Comestibles - the banal and the exotic

[Alchemist]

At a nice resturant in Peurta Vallarta, a bug was on the menu. I don't mean a cucaracha was scrambling across my Carta. Nobody could tell me if they were the omnipresent locust that decended as part of the apocalypse, or a cricket, like cousin of Jimmy The. I ordered them. And would chew threw a wall of Pinoccio to get to them again. They were served wiith a tangey tomotillio salsa with big chunks of rich creamey avacado. The grasshoppers were wonderfully chunchy, and nutty.

[Pookie]

I tried to eat bugs once but just couldnt do it. It was at the Montreal Botanical gardens, they were having a tasting. I had meal worm banana cake, cricket sushi and some kind of Ant nacho.

I Choked it down, but it came close to coming back up.

The only thing I ate and couldnt beleive I actually liked were chicken feet. I thought I would hate them.

[Alchemist]

The point of the banality of this dish is last Tue. I was at Po and had the most wonderful rigatoni with gorgonzola and walnuts. So how, I ask, can I possibly like Mack and Sleaze, with pepper jack, cilantro, and Herdez (no other salsa will do). I love good food. Is this just stupid, esoteric comfort grub? Or am i just a knuckle dragging troglodyte that has evolved a wee bit?

Can you have the dishes of your youth with the slightest urbane twist and it becomes Haute?

[maggiethecat]

One word: grits.

[Gruzia]

lipton chicken noodle soup...straight from a packet into my pan...salty, full of noodles and no chicken....ummmmmmmm

[Alchemist]

One word: grits.

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Cuppla words... what kind?

Straight grits with pepper and Franks/Lousiana hot sauce?

or

Cheese grits with a slice of Kraft on top and F/L hot sauce?

or

Wicked cheese grits with lotsa butter/cream/cheese(real) and F/L hot sauce?

[jkonick]

Exotic: tripe. Until about six months ago, I had only one run-in with tripe. I was about eleven years old at dim sum with my family for father's day. I'd had dim sum a lot before that and I'd tried just about everything at the place we usually went. So when a cart came around that I'd never seen before offering "beef tripe soup" I immediately asked for it, despite the warnings of both the cart pusher and my parents. I wish I'd listened to them; I ate one bite and ran out of the restaurant, to a grocery store next door where I bought a soda which I drank immediately to get the terrible, rotten, sour taste out of my mouth. About two years after that, I became vegetarian (and the tripe experience may've had something to do with it.)

Fast forward to a few months ago. I'd decided to start eating meat again, and in the spirit of things I decided to get the "everything" combo when I went out for pho - which included tripe. I was a little scared at first, but finally got up enough courage to try it. Not sour, not terrible... I didn't think it had that much flavor at all. A little bit crunchy, a little bit chewy. Not bad. In fact, I now enjoy tripe in my pho often.

I suppose it's not the most exotic food in the world, but based on my previous experience I had exoticized it to a great degree - maybe even beyond bugs - in my head.

Edited April 1, 2006 by jkonick (log)

[Alchemist]

You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can't take the trailer park cravings out of the boy. I have tweaked the regular Queso recipe. I add a little pepperjack cheese, some Herdez Salsa Carera, and something spicy.

[Kouign Aman]

.... I have tweaked the regular Queso recipe.  I add a little pepperjack cheese, some Herdez Salsa Carera, and something spicy.

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In our house, that is officially known by the title "Comfort Food", per the Mr.

His version requires La Victoria Suprema salsa. No other will do.