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This is what happened when you offend the Food God


pim

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I had dinner at L'Arpège last night. It was delightful of course, the highlight of which was an entrée of Lobster hidding under a paper thin slice of turnip in a slightly sweet/sour sauce, the chef's specialty. Also wonderful was a roasted chicken from Bretagne.

But dear Food God....what have I done to offend thee???

I am proud of my ability to eat anything...anything I tell you, brains, tripes, everything.......Well, everything but beets, that is.

So what do you think appeared on the dégustation menu--in not one but TWO courses? Yes, ladies and gentlemen...beets. Batterave en gélée (Beet Gelly) and Batterave Rôti in a crust of Sel Gris from Bretagne. I tried a bit of each, but really couldn't finish. Beets have this distinctive aftertaste that reminds me of a taste you get in your mouth after a dip in a swimming pool, Chlorine in other words.

To look on the bright side, now I won't ever to eat beets again, ever. Friends always encouraged me to try their beet recipes or dishes, claiming this or that would be the dish that changed my mind. Not wanting to offend them, I often obliged. No longer. Now I can tell them if Alain Passard himself couldn't make a beet dish I like, no one else could.

Has this ever happened to you? Especially those of you who claim not to be a finicky eater (perhaps about McDonald's and such, but not about certain types of food.)

Also, Anyone has an offering for the Food God you can suggest? I think that was a serious sign of bad food karma, and I'd like to rectify it immediately!

Edited by pim (log)

chez pim

not an arbiter of taste

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I feel the same way about Lamb. I despise Lamb! I can avoid it very easily when dining in a restaurant but god help me if I'm invited to a friends house and the entree is moussakka or grilled lamb. And I don't think I am in the minority not liking lamb so why do people make things for guests that has a high potential for being disliked?

Anyway, for each food there is a lover and a hater. I recommend you cook your absolute favorite foods and ingest them all in one sitting. The food god will see how happy you are and never rain beets on you again!

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i can't handle anything with goat's milk in it. i have to make my husband taste all the cheeses on a cheese platter to make sure none of them are 'goaty'. i don't know what it is, but the taste og goat's milk is really awful to me, and it stays in my mouth for hours. the last time i accidentally ingested a goat product was in a dessert crepe. when i got home, i had to gargle with pickle juice to get the taste out of my throat. beets, on the other hand, i adore.

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Also, Anyone has an offering for the Food God you can suggest?  I think that was a serious sign of bad food karma, and I'd like to rectify it immediately!

You could try frying up some bacon to please the Food Gods, but it may not work. They have a notoriously wicked sense of humor and irony.

 

“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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Yummy yummy beets!

However, I sympathize. Recently a roast chicken dish I ordered came with a side of poached egg (at wd50 in NYC). I didn't like runny egg yolk and always avoided it in the past. However, this time I "bit the bullet" and ate it. I pretended it was a sauce for the chicken. And you know what? I liked it. I have since experienced a renaissance in my egg cooking, trying fried eggs for the first time, both over easy and sunny side up. :smile:

Sometimes the Food God is trying to teach you a lesson.

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Lamb is truly the bane of my existence. I also never have to eat it again, since a chef friend of mine swore that "if I try his lamb whatever and I still hate lamb, I never, ever have to eat it again."

I still hate lamb.

It's too bad, because some lamb dishes smell so divine, but then there is that taste. Something like what I imagine pureed bird feathers to taste like.

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I recommend you cook your absolute favorite foods and ingest them all in one sitting.  The food god will see how happy you are and never rain beets on you again!

I will be camping tomorrow in front of Pièrre Hermé's patisserie on rue Bonaparte and ingest one macaron after another until I could no more.

Should I be chanting something too you think?

chez pim

not an arbiter of taste

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It's too bad, because some lamb dishes smell so divine, but then there is that taste.  Something like what I imagine pureed bird feathers to taste like.

Um.

I like lamb.

But I can recognize the flavour profile you describe so well.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Pim,

I feel for you and understand completely.

I really want to like beets, but I just can't! :angry:

I will eat almost everything set in front of me, but I just can't handle beets.......... :wink:

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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I really don't like truffles, of all things. One taste and my brain says "you idiot, you are igesting acteonitrile".

I also really, really don't like turnips, or uncooked seafood.

So, I am taken out to this VERY upscale restaurant and the host did the ordering. The appetizer was...

A crisp pancake thingy of shredded turnip, topped with a slice of truffle and a very lightly seared scallop!

My appeasement tactic was to eat bacon sandwiches for two days.

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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Something like what I imagine pureed bird feathers to taste like.

BWAH!!

I usually think lamb just tastes dead, dead, dead—and then they served it (two different ways) at Sunday's farm dinner, and by golly, it was good. I had seconds. No way was I going to be a picky eater in front of Alice Waters.

I can't eat anything with liver. I think to myself, "Animal diapers. I'm eating animal diapers."

Edited by tanabutler (log)
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Ever since I can remember I have never been able to eat sweet potatoes or yams. I tried them numerous times cooked every way imaginable and all with the same result--gagging and stifling the reflex to expel them from my stomach. Up until about a few months ago I hadn't had any for several years, having given up trying to like them. But they were on the table at a dinner party and the hostess was raving about them. So, not wanting to offend her, I tried them. To my great surprise they were delicious. I even had another helping and they were just as good. It seems that tastes can change--even into middle age.

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I feel the same way about Lamb.  I despise Lamb!  I can avoid it very easily when dining in a restaurant but god help me if I'm invited to a friends house and the entree is moussakka or grilled lamb.  And I don't think I am in the minority not liking lamb so why do people make things for guests that has a high potential for being disliked?

Anyway, for each food there is a lover and a hater.  I recommend you cook your absolute favorite foods and ingest them all in one sitting.  The food god will see how happy you are and never rain beets on you again!

maybe you got non American lamb? My late Greek mom always raised the issue of American vs non American lamb. The non American being flavor wise totally unacceptable.

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i can't handle anything with goat's milk in it.  i have to make my husband taste all the cheeses on a cheese platter to make sure none of them are 'goaty'.  i don't know what it is, but the taste og goat's milk is really awful to me, and it stays in my mouth for hours.  the last time i accidentally ingested a goat product was in a dessert crepe.  when i got home, i had to gargle with pickle juice to get the taste out of my throat.  beets, on the other hand, i adore.

I was the same way at macy*s....a good close deep breath of any of the goat milk cheeses (god help me if I got roped into *tasting*) was enough to bring me to the brink of hurling..oh god even thinking about it just now...'nuf said :blink::blink::wacko:

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bananas.

I will eat anything (w/in reason). I adore most foods & some that are not my favorites will be consumed w/ relish (literally ":^) ) if prepared properly but the very thought of a banana makes my stomach churn. I find them not appealing (pun intended) at all. They are anathema. They are nasty. They are the work of a very, very cruel demon as a wicked curse on mankind.

I adore Jamaican food and there is a phenomenal little Jamaican restaurant not too far fr/ us. However, for some reason telling these people to leave plantains (bananas disguised & trying to be cool) off of a dish is like telling them that I detest their children. I get a liturgy about how they are prepared & I will not taste the absolute mushiness of their measly existence but, I can smell them. I know they are there. I detest the measly yellow things w/ all my heart & soul. It has become a joke when we go there that "here is the guy that wants no plantains". I drink extra Red Stripe to make up for any possible affront (as if that is a sacrifice)

When I waited tables & was forced to make bananas foster I would stand there & hold my breath so as not to have to inhale the stench. Other waiters were amazed that I could make the dessert so quickly. They thought I was talented. Truth be told; I just could not hold my breath any longer so the bananas got made quickly.

Even the color yellow makes my internal organs want to do flip-flops. I try to block out those little yellow guys on the left & beneath the posts just b/c of their color.

Surprisingly lemons are okay. They seem to be a cheery yellow as opposed to that nasty, flat, hideous yellow color that bananas inflict on the human population. I have only one thing in common w/ a popular dessert. I too hope "bananas 'split'".

in loving memory of Mr. Squirt (1998-2004)--

the best cat ever.

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I don't think Lan4Dawg likes bananas.

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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I do not like beets. I continue to try them because my Grandmother said to always at least try a food again because "you tastes will change". It hasn't happened for beets yet. Other dislikes include salmon, raw shellfish, liver (though not liverwurst), tripe and turnips. I love lamb!

KathyM

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If you don't like it, get over it. Two choices, if you have an option don't order it, if it's forced on you leave it. I admit that generally I'm Mr Picky but with a menu degustation I always try everything presented, not always with a wonderful outcome but often with some unexpected surprises. Unless you have a physical aversion/reaction (and that's common) just do it. For the Food God just clear your plate.

Edited by britcook (log)
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I don't like plain beets, but I love pickled beets. I love lamb. How can you not?

I hate cilantro. I don't even consider it to be edible. Just because it doesn't kill you when you ingest it doesn't mean it's meant to be eaten.

I also won't eat corn off the cob, zucchini, or summer squash.

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maybe you got non American lamb?  My late Greek mom always raised the issue of American vs non American lamb.  The non American being flavor wise totally unacceptable.

Interesting. My Greek friends would scream disagreement, and I am with them. Young milk lambs I had in greece (and they were just about a size of a standard dog) were amazing. They were entirely free of that wet dirty rag odor of bad lambs.

chez pim

not an arbiter of taste

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If you don't like it, get over it. Two choices, if you have an option don't order it, if it's forced on you leave it. I admit that generally I'm Mr Picky but with a menu degustation I always try everything presented, not always with a wonderful outcome but often with some unexpected surprises. Unless you have a physical aversion/reaction (and that's common) just do it. For the Food God just clear your plate.

:rolleyes: Well but that's not the point of my post now, was it? If I were a picky eater it would have been a different thing. And I did try the beets, in both courses.

My main complaint was about the composition of the dégustation menu itself. No matter how fond Passard was of beets, I didn't see a point of putting beets in two courses. Nor have I seen similar practice at other starred restaurants.

The point of ordering the dégustation menu for me is not only to try many things, but also to let the chef design the prosession of the food for me. Batterave en gelée followed with Batterave Rôti was just too much, except perhaps for a dégustation menu of beets, but that's not the case here.

Gee you sound like my mother...... :rolleyes:

chez pim

not an arbiter of taste

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