"Too Much Foie Gras"

[heyjude]

In 1995, when you visited Powell's Books for Cooks in Portland, you told me that you had actually grown tired of foie gras after being served it by most of the chefs you interviewed. Over the years, how has what you eat (and don't eat) been affected by your research? Thanks to you both for being here. Your books have been so important to many of us.

Judy Amster

[Andrew&Karen]

Hi Judy!

How nice to "bump into" you here on eGullet.com! Karen has lovely memories of our conversation over lunch together at Higgins in Portland. (Any of you here on eGullet.com who love books as much as you love food would be well-served to tap Judy's expertise.)

Thanks for your very kind words about our books.

We hope it didn't sound like a "spoiled brat" comment if we in fact said such an unthinkable thing at some point in our lives. "Too much foie gras?" Today it sounds almost as unimaginable as "too many perfectly-ripe peaches" (we jest, referencing the list we just compiled of our Desert Island ingredients)!

How has what we eat (or don't eat) been affected by our research? Well, a decade ago, we considered ourselves very adventurous eaters and would have said that we eat "everything." However, while researching our book DINING OUT, we asked leading restaurant critics across the United States about the strangest things they'd ever eaten, and their lists included:

worms fried in lard

braised goat penis

Japanese mountain potato

cured grasshoppers

sea slugs

snake bile wine

stingray burritos

testicles of a bull that had fallen in the ring to the matador

etc.

Believe it or not, we've never again been able to bring ourselves to say that we eat "everything"!

; ) Karen & Andrew