The Best Bit

[godito]

In 2000, Terry Durack wrote an article for Hunger titled The Best Bit. This piece also appeared in Best Food Writing 2001. In it, he talks about meals he had in different cultures and how he found out he was not eating the best bit until the hosts would point it out. He mentions unusual finds such as fish eyes and more common ones, like bone marrow. It's an entertaining story well worth reading.

One of my favorite best bits is scallop's coral. A red, fatty tongue, full of iodine flavor, which tastes great grilled, and makes a wonderful sauce (properties shared with bone marrows)

Anybody has some good Best Bits that they would like to share?

[Stone]

Dessert.

[lala]

When you take that first sip of wine, and realize just how beautifully it goes with the food.

For actual food... grazing on the crispy bits of any roast, or the crispy bits of roasted veggies...

Edited April 22, 2004 by lala (log)

[Arey]

When you don't wake up at 2:00 AM with heartburn

[morda]

He mentions unusual finds such as fish eyes and more common ones, like bone marrow.

I'm Chinese and I love to eat the eyeballs of fish if they've been steamed with ginger and scallions. At my mom's house, I always ask her first, partially to get her opinion on if the fish was fresh enough (a holdover from my childhood, I guess), partially in case anyone else wants one. I usually end up eating most of them. I recently learned that usually that little treat goes to the youngest child, but my younger brother doesn't like them so I guess I've always been next in line.

If I buy chicken and remove the skin before I cook it, I'll chop up the skin and render the fat. And then eat all the crispy little fried bits of skin, sprinkled with salt.

This discussion reminds me of John Thorne's essay on the Thin Cook versus the Fat Cook.

[godito]

If I buy chicken and remove the skin before I cook it, I'll chop up the skin and render the fat. And then eat all the crispy little fried bits of skin, sprinkled with salt.

In most of Latin America we do the same with pork skin. We call it Chicharron, and like bacon, it's the stuff that holds the universe together I also like crispy fish skin. Chilean Sea Bass and Turbot are my favorite skins to "fry"

[chow guy]

Fish cheeks and pork rind (the crispy skin from a pork roast) both rule.

[ned]

At the steak house (whichever one I end up at, though I always do my best to end up at Strip House) I always order a rib chop. That cut has a lovely, richly flavoured, tender as hell, extra-fatty bit that runs around the outside edge the chop where there isn't bone. It's separated by fat. Has a name, can't remember what it is. It's the only part I ever eat in the restaurant. The rest of the chop comes home and gets sliced and seared in butter and grapeseed oil over the next couple of days, eaten in a sandwich, on aruglua or with leftover truffled spinach. The sliced steak is of course very tasty but if I had my drothers, I'd only ever eat the bit on the outside.

Edited to add: The bit on the outside is called the deckel.

Edited April 23, 2004 by ned (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

The "pope's nose" off of a well baked chicken. Somehow that part never ends up anywhere but in my mouth.

[tastykimmie]

the bone of a FRIED pork chop!!! YUM

Edited April 22, 2004 by tastykimmie (log)

[FistFullaRoux]

The well-done dried edge pieces on a lasagna or a pan of brownies. The coating of a honey-roasted peanut. And chewing the leftover ice at the end of a fountain soft drink.

[browniebaker]

The narrow end of a rack of pork ribs, where the meat is nicely fatty and tender.

[FistFullaRoux]

And for the Seinfeld fans, muffin tops.

[sequim]

Hopefully every roast chicken I encounter will have a roasted chicken heart and I won't have to fight anybody for it. The roasted neck is the second best bit.

[CompassRose]

The best bit is the bits still in the pot or dish in the kitchen, after supper, when you're cleaning up to put away.

They're at that perfect temperature, just a little warm still, the flavours all mellowed, but without the hung-over aspect of reheated "leftovers". A little slice off the edge before you cover it up with foil... rather a lot "stuck" to the pot when you put the rest in a plastic sealer dish, which of course you must nibble to make the dishes easier...

[Cusina]

The little bit of cheese that falls onto the skillet while you are making a grilled cheese sandwich and it gets crispy browned.

oh boy

[lala]

Have we all noticed a stunning similarity here? It's the CRISPY BITS that we all love...how about a new restaurant called 'Crispy Bits'... bacon ends, pope's noses, those smaller french frys, roasting pans before they're cleaned, crunchy pasta bits (ooooh the crispy cheesy bits!)... Of course the bakery would sell crispy, cinnamon sprinkled puff pastry bits, muffin tops only, and all the sandwich bread would be super crusty!

[bbq4meanytime]

In my house, the kids and I call them the "good kinds" As in "do you want a bite of the good kinds, I saved it for you?" It started with the center bite of a piece of french toast, soaked with butter, maple syrup and powerder sugar and has evolved to almost any of the best bite of food one has.

[Marlene]

The crisped fat from Roast Beef, or Roast Pork.

Roasted Pig Tails

Any bits left over in the pan after frying or searing

[Andrew Fenton]

Have we all noticed a stunning similarity here? It's the CRISPY BITS that we all love...how about a new restaurant called 'Crispy Bits'... bacon ends, pope's noses, those smaller french frys, roasting pans before they're cleaned, crunchy pasta bits (ooooh the crispy cheesy bits!)... Of course the bakery would sell crispy, cinnamon sprinkled puff pastry bits, muffin tops only, and all the sandwich bread would be super crusty!

Sounds like a debris sandwich... Or burnt ends, KC style. Oh man, that's some good stuff.

[adoxograph]

Pizza crusts - the part where there is still tomato sauce, but no longer cheese, before it becomes just crust.

Any lobster claw that has been successfully removed intact from its shell. Intact is key.

The cheese and crouton part of onion soup.

Bottom homemade pie crusts from a properly seasoned apple pie.

First sip of a glass of good scotch.

[GG Mora]

Recently I've been making "free-form" apple tarts, baked on a parchment-lined sheet pan. I use tapioca for thickener. Inevitably, the crust gets a hole somewhere & some of the filling juices run out. Thanks to the tapioca, the puddle sort of stays intact and caramelizes & when the whole pan is properly cooled, the puddle peels off in one neat piece. Sort of like a caramelized cinnamon-apple gummy-puddle.

[bilrus]

The crispy bits that end up in the botom of a basket of fried chicken or batter-fred fish.

[ms. victoria]

The little miniature pancakes from drips off the ladle as you bring it from bowl to pan. My son hovers over me when we have pancakes and nearly burns himself trying to get those off the griddle.

[picaman]

The browned part that sticks to the pan of macaroni and cheese.

Jamie