Margaret Pilgrim

I grew up on Monterey Bay. My father loved to go clamming. We would bring home a bucket of clams, chuck them, cut them into morsels (these were big, 6" wide shells), and make New England style chowder, simply clams, their liquid, onions, potatoes, milk. Never herbs. Good eating. I also was fed raw clams on the beach with lemon and Worcestershire. Until my peers said, "eeeeeuuuuuuu!" and I stopped.

So someone. not you or I, are actually buying them, and supposedly enjoying them, at least for their short promotional life? Seriously, I am always boggled by the Chinese produced snack foods at my/these markets. Chips, crackers and candies of all flavors and conformations. I love cruising the isles, even if I understand little of what I see.

Where are they being sold? More specifically, where are you seeing them offered for sale?

Someone must be buying/enjoying these seemingly unfathomable Chinese flavors. My neighborhood Asian market has maybe 20 feet (x 5 feet) dedicated to flavored chips.

As a lifelong Northern Californian, I not only agree but propose that we cook some pretty awesome vegetables at home, too. You might enjoy thumbing through Jeremy Fox's "On Vegetables".

Indeed I have! All of the countries you list fall under the "they" category. "We" referenced middle America. :)

Years ago, when asked, I used to terrify friends who were planning dinner parties by sharing the list of foods husband didn't like. I finally stopped doing this and told them to cook what they wanted. And, you know? He scarfed up whatever these excellent cooks created. Often leading to requests for a new food or concept of a food. Succinctly, be yourself.

Reminds me of an old limerick: There once was a lady named Maud who was a deceitful young fraud. She never was able to eat at the table but back in the pantry, Good Lawd.

I have to wonder if chicken breast and pork tenderloin might be their regular fare, but not the limits of their palates. I.e., how they eat regularly for controlled calories and cholesterol, but might be willing, even excited, to splurge occasionally. (I can only hope..)

As suggested above, we need to give Asian cultures their due for excellent and delicious treatment of green vegetables. They celebrate them; we suffer them.

Got it.

"Nothing to eat" is the crux. I was a young child during WWII with strict rationing. My mother sourced as well a she could but there were many foods I chose not to eat. Mostly offal. There were enough vegetables from the victory garden that our plates generally had several things on them, and meat is not a daily necessity. Of course, if you were subject to starvation rations, like a friend who grew up in wartime Netherlands and whose family resorted to tulip bulbs, or a friend from Crete during Nazi occupation who said they lived off horta (wild greens) and snails, you would eat anything that kept you alive.l

I don't understand. If you have "cooked "it, which I assume means some seasoning treatment, what's left but to serve and eat it?

We have served it as a cocktail (pre-dinner_ accompaniment to rave reviews. Thinly sliced, on Chinese spoons.

Here's your first step. From there, you can marinate sliced tongue in a myriad of vinaigrette type sauces. Or serve hot with a mustard sauce, or... Small tongues are blank canvases for your imagination and craving.

We have a wood burning oven. Buy the Porsche.

We are also ignoring individual taste. I have three grandchildren with three diverse palates. One is a meat eater who eats vegetables as required but not by choice, but will consume more protein than I, given the chance. One craves sugar and eats vegetables by fiat. The third could easily be a vegan, requesting unadorned broccoli for breakfast during a sleepover. But/and, all three avidly consume Chinese or Thai greens. As mentioned upthread, salt and as Mary Poppins instructs, a teaspoon of sugar, maybe MSG, are delicious enhancements.

Thanks for these pictures and words. Born on Monterey Bay, I am confounded by dune restrictions. Growing up, dunes were for tumbling down, later on for hunkering down to smoke sheltered from wind and eyes. Or... Hardy dune grass held erosion at bay in those days. Now, I dunno. Cliff erosion was another thing and relentless. Where sea bashed shore, sea always won.

Could I please have a small plate of each of these? Or would that be piggy? Forget it. I'll risk it!

AAQ, have you used NA Food? Quantity size seems daunting but quality sounds excellent.

My name's on this one...

Rice blends well with mayo, sour cream or vinaigrette type dressings. Its starches blend with the oils and creates a luscious coating, seasoned as you please. All kinds of cooked and raw veggies add flavor and color. Consider it a base for Russian salad, subbing rice for potato. For tabbouleh, subbing rice for bulgar. Or mac salad with rice for mac, a no brainer with orzo salads.

How do we go about reprogramming your husband? Is there a possible compromise between Florida and Brooklyn? San Francisco?

Sneezing is fraught with peril.

It's impossible not to notice garnish techniques that quickly become clichés, like the spoon dragged through a dollop of sauce. Once "wow", now a negative.