Cravings: The Strong, the Strange, the Inexplicably Specific

[Ms. Meliss]

Au contraire!  I have not seen oxtail stew on a menu board since Bea's Drive In was sold.

Really? I can't believe it! Why do you think that is? The price, the process, is it just not that popular? In my mind (cloudy as it may be) I consider this to be a local favorite, no? Now I'm going to start craving it.

You touched upon a variation of my craving.  I have imagined that a stew of oxtail and tripe together might be a dynamite beef inside-outside exotic blend.  Maybe I can get Chai's to offer it as a blue plate special....

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Let me know if you do. I'd love to try that!

[andiesenji]

I have been craving sate for several days. Beef, pork and chicken. Since I can't make up my mind which one, I will probably do some of each. My housekeeper is having some of her classmates to dinner tomorrow evening so I will probably make it then. I will probably make gado gado to go with. It may be a lot of peanut but I love the combination, particularly with coconut rice.

[Tess]

I haven't been to Hawaii for a while, and I have a mad craving for that shrimp you get from Giovanni's with all the garlic. I wonder if I can make that at home?

[Ms. Meliss]

I would just about give anything to have some fresh pineapple from the islands, a big o' bowl of poke, and huli huli chicken...ono!

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Do you have a Whole Foods near by? I used to buy the pineapple from there when I lived in CO and I gotta say, they were amazingly sweet and jucy (better than some I buy here). Worth satisfying the craving if you're willing to pay for it!

The worst craving I get is the one I think is genetically inherent in Texans - a plate of tacky Tex-Mex. Just gotta have it!

Hi Lone Star. I know EXACTLY what you mean. One of my best friends in CO was from Texas. The foundation of our relationship was built eating at a place called "On The Border". Queso (with homemade tortillas), cheesey fajitas, and huge blended strawberry swirl margaritas from one of those mixer thingies! Took me long time to get over it when I moved back here and everytime I go back it's a priority!

skchai - Thanks for the restaurant tip. I love that journal. Hopefully I'll have time to read through some of those. It's so me! I'm analytical about everything (although I often like to make up my own theories)!

[alohabear]

After I got married to a mainlander I crave a good Chinese mixed plate w/ roast duck, steamed pork, lemon chicken, fried rice and chow mein. If i'm lucky I may eat it once a month.

[MaryIsobel]

Happened to me a couple of days ago. Craving Shake 'n Bake chicken. Yup the processed, salty stuff. I probably haven't had it for 20 years - it was an quick after-work dinner when my kids were small and I knew it was something they would eat. I couldn't stop thinking about it and when whole fryers were on sale at the grocery store today (2.29/lb) I decided that's what we'd have for dinner. I have homemade smoked gouda mac and cheese, fresh green beans and apple crumble for dessert to redeem myself!

[ElsieD]

I'm like that with salty Dutch licorice.

[Darienne]

Mine is not recent, but when I was pregnant for our daughter and first son, it was the Chinese Almond Cookies from the Canton Inn in Ottawa.  The Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, used to eat there.  The restaurant is long gone.  Those cookies were the best.  

 

I do sometimes have a hankering for Miss Vickie's^® Original Recipe kettle cooked potato chips.  But then we always have in the house...so to speak...Kirkland's potato chips.  I say 'so to speak' because they are hidden from me somewhere in the garage.

[Katie Meadow]

All my cravings seem to come out of nowhere. Except for root beer floats which are always in the front of my brain.

[FeChef]

As for weird cravings its cheap ramen packet with as much spicy chile powders i can tolerate. I usually add a nip of Habanero powder, a 1/2 tsp of Jalapeno powder, and a 1/4 tsp of Cayenne powder. The trifecta usually has me sweating half way through the bowl.

[Katie Meadow]

13 hours ago, Darienne said:

Mine is not recent, but when I was pregnant for our daughter and first son, it was the Chinese Almond Cookies from the Canton Inn in Ottawa.  The Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, used to eat there.  The restaurant is long gone.  Those cookies were the best.  

 

I do sometimes have a hankering for Miss Vickie's^® Original Recipe kettle cooked potato chips.  But then we always have in the house...so to speak...Kirkland's potato chips.  I say 'so to speak' because they are hidden from me somewhere in the garage.

Pregnancy cravings are a special category. I like sour, but when I was pregnant nothing was too sour. I craved Japanese pickled vegetables above all, grapefruit as puckering as I could get it, and in the realm of the really hideous: those gummies with that weird sour powder on them. 

[lemniscate]

Since I've been taking Naproxen for a pulled muscle, I crave cinnamon and apple.   I normally do not like apple pie, apple sauce or cinnamon anything.   It's very weird.   At least I'm not craving pumpkin spice (ew), which is everywhere at the moment.

[Katie Meadow]

6 hours ago, lemniscate said:

Since I've been taking Naproxen for a pulled muscle, I crave cinnamon and apple.   I normally do not like apple pie, apple sauce or cinnamon anything.   It's very weird.   At least I'm not craving pumpkin spice (ew), which is everywhere at the moment.

Pumpkin Spice haters of the world unite! 

[liuzhou]

It might be an old-age thing, but I do get occasional cravings for the strangest things that I never particularly liked when I was younger. These are nearly all savoury items. Minced beef pies. Steak and kidney pies. Yeah, pies come into my craving repertoire a lot. Rhubarb pies or crumbles. Gooseberry ditto.

 

I suspect it's largely because I can't get them here and have no oven to make them in, anyway. Also, can't get fresh rhubarb even though it is native to China; it all gets dried and used in the TCM nonsense.

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by liuzhou (log)