I really should get one of each, but ended up getting neither, because the looked sort of damp and clammy. Sort of the way really cheap beef jerky snacks do, the ones that smell slightly of wet dog, and have the vilest texture. Perhaps there's a place in NYC that serves them up fresh?

I'd recommend nearly anyplace in Emilia Romagna; no skiing, as far as I know, but friendly, and the food is hard to top (and I'm speaking as someone who grew up in, and is much attached to Tuscany).

Palm seed Fig Zuppa Inglese Strawberry, balsamic vinegar, and black pepper sorbet Semifreddo, most flavours

I have a similar problem (if it's too loud, it's like being slapped, repeatedly, across the eyes). But I won't even tolerate unpleasant noise levels for good food, because I can't enjoy the food: If a place doesn't have at least some quiet time, I won't go (unless it's a question of not inconveniencing friends who've included me in a dinner invitation).

I use a plate: A single spoon rest would almost never be big enough for whatever I'm doing at the stove at a given time. I've thought about getting a dedicated plate or tray, but haven't seen anything I love.

The farmer's market here is a year-round thing (Wednesdays and Saturdays), because most of the vendors are selling the identical merchandise you find in the supermarkets (but it's still much nicer to shop there). There some good things, though: several beekeepers with their own honey, the salt guy, the organic produce stand that actually sells its own produce. There is a smaller greenmarket near the cathedral, which consist of a handful of sellers with a combination of their own produce and stuff from the wholesalers. Local strawberries are starting to show up, and soon the pea frenzy will be upon us .

A couple of weeks a go, I bought some whole shrimp. My boyfriend took one look at all those eyes, paled slightly, and averted his gaze. This was in the shop, while they were still frozen like rocks in their sealed plastic bag. Later that day, I began prepping the shrimp, something that I cannot do without being struck by their distinct resemblance to insects (yep, even the jumbo ones), and found myself wondering what insects, particularly the larvae, would be like to eat. On purpose, that is. The Paleo Diet topic got me thinking again about eating classes of animals that are not regarded as food by most residents of industrialized/Western[ized] cultures. It's also been a while since this has been discussed in the forums. Proponents of eating insects praise their nutritional value, and the potentially low environmental impact associated with cultivating them for food, but how do they taste? After all, for the vast majority of us, the enjoyment of food is as important as its nutritional value. Have you sampled any invertebrates that are not part of the standard Western canon? Was it any good, and if it wasn't, did you get the impression that the preparation, or the critter itself was the problem? Do you think this is something that might catch on, become popular (after all, in the 1950s plenty of Westerners would have scoffed at the idea that eating raw fish would become widely appreciated)? Or, is your reaction to the idea of eating such invertebrates pretty much like my boyfriend's reaction to whole shrimp: something too disturbing to be contemplated objectively? I'm curious about the prevailing attitude in 2011.

I'm an archaeologist by profession, and the name makes me cringe too. I wouldn't be surprised if starchy wild tubers also made up a significant part of paleolithic diets, something forbidden on the modern plan. You are absolutely right about the probable reliance on bugs, eggs, and microfauna as protein sources. Not to be pedantic, but your assumption about the reliability of paleolithic hunting is incorrect. There is actually quite a bit of evidence that paleolithic humans (and Neanderthals for that matter) were very effective hunters of large game, and in some cases were successful enough to hunt selectively. . . . . Although I'm aware that paleolithic humans reached a high degree of sophistication in the later parts of the paleolithic, my understanding was that there was little reliance on large game hunting, or even trapping, during the earlier parts of the period (and I understood the so-called 'paleo diet' as supposedly reflecting what humans ate during the earliest phases of their existence). Even if you grant the probability of a fairly steep learning curve, it would have taken a while to refine tools and skill to the point that they were reliably efficient. I cannot bring myself to read the book: any idea of the author's stance on the consumption of grubs and such?

Frozen peas, frozen grapes. In fact, frozen any-small-sweet-items are fantastic, and when I was a kid, I'd often eat them until I shivered. I tend to eat these in scoops, by hand, so there's a cooling effect on the hands, too. Also, eat as little as possible: I've found that if I under-eat, I start to feel chilly (during mild weather; in hot weather it just helps me to feel cooler), and this is probably pretty common, since it brings you metabolism to the lower end of its range.

More like something to do with Prussic acid, aka cyanide

Some effect of the tannins?

That was my first thought (it certainly makes sense), but that would still beg the question of why this hasn't ever happened in Italy, where there is certainly no shortage of gender stereotyping! I'd have to add that the waiters who've done this haven't struck me as the sorts who would accept gender stereotyping in themselves (but it's no secret that thinking something doesn't automatically make it so). I've had this happen in all categories of restaurants, incidentally, from the very modest, to the high end, and this has also happened when I've ordered fish or chicken, if my fellow diner happened to order something vegetarian. I'm hoping some of the members who work, or have worked as waitstaff, will weigh in on this.

I just make the sorts of things I ordinarily cook, and skip the starch; this just takes a little adjustment, but I found that this happens very quickly. Anytime I switch to this style of eating, I feel fantastic, am almost revoltingly healthy and energetic, and lose weight. Too bad I think heaven is probably made of bread. The name makes me cringe, however, since it is simply inaccurate: Paleolithic humans (i.e. before humans had migrated to arctic regions, or begun domesticating animals and cultivating grains) almost certainly relied on insect matter, raw eggs, and various small, easily caught creatures, for protein, rather than on meat from birds and mammals (hunting with primitive weaponry was pretty unreliable in terms of providing protein).

What I said, upthread. Now you may be thinking, 'So, why not regulate what marketers are allowed to say, instead of abolishing something damn tasty?' To which I would have to reply, 'I've no idea.'

Dark chocolate with black pepper, coffee, or balsamic vinegar, zuppa inglese, and a raspberry sorbet that is focussed on the tartness and intense aromatic aspect of the berries, rather than their sweetness (personal favourite combination when I get ice cream).

Over the years, I've noticed something odd: When I'm dining out with a friend who happens to be a man, waitstaff frequently switch our orders. If the main courses consist of vegetarian lentil stew and sliced steak, the soup ends up in front of me. Black coffee and coffee with milk? I get the milky coffee. Desserts consisting of a fruit salad and a slice of chocolate cake..? Guess who gets the fruit salad? And, without exception, these are all wrong. So, we grin, and swap. Usually, the waiter looks confused, smiles weakly, and melts away. Occasionally there's a mumbled apology, but not usually, although I think this is more due to embarrassment than lack of manners. Not a huge deal, no point in making a fuss over it. But it's happened so often, I can't help wondering what is going on. There's no question of my being easily confused with my dining partners, since I'm short, undistinguished, and definitely female, while my dining partners are seldom ordinary looking, and unquestionably male (and most are tall). I'd guess it was simply the projection of gender cliches, but with just two people at table, that seems hard to believe. This is not a regional or temporal thing, either: it has happened over the course of a couple of decades, and on both sides of the Atlantic. Oddly, although I've experienced this in both the US and Northern Europe, it has never happened to me in Italy, where gender stereotypes flourish very openly (more so, I'd say, than in the US or Northern Europe). I'd love to hear how often you get your dining partner's food: Does it happen a lot? what sorts of items are involved? Any idea of what on earth is going on?

I'm sort of... fuzzy, looking, I guess? Anyway, I've not infrequently had waitstaff ask something along the lines of 'Is it all good, honey?'. From a middle-aged or elderly woman, this seems, well, not so unusual; coming from a brawny guy with facial piercings/neck tattoos, it's sort of startling. This has happened a couple of times, and I've had no answer, apart from dumbstruck staring (it doesn't help that 99 times out of a hundred, this question tends to be asked when I've just taken on a mouthful of food).

Since this discussion appears to have moved into the region of semantic nuances, I'm going to shove in my oar, too. If something is called a 'bitter', it is reasonable to expect bitterness to be its salient feature; beyond that, the bitterness may be balanced by other flavours (or not), be intensely or mildly bitter, or have distinctive aromatic elements that support or counter expectations. Given the definition of 'tincture', it would be reasonable to expect these compounds to be strongly flavoured (perhaps, but not necessarily bitter, given their often medicinal origins), intended to be used in small quantities. For most people, 'tincture' is going to be a far less familiar term than bitter. What the use of such terminology really comes down to is whether or not you believe the language belongs to everyone, and is the common currency of communication, or that marketers (or anyone others) are privileged to do what they wish with language, and insist that their take is correct (for those who fall into the latter camp, I have some shares of the Brooklyn Bridge for sale at a very attractive prices )

It might also be that some substances produced specifically for laboratory use might contain preservatives, stabilizers, and other materials that are not approved for human consumption/require preservation in equipment that is not readily available outside of laboratories (e.g. refrigeration at temperatures no achievable by consumer or food industry equipment).