Dinner II: The Gallery of Regrettable Foods (Part 1)

[Grub]

This is too much fun... Mind ya, some of these dishes look pretty nice -- I mean, plenty good enough to eat, and certainly not bad enough to be embarrassed over. But then again, I might just have particularly low standards, heheheh

Well, I made another boo-boo last night... Was doing some corn-on-the-cob on the grill, and hey, that's easy, right? I've never screwed that up before... Well, I cooked them over medium heat, and they developed some reasonable colors, and then I took them off, rearranged the coals for high heat, to grill some fish steaks, and put the cobs back on, but around the edge of the grill, just for uh, I dunno, for good measure? I don't know why I put them back on. I just never realized that you could overcoook these things.

Unfortunlately, my camera doesn't have macro capability, but here's the result... You can kinda make out how shrunken the corn is. They're just completely deflated. I tried gnawing at it like an emaciated beaver on crank, but there was just nuthen there... Oh well, you live and learn.

[Megan Blocker]

This is something I made a while back - tasted great, but doesn't look too good. It's essentially coq au vin, made with riesling. Yummy, but all one color and photographed REALLY badly.

[Pan]

another miso soup, this time with sweet potato and niboshi (dried baby sardines), it really tastes good but it just looks like dead fish floating in the soup...

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The way you describe it is really funny, but it actually looks pretty tasty to me.

[Carrot Top]

another miso soup, this time with sweet potato and niboshi (dried baby sardines), it really tastes good but it just looks like dead fish floating in the soup...

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The way you describe it is really funny, but it actually looks pretty tasty to me.

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I understand what you say, Pan, but I must tell you that to me it looks like the Cuyahoga River did in about 1962.

Just a bit prettier.

But that doesn't mean it might not taste good.

[Carrot Top]

This is something I made a while back - tasted great, but doesn't look too good.  It's essentially coq au vin, made with riesling.  Yummy, but all one color and photographed REALLY badly.

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My 13 year old daughter just walked in while I was scanning this and she said "Ewwwww. What IS that?"

I really didn't know what to say.

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But the thought of how it TASTED is making me happy. . .

[Carrot Top]

All kidding aside for the moment, really there are some plates of food that can be made to look absolutely magnificent. Yet that is no assurance that what hits your mouth will be delicious.

Sometimes these things that are not so photogenic can surprise with oodles of taste and flavors.

And that is what it really is about, isn't it?

As they say, "You can not always tell a book by its cover."

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You are all brave good souls to post your army of bowls and plates full of personality and ideas for all of us to enjoy.

Do please find more.

[liamsaunt]

Here is a picture of some spinach ricotta gnocchi I made last week. The gnocchi were very tasty and light, but I added too much sauce, and with the melting mozzarella, I don't know, it kind of looks like a surgical experiment gone wrong

Somehow, I think more of my photos will end up here than in the nice "dinner!" thread...

PS: First attempt at posting a picture, sorry if it does not work!

edit: thanks Smithy for the posting tips!

Edited September 21, 2005 by liamsaunt (log)

[Smithy]

These photos are very funny and very humbling. I'm sorry to say that some of my photos show glossy meat, glossy sauced pastas...and here I was so proud of them!

[Carrot Top]

Here is a picture of some spinach ricotta gnocchi I made last week.  The gnocchi were very tasty and light, but I added too much sauce, and with the melting mozzarella, I don't know, it kind of looks like a surgical experiment gone wrong 

Somehow, I think more of my photos will end up here than in the nice "dinner!" thread...

PS: First attempt at posting a picture, sorry if it does not work!

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This looks like something Carl Sagan would use to demonstrate The Universe, really.

Hey. The "nice" dinner thread is very nice. But here, you get to compete among thousands for the silliest-looking things ever. Gloves are off, competition is strong.

I'm thinking that a nice little show in a gallery on the Upper East Side would not be remiss as the collection grows.

The only question would be: What would we serve at the Opening?

[Soup]

another miso soup, this time with sweet potato and niboshi (dried baby sardines), it really tastes good but it just looks like dead fish floating in the soup...

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The way you describe it is really funny, but it actually looks pretty tasty to me.

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I understand what you say, Pan, but I must tell you that to me it looks like the Cuyahoga River did in about 1962.

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Put a bit of alcohol and flambe it. Then it'll look the the ohio river.

[wattacetti]

Okay, I've already posted this ad nauseum, but I paid $14 for this…

This is a plate I made almost 2 years ago; I think they're boneless chicken legs stuffed with something (?) sitting atop rapini and sweet potato. The rapini's a nice green but I don't know what I was thinking: apart from a sauce that went MIA, it looks like I'm serving pathology sections.

This mess I created this evening:

Had a bottle of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo that I wanted to get rid of, and there were these two dead pheasants sitting in the freezer, so figured it was a good time to braise some bird. Well…

Note to self: learn how to braise game birds.

The broccoli and the smashed potato that looks like wallpaper paste gone bad tasted okay, but nothing else did.

The other lesson learned: don't plate anything with broccoli.

[torakris]

I eat little dead fish a lot...

and then there are the squid legs

and this looks so unappetizing but it is incredibly good! thin slices of pork belly layered with Chinese cabbage and doused with ponzu sauce

[wattacetti]

I eat little dead fish a lot...

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Hey, I had this at a restaurant in Taiwan. Yours looks better than what I remembered.

[Carrot Top]

I can't quite decide whether those squid legs are smiling or ready to attack, torakris.

[handmc]

The squid pieces look like Mr. Potato Head parts, part of his "spuds in drag collection"

Edited September 24, 2005 by handmc (log)

[mizducky]

Somehow I hadn't gotten around to reading this thread until now. Oh. My. God. You people are a riot.

And it's a shame that I'm home alone right now, so that there's nobody to wander by and ask why I'm making strangled guffawing noises, in response to which I can then show them the photos that engendered said noises and cause them to run away screaming. (Fearless Housemate has a real low threshold for the "ick" reaction. )

I'm pretty wiped out right now, but tomorrow I gotta haul out the camera and take some photos of the regrettable concoction currently hiding in shame in my refrigerator. Gotta share the pain, y'know.

[Rachel Perlow]

another miso soup, this time with sweet potato and niboshi (dried baby sardines), it really tastes good but it just looks like dead fish floating in the soup...

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Uh, it is dead fish floating in soup. They are dead, aren't they?

[Chufi]

OK I actually posted this picture in the Dinner! thread, because the dish was part of my |talian feast, but the more I look at it, the more I am convinced that it's right home is here in this thread.

It's pasta with a roasted tomato/porcini sauce.. the sauce tasted fantastic.. but these are some weird pasta shapes.. the packet says they're called Riccioli, but ..doesn't this just look like maggots in tomato-sauce??

edited to add picture

Edited September 24, 2005 by Chufi (log)

[mizducky]

  Yeah, and there's a particularly fat and tasty-looking one over on the lower right hand side. Save that one for me. 

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Heheheheheh ... reminds me of a parody-doggerel from my grade school days:

"Oh say can you see

Any bedbugs on me?

If you do, take a few,

But leave some for me!"

Okay, now it's time for me to ante up, and I can't believe how much embarrassment I had to fight in order to post the following beauteous picture:

This unattractive slop is a result of the bad convergence of several of my peculiar food behaviors:

1) My mom trained me so well to avoid wasting food that I can't bear to throw out leftovers, no matter how uninspiring they may be;

2) This in turn evolved into a penchant for trying to combine leftovers in various ways in an attempt to conceal their flaws;

3) When said combinations don't succeed as desired, I have a tendency to try throwing in additional stuff in an attempt to salvage the dish.

So ... I had some leftover garbanzo beans and brown rice. I also had a left-over first attempt at cooking nopales--I didn't care for the finished product's taste or texture, but because of behavior (1), I just couldn't bring myself to simply toss 'em and try again (I have since learned that I should have gone for the really small paddles, instead of the big ones I got).

I also had about a half-can's worth of leftover chipotle chiles in adobo, and some fresh roma tomatos, so I got the brilliant idea of combining them all and making some kind of stew/chili/thang. So I started a little mirepoix of onions/celery/carrot in a big pot, and then threw in all the other stuff to simmer. Realizing I needed a bit more liquid in there, I thought of another leftover in the fridge, this some (very jelled!) broth left from a batch of stewed pig's feet (which, while tasty, could have provided another photo worthy of this thread, but alas I didn't think to snap any).

Anyway, so in went the jelled broth too, which did quickly liquefy. Everything seemed to be humming along quite nicely, but the finished flavor--urk. The chipotles and adobo were way too strong, drowning out almost everything else ... except those damn nopales, whose flavor, texture, and even odor were still putting me off.

But could I leave well enough alone? Of course not! I had to try adding a can of tomato sauce, to see if it would even things out. It didn't. And the result is this gelatinous mass of red ... stuff. To be sure, this is straight out of the fridge, and it would loosen up some if heated. But trust me, it doesn't look (or taste) any more appetizing when hot.

The saddest thing of all is that I still can't quite bring myself to throw this mess out. Not that I can bring myself to eat it either. I'll probably wind up keeping it in the fridge until it either goes haz-mat or just gets too much in the way, and then it'll get tossed (no doubt along with the disposable plastic container I've placed it in, which by that point will be contaminated past the point of no return).

Whew. Okay, my conscience is clear. (Of that mess, at any rate.)

Edited September 24, 2005 by mizducky (log)

[Smithy]

Mizducky, I think you managed to concoct something that even my dog wouldn't touch!

But I do admire your thrifty behavior.

Now really, folks, I refuse to go looking through photos I posted proudly on other threads. I'm sure I'll manage something before long anyway. Does anyone want to see a pot of canning water after a jar of tomatoes has broken in the hot water bath?

[mizducky]

 

Mizducky, I think you managed to concoct something that even my dog wouldn't touch!

    But I do admire your thrifty behavior. 

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Heh. Unfortunately, like coupon-clipping and other such theoretically-thrifty behaviors, the reality is hardly thrifty at all. In fact, I wasted some perfectly good tomatoes and garbanzo beans on that slop. I should remember that the next time I'm tempted to be "thrifty" this way.

[M. Lucia]

Chufi, I never would have thought your pasta looks unappetizing, but now that you mention it... The thing is, the little ridges hold the sauce, so I like to tell myself the funny shape has a practicality.

MizzDucky, I share your penchant for reusing leftovers (in all sorts of weird ways). It is a good place for new discoveries. However, I think even I would draw the line at jelled broth. Now comes the part where you remove it from the fridge, walk outside, and put it in your neighbors garbage can (to absolve yourself of any evidence).

[Pan]

  Yeah, and there's a particularly fat and tasty-looking one over on the lower right hand side. Save that one for me. 

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Heheheheheh ... reminds me of a parody-doggerel from my grade school days:

"Oh say can you see

Any bedbugs on me?

If you do, take a few,

But leave some for me!"

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Hmm...My classmate in 8th grade used to sing:

"Oh say can you see

Any roaches on me?

If you do, take a few,

they look better on you!"

But, getting back on topic, sort of [smile], if you can't bear for this dish that you don't want to eat go to waste, take it somewhere where there are birds that would eat it or something. It used to be easy for us in rural Malaysia: Whatever leftover rice or leftover most everything we didn't want, the chickens would come and eat it.

[handmc]

I did the procini sauce thing tonight with boucotini, it looked like intestine.

[mizducky]

But, getting back on topic, sort of [smile], if you can't bear for this dish that you don't want to eat go to waste, take it somewhere where there are birds that would eat it or something. It used to be easy for us in rural Malaysia: Whatever leftover rice or leftover most everything we didn't want, the chickens would come and eat it.

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Oh dear ... I'd be afraid the birds would fly over our house afterwards and, erm, recycle the end-product.