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Pickles in tuna salad

Dave the Cook

By Dave the Cook
in Cooking

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slkinsey

slkinsey

Posted
Posted
Cilantro...smells like unwashed underarms

I love you, Ruth. That is exactly what cilantro smells like!

But, I like it anyway.

I take back all the nasty things I've said about you. :laugh:

Well... I've always thought that some of the best cheeses smell like sweaty feet.

Cilantro, though, I completely don't get thinking it smells like unwashed underarms. I wonder if it's the case that there is some compound there some people can smell and others cannot (like "broccoli pee").

--

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Toliver

Toliver

Posted
Posted

Palates change, acquire depth (hopefully) as we grow. As a kid, you start with ketchup on a hot dog and hopefully, one magical day, you will eventually discover the delight of trying mustard on a red hot.

Today, I won't pass up tuna salad, PB&J or even a balogna sandwich . A force of habit having grown up in a relatively poor household where if you didn't eat it, you went hungry. Of course, I don't go out of the way to make it for myself nowadays but if it's put before me, I will eat it.

What's interesting is the contrast of my mom and dad and their likes and dislikes. They both grew up on farms, in Kansas and Indiana, respectively.

My dad's mom was the shame of the county. Not only was she was a farmer's wife who didn't know how to drive (so if she needed to go anywhere, my grandfather would have to stop farming and drive her where she needed to go...the shame!) but she was also a farmer's wife who was a terrible cook. To this day I associate the smell of burnt, boiled coffee (over-percolated on the stove) with their farmhouse. So my father grew up eating food cooked by a terrible cook. He ended up hating chicken, which they had just about every day living on the farm, and he would refuse to eat it the rest of his adult life.

My mom, on the other hand, was raised by her older sister who was a marvelous cook. My mom grew up eating everything from pork roast and homemade sauerkraut with dumplings and potato pancakes (the family was from Bohemia) to prune kolaches or chicken soup with egg noodles. To this day my mother loves chicken and eats it as often as she can (I try to steer her away from KFC, though...yikes!).

It's interesting how the meals of our childhood years shape our palates as adults.

Fortunately for me, my mother learned how to cook from her older sister so my brothers and I all love chicken, too. :biggrin:

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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Dave the Cook

Dave the Cook

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Cilantro, though, I completely don't get thinking it smells like unwashed underarms.  I wonder if it's the case that there is some compound there some people can smell and others cannot (like "broccoli pee").

I've wondered this, too, becasue I don't get the smell, either. And there are people who disdain cilantro because it "tastes like soap."

But I thought it was "asparagus pee."

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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Dave the Cook

Dave the Cook

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Toliver (or anyone else who's joined eGullet since March):

One of the best eG threads ever was on childhood food traditions and memories. It's well worth your time to read through it. And if you were to add a post, it would bump back to the top of Active Topics, and we would have the opportunity to capture the childhoods of a whole new group of eGulls.

Click here.

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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slkinsey

slkinsey

Posted
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Grrrr.  I just knew someone would bring up mortadella!

It's better than baloney.

Isn't that the point?

Besides, you could replace "better than" with "so far superior that it's hard to believe it is even distantly related to" and get no argument from me.

--

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slkinsey

slkinsey

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But I thought it was "asparagus pee."

Yea, yea, yea... potato/potahto.

Yes, it is asparagus pee. Broccoli is, um, also green! And... um...

..also stinks, if you overcook it! Yeah, that's the ticket!

Heh! I'd be interested to see how many eGulleters can smell asparagus pee, just as a matter of curiosity. I've never been sure whether I can smell it or not. I have two friends who swear it is so strong it can make their eyes water, whereas I have only occasionally wondered, "is that it?"

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hjshorter

hjshorter

Posted
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Heh!  I'd be interested to see how many eGulleters can smell asparagus pee, just as a matter of curiosity.

Now that's an attractive idea for a thread. :raz:

If you must know :rolleyes: my whole family suffers (?) from it. It's a treat changing the kid's diapers after an asparagus meal. Probably genetic, like tasters and supertasters.

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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maggiethecat

maggiethecat

Posted
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Heh!  I'd be interested to see how many eGulleters can smell asparagus pee, just as a matter of curiosity.  I've never been sure whether I can smell it or not.

Dave:

This would make a great After School Special. The whys and hows of sensitivity to asparagus pee.

Margaret McArthur

"Take it easy, but take it."

Studs Terkel

1912-2008

A sensational tennis blog from freakyfrites

margaretmcarthur.com

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Dave the Cook

Dave the Cook

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Heh!  I'd be interested to see how many eGulleters can smell asparagus pee, just as a matter of curiosity.  I've never been sure whether I can smell it or not.

Dave:

This would make a great After School Special. The whys and hows of sensitivity to asparagus pee.

Times like these are when I yearn for The Return of the Poll.

edit: emphasis

Edited by Dave the Cook (log)

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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fifi

fifi

Posted
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What I don't get is leaving the tail shells on shrimp. I KNOW everyone does it. I just don't get it.

It's just like the way the Italians leave the vongole, etc. in their shells in pasta dishes. It is a sign to the customers that they are fresh and don't come from a can.

Uuuuuhh... I don't have exact numbers but I will bet a lot of shrimp that most of you get aren't really "fresh" but have been flash frozen. (Actually, that makes for better shrimp, especially if you live far from the coast. It is certainly true for the Gulf shrimp since the big shrimpers stay out a long time.) I don't really think anyone would be fooled by a canned shrimp! I think it is just some dumb presentation idea that caught on and has become standard practice.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Katherine

Katherine

Posted
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And while we're at it...what's the deal with PBJ?  I've always found it nauseating, in fact inedible.  Peanut butter tastes too sweet on white bread, and grape jelly is a non-starter however you look at it.  Not grapey, not flavourful, sweet, thin....yucky jelly consistency. 

I don't get it.

Thank you! I also do not get PBJ.

Frankly, there are certain things I simply refuse to eat now that I am out of grade school: PBJ, boloney sandwiches, and mac 'n' cheese from the box.

Now, on the other hand... a nice peanut butter and bacon sandwich can be extremely tasty (especially if you fry it in the leftover bacon fat) -- although it's probably been 15 years since I had one.

Grilled peanut butter and cheddar cheese, mmm. (Better use the unsweetened peanut butter, tho.)

Seriously, for the first 3 years of her schooling, my daughter insisted on bringing a peanut butter sandwich to school with her. It was peanut butter and jam, or peanut butter and chocolate.

Now that she's in college, and home for the summer, she actually brought up how much she appreciated having the lunch she wanted, while all around her kids were bringing in stuff their parents thought they ought to want to eat, or making do with junk.

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Dave the Cook

Dave the Cook

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I don't get cottage cheese, either. In fact, the only thing I liked about Richard Nixon was that he put ketchup on it, thereby treating it with the contempt it deserved.

As long as we're in the dairy section, I don't get yogurt that's been dressed up so it tastes like pudding. Why not just buy, um...pudding?

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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Katherine

Katherine

Posted
Posted
I don't get cottage cheese, either. In fact, the only thing I liked about Richard Nixon was that he put ketchup on it, thereby treating it with the contempt it deserved.

As long as we're in the dairy section, I don't get yogurt that's been dressed up so it tastes like pudding. Why not just buy, um...pudding?

Yogurt is getting closer to ice cream in sugar and calorie content all the time. Admit it, America. You want dessert for breakfast. Have a sundae.

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