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New Taste Sensations in 2009


jsmeeker

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eGullet society members are a diverse bunch. We love food. We love to eat. We eat a huge variety of things. But there is always something new out there. I many cases, it's something new to you. A new type of ethinc cuisine. Or a new type of animal or vegetable you've neve had. Or maybe it's some sort of method of preparing something that you have never experienced.

In 2009, what new taste sensations did you have?

Here are some of mine

Dry aged beef that was REALLY aged. 8 months aged, to be exact. Very tasting. Quite a bit different than a normal steak. It had a quality to it that was similar to a cured ham. Also, had some cheesy note to it. At the same meal, lardo was served with the bread. (it was whipped up and was used like you would use butter). Crazy good.

Beets. I am trying to recall exactly where I had these. It was recent, but I am not sure if it was the other weekend at a place in Dallas or if it was in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. In any case, I recall them being fresh. And the variety wasn't deep red. More like a deep pink color. I liked them.

Squab. Had this the other weekend at a place in Dallas. I had never had it before and when I saw it on the menu, I decided to try it. It's good. Tastes like chcicken? No. Tastes more like duck. I love duck.

Oh, and finnally, true Central Texas style BBQ. I always liked BBQ. But the stuff I had down in Lockhart and Luling totally changed my notion of what BBQ should be like. This was my best new taste sensation for 2009.

Jeff Meeker, aka "jsmeeker"

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Rather pedestrian here but I cooked celeriac, kohlrabi and parsley root for the first time and enjoyed them. Tried really, really hard to like dried beans and lentils but they won't soon make it onto my menu rotation.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

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Broccoli rabe, homemade sausage, home smoked bacon, homemade black pepper pasta, beef bourgion, homemade bolognase, homemade puff pastry.

All basic stuff, but was new to me!

"I eat fat back, because bacon is too lean"

-overheard from a 105 year old man

"The only time to eat diet food is while waiting for the steak to cook" - Julia Child

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Jeff, my favourite new taste in 2009 was Saint Agur Blue, hands down.

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

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I didn't try a lot of new things. I'm not particularly proud of that but it's the way things went this year. One new taste sensation for me (but apparently street vendors have been doing it forever in Mexico so I guess I'm just behind the curve) that stood out was the burnt milk gelato from Francisco Migoya's Frozen Desserts. Burnt milk sounds just about as unappealing as something could sound to me but it's an incredible and complex flavor if you take the time to really taste it and I've been playing with other ways to use it since.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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Jeff, my favourite new taste in 2009 was Saint Agur Blue, hands down.

Is that a cheese?

It sure is.

As far as cooking at home, I've fallen in love with quinoa this year...and renewed my life-long love of beets and cauliflower.

On the dining out front, revelatory oysters at The Publican made me question my belief that I have to wait for trips to the coasts to get 1st rate seafood.

True rye and true bourbon wake delight like any great wine...dignify man as possessing a palate that responds to them and ennoble his soul as shimmering with the response.

DeVoto, The Hour

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Horchata in Spain earlier in the year. Really good after a hot wander around Barcelona, and non-alcoholic to boot (but I bet I could come up with an interesting cocktail based on it ...).

Confit turkey legs as part of Christmas dinner (this recipe - the brined breast was good too).

'Fake peanuts' (cacahuetes mimeticos) at elBulli. The menu (and service) had a few misses, but these were a major hit. I'm working at my second attempt at making them as we speak, but the *#$%^ won't freeze hard enough to come out of their moulds.

And on Christmas Eve my Sous Vide Magic controller arrived, just in time for me to rush out and get a rice cooker. Much experimentation follows ...

Have a tasty 2010, people.

Leslie Craven, aka "lesliec"
Host, eG Forumslcraven@egstaff.org

After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relatives ~ Oscar Wilde

My eG Foodblog

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1. My own homemade pasta, why it's taken me so long I don't know. Such a simple thing to do.

2. Ox cheeks eaten for the first time at Purnells restaurant here in Brum. Then in the past few weeks cooking with them. The best "cheap cut" of beef there is.

3. Norwegian sea urchin roe scooped straight out of their shells - the best yet that I've tasted.

4. The last Badami mango of the season blew me away. Better than the Alphonso and Kesar this year, have they always been this good? I only started to buy them because the other two were past their peak. Then all of a sudden it was gone too. Can't wait to try them again in 2010.

5. Dessert wines - sauternes and jurancon. I've been pretty apathetic and sometimes downright dismissive of wines and in particular wine-bores all my life. But, you know, er, I quite like, these dessert wines.

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Chicken livers, deep fried Salmon, and Chicago style Hot dogs. All on one vacation.

tracey

The great thing about barbeque is that when you get hungry 3 hours later....you can lick your fingers

Maxine

Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

"It is the government's fault, they've eaten everything."

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I got into New Orleans a little bit, so I would include real andouille and tasso, raw peanuts freshly fried, Acme grilled oysters and soft-shell shrimp (at Coquette) for new to me taste sensations. Black garlic was an ingredient that I only became aware of in 2009, though I first had it in 2008. Believe it or not, I had never actually eaten goose before 2009, though I had eaten goose products such as foie gras, goose fat and goose eggs.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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Fennel. Nobody in my family back home likes it and I've never seen it here in Japan. But on a visit home this summer I got curious so bought and grilled some, and it was lovely. Alas I've yet to meet a Japanese who enjoyed anise-type flavours so I doubt I'll ever be able to find fennel here, let alone get my husband to eat it.

And raw oysters. I've always loved them cooked but was never able to eat them raw until we were invited up to Hokkaido to visit my brother-in-law this spring. He took us to Akkeshi, a place famed for its oysters, and visited an oyster monger's, where we watched the monger expertly shuck a few and hand us one each to sample. I was dreading having to gulp mine down and pretend pretend it was good but when the brine hit my tongue something magic happened I fell in love.

BIL bought 60 large ones, and that night we had an oyster orgy, trying them raw, grilled in the shell over charcoal, steamed in sake, and in soup. I swear to god I could have eaten all 60 of them myself.

My eGullet foodblog: Spring in Tokyo

My regular blog: Blue Lotus

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Quinoa. Couscous (it had somehow escaped my notice; I'm not certain how). Cured Spanish chorizo (my God, that's wonderful stuff). Dried okra (think okra-flavored popcorn). I know there was more, but these come to mind.

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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Quinoa. Couscous (it had somehow escaped my notice; I'm not certain how). Cured Spanish chorizo (my God, that's wonderful stuff). Dried okra (think okra-flavored popcorn). I know there was more, but these come to mind.

Can you give us a source for that dried okra?

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Quinoa. Couscous (it had somehow escaped my notice; I'm not certain how). Cured Spanish chorizo (my God, that's wonderful stuff). Dried okra (think okra-flavored popcorn). I know there was more, but these come to mind.

Can you give us a source for that dried okra?

I got mine at Fresh Market, in the section where they have all the snacks and trail mixes and such. I really don't remember looking at the original source. I bought it because it was an "I'll be damned, I've got to try that" moment. Pretty tasty!

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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I was doing a little digging around for some old-school recipes and came across Watercress Soup. Which is awesome. And it sparked an inspiration. Herb Soups? Oh yes, indeedy, feed the needy. I'm hooked. I made an Arugula Cream soup with arugula, red onion, fresh grated parm, and cream. Put it in the blender and passed it through a chinois. It's yummy. Try it out.

Edited by Bootsie (log)
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