For the December talking meme,

[camwyn]

courtesy of genarti: December 4: food(s) you've never had (or made) but really want to or are really interested in?


Ever since I took a psychological anthropology course in college and did my term paper on food taboos (note: research on this subject inevitably leads to books with some truly awesome titles), I've been trying to put aside various food prejudices and issues. Can't always bring myself to do it. What Calvin Schwabe calls 'the recognition prejudice'- the unwillingness, mostly of people from industrialized societies, to eat something you can recognize on your plate as a body part- is pretty strong. Even when it comes to well-disguised organ meats I still run up against the knowledge of what filtration organs do, and the knowledge that a lot of other organs are way high in cholesterol, and- well, anyway, you get the idea. But I've been trying to put my other food prejudices aside and try other things where I can. It's been fairly successful so far; I've had farm-raised Florida alligator a couple of times, I've had ostrich, I've had octopus, any number of things. And I've tried a whole bunch of cheeses and other non-meat things, too. That's worked out pretty well.

That being said, there are a number of things I've never had and would not mind giving a go. A lot of them are off limits because of how expensive they are. I'm curious about whether actual Japanese Kobe beef (the American stuff is basically Kobe in name only, from what I hear) is worth anywhere near the price people pay for it. I've never had real wasabi; the stuff served in American restaurants is high-caliber horseradish, because real wasabi is almost entirely consumed by the Japanese market, including what little is successfully grown in the States. Kopi luwak coffee is supposed to be some kind of transcendent experience or something, but since it's made from beans that did a Tour de France of an animal's pants, it costs something like $300 a pound. Things like that. I'd like to see whether any of these hellaciously expensive foods and occasional drinks are worth anywhere close to the price their rarity commands.

Outside of the expensive foods, other stuff I'm interested in but haven't really tried... oof. Proper Indian curry would be interesting. I can get recipes to make it, but I feel like I ought to have a baseline dish made by someone who knew their business to compare it to. I've only ever really had Thai, Malaysian and Japanese curries and I don't know whether they're anything similar or what. I'm curious about edible insects; Unmentionable Cuisine has several recipes for things like locusts, but that's not something you can really get your hands on in kitchen-worthy quantities unless you order from a scientific supply house or something. There are quite a lot of cheeses I'd love to try to make, but they have to be aged at controlled temperatures, and I can't really turn the uninsulated closet in my apartment into a cheese cave without a lot of expense. I'd also like to try raw milk dairy products in general, just to see whether they're really all that different, but other than a number of local cheeses I can't really get my hands on any. (Imported raw milk cheeses don't count, as they're aged at least a month or two before being imported to the States.) I'd have to join a farm co-op and go to the farm to get the milk for that, which is a bit of a pain. I'm also somewhat interested in mushrooms, but almost every single time I bite into one the texture puts me off; finding out whether the rarer varieties taste interesting or not is a problem when I think of the texture of all the others I've ever had.

Oh, and there is one other thing I've been interested in but never tried: Black Blood of the Earth coffee. It's a concentrated form of coffee that was developed through cold vacuum extraction in an effort to make a form of coffee that tasted good and was safe for a diabetic to drink. It's supposed to taste really good, but it's so concentrated that the producer warns people not to consume more than a hundred milliliters a day. I am not good at telling the difference between most coffees; if it's brown and it wakes me up I'm usually unable to tell it from anything else brown and wakey, but this stuff sounds interesting. I just don't know if it's worth buying, or what I'd do with the rest of the bottle if I bought some and was put off by my initial experience, so I haven't purchased any yet. (I am not interested in Death Wish brand coffee. There is a difference between high concentration/low acid brewed product that has enough caffeine to let you see through time and merely stupidly high caff levels in the original bean.)

Comments

[jothra]

I visit a couple of places in JP that do good curry! Sometime when you're in my end of the city we should go.

[gramarye1971]

The filtration organs aspect has definitely put me off steak-and-kidney pie and various liver dishes (though one of my friends swears that traditional dirty rice made with chicken liver is an experience I'm the poorer for rejecting). I still have a hard time with most suet-heavy dishes as well, like puddings and pie crusts, though fried potatoes with goose drippings were well worth the calorie count.

But I'd certainly try that Black Blood of the Earth coffee, so if you ever wanted to buy some I'd pony up for part of the bottle, or a tube or two from a sampler pack!

[ymfaery]

..I'm not sure what's considered "real" wasabi? The thing I see in stores is the paste that comes in a tube, and I don't remember off-hand if you're supposed to mix it with water or not, but AFAIK it's real. (Whether or not it's readily available in your part of the country is a different matter. >.>a )

[camwyn]

Real wasabi is made from Wasabi japonica, also scientifically known as Eutrema japonica. The stuff in stores in the continental United States is made from Armoracia rusticana, also scientifically known as Cochlearia armoracia. I don't know if Hawaii imports the Wasabi japonica kind; mostly that's found only at specialty grocers and high-end restaurants.

[ymfaery]

Huh. Something I'll try to keep in mind next time I go to the grocery/drug store. :)

just as you say

[derien]

I got some powdered wasabi japonica... somewhere. Probably at Sun Market in Portland, but possibly at that imports store which was, again, in Cambridge, very near that restaurant I blithered about above, because we did make a point of going back to that store whenever we were in the area for years. It's been sitting on my shelf so long that it's probably lost it's oomph or I would send it to you, though I know powdered might not serve your needs. It's called Sushi Sonic, imported by some company in North Carolina, and I seem to recall it being a lovely delicate light green when I first got it - now it's yellowish. I just checked, and it says on the label "NOT horseradish and mustard like a lot of brands!" Well now I feel properly guilty for letting it sit - I had no idea I had such a rare thing. ;)

Again, Maine is a weird place. Maybe because there's a high concentration of hippies per population. Raw milk and a variety of mushrooms are available in a couple of health food stores I go to.

[hannah]

Once, at the farmer's market, I asked a businesswoman about buying sheep's milk from her, or even raw milk, and she said it wasn't possible for a number of reasons - and the guy next to me at the stall said something I'll remember forever: "It's easier to buy hard drugs than raw milk in Manhattan."

It'll always amuse me that I could buy raw milk in a Pittsburgh grocery store, but not New York City.

Indian food? Really?

[derien]

I can't believe we didn't take you to our favorite Indian restaurant when you were up here. Our friend from India says it's pretty good. Part of the challenge in making really authentic Indian food here is that it's hard to nigh on impossible to get some of the ingredients, so when his wife came over she had to learn all the substitutions. He didn't take her to any of the local restaurants for a while, so as to let her memory of the authentic fade a little. I guess it's just not really possible to get exactly the same flavor. And then of course there's regional differences all over India, so he might say "this is just like home" and someone who's not from Hyderabad would think it was not at all right, and vice-versa. (For whatever reason there's enough people from Hyderabad in Maine that he found someone to talk to when we were at the fair. But that's Maine for you - there's people who speak every language, but there's only three of them who speak each language, and they will happen to meet.)

There was also a place in Cambridge we really liked when we lived down there, but I couldn't say how close to authentic it was as I didn't have any new immigrant friend to ask at that time. Little hole in the wall, looks like nothing. And don't drink the water, because the water in that area just tastes yucky. I could swear it was just beyond Toscanini's going out, almost across the road after that Y intersection comes together, and I thought it was in the low set of buildings with the red door between the fire station and that place with the fake turrets on top, but I can't see it on Google Maps so maybe it's gone. :(