Pan

Sounds like something for a court case.

on Fear Factor they're paying people $$$ to do that! That's nuts. Chinese people eat stuff like that every day.

You might be interested in this discussion we've had on the New York forum.

It sounds to me like Canadian regulations have been much tighter than American ones.

Expressing your opinion on a matter of taste is never a mistake, and welcome to eGullet, Mulcahy.

Pan, this is correct. However, this land costs those ranchers nothing or next to nothing because it is shit ground.[...] Saying that grass-feeding ranchers are the problem is like blaming Gurney's for the root rot on your too-well-watered basil. It's at the wrong stage for the ranchers to have any effect because they no longer have the cattle. As far as I can tell, nobody's blaming grass-feeding ranchers. All I was doing was pointing out benefits they're getting from the government. And considering that a really large percentage of the land in a whole bunch of mountain states is under the control of the Bureau of Land Management, I find it difficult to believe that land is all shit and almost unsuitable for grazing.

I thought it was funny, and I don't even have the melody of that tune in my mind's ear.

Oh, I just realized the name of the thread is "wackiest thing you've ever eaten" not "wackiest food you've ever seen." Well, I've eaten all manner of innards - bull's testicles in a Yemenite restaurant called Shaul's in Tel Aviv in 1977, pig's intenstines in various Chinese restaurants, calf brains, tripe, etc. The bull's testicles get the most surprised responses, but I really don't think any of these things are that wacky. I've had turtle soup a couple of times but prefer mock-turtle soup, and I've eaten sea cucumbers and so forth. Again, not very wacky, I'm afraid. Edited to say that I've had cowfoot soup in Jamaican places many times, and oxtail soup in both Jamaican places and a British colonial hotel I stayed at in Kuala Lumpur 26 years and longer ago, but I don't find those things very wacky. I've had ducks' tongues, too, and don't recommend them. I like chicken feet, though. Again, not very wacky. I get them almost every time I go for dim sum.

The last time I was in Buffalo (which I believe was in November 2001), I had a very good Greek lunch at Town, I believe it was called, not far from Orchestra Hall. Is the place still there, is it still a good Greek diner, and does a Greek place that serves good moussaka and avgolemano soup count for "ethnic" to you?

I agree with you. But I can't see how anyone could ask for objectivity in restaurant reviews. Taste is subjective. But there's a difference between subjective taste and writing a good review because you gain financial benefit from a relationship. It sounds like that's the point in the criticism of George Will.

Not everyone responds to those treatments.

I wonder if that's a function of climate. Lemongrass used to grow as a weed in my yard when I lived in Malaysia, and it didn't need to be peeled or grated at all, just snipped, washed, and put in chicken soup.

Thanks for the correction, Louisa. Here's the tale of two meals for you: Michel Vignaud in Chablis

ExtraMSG, aren't you aware of what things were like before there was any government regulation, or at least none to speak of? There were exposes written about that, too. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair comes to mind. I think the difference between libertarians who want to abolish all regulations and people who believe some regulations are necessary is that we don't say that because government is imperfect, it should be abolished. But most libertarians aren't that extreme, and I think you aren't. I think you probably believe that the government should run the justice system, the prisons and the armed forces. Why? The justice and prison systems are screwed up in all sorts of ways, and no country's armed forces have ever been perfect. So why not disband the goverment, and leave everything up to private enterprise? Because, in the end, I suppose that you probably don't think that private armies and vigilante justice would be as good as the current necessarily imperfect national armed forces and very flawed justice system. And those of us who believe certain minimum standards of food safety need to be maintained by government regulations are simply convinced that private companies, if left to their own devices, would in many cases cover things up, cut corners, and if necessary take the money and run. Look at Enron as an example of what happens when there's no regulation. That doesn't prove how bad government is at regulation, but rather how bad things become when deregulation is pushed through inadvisably. Sometimes, deregulation is helpful, and an excess of paperwork and red tape is a bad thing. But having no limitations on pollution, no oversight of meat-packing plants, no maximum hours, no requirements for sinks in restaurant kitchens, no workplace safety regulations - these are bad things. It used to be like that, about 80 years ago. The lack of regulations led to the disaster in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, when "a total of 146 women died in less than fifteen minutes" because they were locked into the sewing room. In recent years, very similar disasters have occurred in Shenzhen, China and Bangkok, because those countries either lack the types of regulations pushed through after that inferno in the U.S. or do not enforce them for fear of creating more expenses for businesses. I'll end the rant here, and I hope it goes without saying that I respect your contributions to this site very much. I just wish you would consider some real-world facts that make things more complicated than "all regulations are bad and the world would be better if all regulations were abolished."

What's funny about me is that I have no trouble with hot peppers of any type, except if there are too many of them, but bell peppers of any variety upset my stomach - green are the worst, but red, yellow, whatever, they're bad for me. I can eat a few pieces without much trouble, but when I forget to ask them to hold the bell peppers (emphasizing that hot peppers are good), as I often do, I tend to pick them out piece by piece. This happens to me a lot with Chinese food.

If a vodka company paid off a liquor reviewer, it could easily be an Absolut situation, har har. Seriously, your points are well taken, Bux, though I found myself thinking "You mean, there's no taste involved in politics?" [raised eyebrows]

Interesting. Well, Grand Sichuan also tends to use a lot of fat, so I suppose that could have accounted for some of my friend's problems. He and his doctor think spicy food is a problem for him, however, and there are times when an individual's empirical results trump the results of larger studies of others.

My father has a fair degree of glucose intolerance (I think it's called), so he generally substitutes stevia where sugar is called for in recipes. He finds that he gets the same degree of sweetness as expected when he uses half the amount of stevia that he would have used of sugar. (I had trouble figuring out how to write that sentence clearly; did that work? ) Mudbug, where are you located? I understand that most stevia is grown in Argentina, I think Patagonia?? Which would call for a cool, pretty dry climate, I imagine.

I thought the wackiest food I'd ever seen were the insects for sale in the central market in Bangkok. Water trotters, huge waterbugs (big cockroaches), etc. I sort of dimly remember it now, over 28 years later, but it was a shock to my young system then. No, I didn't eat any of them!!

I'll look forward to Kristin's answer, but I'm guessing that part of the answer is since Japanese people eat sashimi a lot, they demand really high-quality fresh fish and that's what's probably sold most everywhere - just like the Italians demand fresh, high-quality produce and get it in every supermercato. Sometimes, things really are a matter of supply and demand, and whether consumers insist on high quality or not. Of course, we've had that discussion in other threads and no doubt will continue to discuss the topic in the future.

I'm pretty sure that ulcers are not caused by what you eat (or drink), they're a viral infection so you don't need to worry about chilli induced ulcers. Not to get too far afield, but I think many if not most ulcers are caused by the Helicobacter pylori bacterium. But, be that as it may... I actually have a friend who has problems with ulcers that are not caused by H. pylori, and he loves spicy food but it can be really tough on him. He had a birthday dinner at Grand Sichuan in Midtown Manhattan, and had such a bad reaction it caused him to bleed enough internally to get dizzy and tired and run a fever for awhile. It was really unpleasant for him, poor guy, and he really is a gastronome and someone who I've shared a lot of good food with. I'm not sure if he's completely recovered yet or not, but he was well enough to go on vacation a few weeks later and is to my knowledge still on vacation. I'll doubtless speak with him soon.

My question would be "Why?" If the chef has picked people who do a superb job and made sure that they do a superb job, why does it matter whether he's there on a particular night or not? Do you mean to tell me that if you had a fabulous meal and then found out the Chef de Cuisine was not there, you'd feel cheated? Frankly, I'd be a lot more concerned if all the line chefs didn't show, which is something that happened one evening when I went to Michel Vignaud in Chablis.

I thought Japan imported a fair amount of Thai rice. No?

So graphic, jmcgrath!

Wow, 190 proof! 95% alcohol. Make sure to keep that far away from your stove!