Unexpected Food Gifts

[BeeZee]

Stepson and his wife picked up a few things while traveling around Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy). I have already tried the chocolate (tasty), using the porcini flavored olive oil on some roasted potatoes tonite, and the tin is a spice mix “good for apple strudel” with warm spices.

 

[heidih]

5 minutes ago, BeeZee said:

Stepson and his wife picked up a few things while traveling around Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy). I have already tried the chocolate (tasty), using the porcini flavored olive oil on some roasted potatoes tonite, and the tin is a spice mix “good for apple strudel” with warm spices.

 

I'd be interested to know what beyond cinnamon (Zimmt) the other apple cake spices are. Just nosy. Thanks.

[BeeZee]

52 minutes ago, heidih said:

I'd be interested to know what beyond cinnamon (Zimmt) the other apple cake spices are. Just nosy. Thanks.

Zimt, nelken, muskatnuss, ingwer, rosenblutenblatter. The rose petals are very intriguing.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, BeeZee said:

Stepson and his wife picked up a few things while traveling around Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy). I have already tried the chocolate (tasty), using the porcini flavored olive oil on some roasted potatoes tonite, and the tin is a spice mix “good for apple strudel” with warm spices.

 

We have a Venchi shop a few blocks away from me.  Just North of Union Square.  They also have gelato!

[chromedome]

32 minutes ago, BeeZee said:

Zimt, nelken, muskatnuss, ingwer, rosenblutenblatter. The rose petals are very intriguing.

I have to sheepishly admit that to my non German-speaking ear, "rosenblutenblatter" sounds like something Yosemite Sam would yell as he plunges 100 feet into the castle moat.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, BeeZee said:

Zimt, nelken, muskatnuss, ingwer, rosenblutenblatter. The rose petals are very intriguing.

Yes - do report back when you use it. Seems rose petals would get lost in the mix. Thank you.

[liuzhou]

I am always confused when I get a call on my cell phone marked as "Delivery Driver" when I haven't ordered anything. This happened this morning.

 

A kilo of lychees from a friend's trees.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

More gratuitous lychee photographs. 荔枝 (lì zhī) (Litchi chinensis Sonn.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

@liuzhou, the lychees look beautiful. I know you've written about it before -- somewhere -- but please remind us here: how do you eat them? Is the outer skin edible? And are they sweet, sour, both?

[liuzhou]

2 minutes ago, Smithy said:

@liuzhou, the lychees look beautiful. I know you've written about it before -- somewhere -- but please remind us here: how do you eat them? Is the outer skin edible? And are they sweet, sour, both?

 

The skin is not edible but peels off very easily. The inner white pulp is delicate, sweet, juicy and fruity with a distinct odour. I'm told the cultivars grown In Florida are less sweet. The hard seed is also inedible, so the mouth is used to separate the flesh from the seed.

The flavour is kind of unique, so rather difficult to describe.

 

Canned lychee are hopeless and many people, including me, think they taste/smell of petroleum. Avoid!

 

[ElsieD]

I worked for a while with a Chinese lady who brought in fresh lychees.  As I remember it, you squeeze your fingers together on the bottom of the fruit and they pop right out.  As @liuzhou says, the flavour is hard to describe, and a word that comes to mind is delicate.  The ones I had were delicious and very juicy.

[Anna N]

I love lychees. Yes the flavour is unique but it is mild and hard to imagine that anyone would reject it. Of course I know there are people who don't like lychees but they must be few. They are readily available here when in season. Not sure where they are imported from  

[liuzhou]

9 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

As I remember it, you squeeze your fingers together on the bottom of the fruit and they pop right out.

 

Yes, you can do that with fresh store bought fruits. Straight from the tree, a little harder but not much.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

 

 I'm told the cultivars grown In Florida are less sweet.

 

 

I haven't tried them myself, but according to people in the fruit group I belong to, there are a few Florida growers who grow 2 different varieties that are both very sweet.  The 'Sweetheart' variety seems to be the best one and also has a very small seed.  It actually looks pretty much how yours look in your photo.  The other variety is 'Mauritius' which is sweet, but not as much as the sweetheart and has a larger seed.  I think the Sweetheart season in Florida is just ending, but Mauritius is still going strong.

[liuzhou]

14 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I haven't tried them myself, but according to people in the fruit group I belong to, there are a few Florida growers who grow 2 different varieties that are both very sweet.  The 'Sweetheart' variety seems to be the best one and also has a very small seed.  It actually looks pretty much how yours look in your photo.  The other variety is 'Mauritius' which is sweet, but not as much as the sweetheart and has a larger seed.  I think the Sweetheart season in Florida is just ending, but Mauritius is still going strong.

 

That is good to know. Maybe my sources haven't kept up to date with newer cultivars. No mention of Sweetheart.  Mauritius was mentioned and described as "much crisper and less sweet". They also mention a Brewster type but say nothing about its flavour.

 

[Kim Shook]

Mr. Kim surprised me with these a couple of days ago:

After a discussion about these products on the sweets thread with @Darienne, I put them on my Amazon wishlist.  We were discussing the idea of using one or both of these to bump up the sesame/tahini flavor of Tahini & Almond Cookies.  I'll be experimenting with the cookies, but I'm trying to figure out what else I can add them to.  

[liuzhou]

On 6/8/2023 at 1:36 AM, Kim Shook said:

Mr. Kim surprised me with these a couple of days ago:

 

The black sesame powder is extremely popular here. It is mainly used to make a sesame paste which people (especially more senior people) drink warm for breakfast. Not for me, thanks. I don't recall seeing the white variety in powder form.

 

Here is an ad for the stuff.

 

 

Edited June 10, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

 

Always a welcome gift!  

[Kim Shook]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

 

Always a welcome gift!  

I was literally in my current year of life when I discovered that Bourbon biscuits do not, after all, contain bourbon.  🙄😂

[MaryIsobel]

3 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

I was literally in my current year of life when I discovered that Bourbon biscuits do not, after all, contain bourbon.  🙄😂

😆 Bourbon Cremes as we called them were my favourites from the Peak Freans assortment that we got as very rare treat when I was a youngster.

[heidih]

18 minutes ago, MaryIsobel said:

😆 Bourbon Cremes as we called them were my favourites from the Peak Freans assortment that we got as very rare treat when I was a youngster.

Yup love love love- it has been years

[MaryIsobel]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

Yup love love love- it has been years

My poor mom, she worked as a substitute teacher so had to be very organized and flexible but we always had home made cookies, but begged for store bought and the Peak Freans assortment was top of the list followed by chocolate covered digestive biscuits.

[liuzhou]

9 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:

top of the list followed by chocolate covered digestive biscuits.

 

I recently bought a packet of Dark Chocolate Digestives online. These were shipped to me from Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the shipper just stuck the packet into a box without the usual ice packs. From Hong Kong to my home in mainland China isn't that far, but far enough for the chocolate covering to melt somewhere en route in the tropical heat (c 40℃), then cool again slightly as it reached me. The biscuits were solidly glued together and resembled a 20 cm high, lop-sided layer cake.

 

I had to saw them apart with a bread knife in lumps of what were once 3 separate biscuits and eat then that way. Big disappointment.

 

 

The company also carries the milk chocolate variety but I prefer dark chocolate, so passed.

 

 

Edited June 12, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

5 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Big disappointment.

That would be a huge disappointment. I too prefer the dark chocolate version. But as a dunker I also like the plain ones. 
 

[KennethT]

Months ago, while planning the trip I'm currently on, I had asked one of the hotels I had been corresponding with if they use kencur, aka sand ginger, in the cooking of that specific region and if she thought I'd be able to find it in a local market while there. This stuff, fresh, looks mostly like ginger and tastes kind of like galangal but is definitely not galangal, if that makes sense. In the US, it also might as well be called unobtanium as I have asked EVERY Indonesian grocery in NYC and all I received were longing looks as if the shopkeepers dreamed of being able to have it since being in their homeland. Internet searches didn't prove much better.

 

So you could have knocked me over with a feather when we checked into our room (for only 1 night) and there on the bed was over a pound of it, just waiting for me! What kind of service is this?!? Amazing!

 

Freshly washed in my hotel room sink (it was already clean but I wanted to make sure there wasn't a speck of dirt or a single bug that could cause the USDA to reject it at the airport) and drying on a bath towel.