Food glorious food

André in Zuid-Afrika · Food glorious food

We can't do without this one, can we? 8)

André in Zuid-Afrika

Tripe - the inside of an animal's stomach...

Does anyone else eat this?

Elaine

André in Zuid-Afrika

Elaine

Elaine

Here's a simple and delicious little recipe for all you non-carnivores.

Grilled Tofu Quesadillas

André in Zuid-Afrika

Deborah

André in Zuid-Afrika

Elaine

Joanne

Elaine

André in Zuid-Afrika

Walker

Me neither... jeeze!

Joanne

Ah, you're right. It's not as delicious as sucking the life's blood out of a man, but it suffices ;-P

Elaine

André in Zuid-Afrika

Deborah

I'm really looking forward to the grape harvest in California -- so many varieties, for such a long time. I've been eating Concord grapes for the past week -- such an intense flavor! And the grapes I've had recently don't even have really sour skins, like I'm used to with Concord grapes.

André in Zuid-Afrika

Now... at the party to celebrate the fact that nothing can get Langcafé down... who will bring what to eat and to drink?

Deborah

I'll bring all of my favorite fruits, two of which are these:

André in Zuid-Afrika

I'll provide the biltong, droëwors and Amarula

KSa

What's this?

And this is made of a horse, isn't it ? :cry:

André in Zuid-Afrika

Elaine

Deborah

Elaine

André in Zuid-Afrika

Tequila??? Oh dear, that brings back some memories... :cry: 8) :twisted:

André in Zuid-Afrika

BTW, this party will of course be in Cape Town. I thought perhaps the beach at Bloubergstrand...

Elaine

André in Zuid-Afrika

Of course! :D In fact, I'm chartering a plane.

André in Zuid-Afrika

It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the inside isn't bad.

André in Zuid-Afrika

At the airport you will be picked up in this.

Elaine

KSa

André in Zuid-Afrika

Walker

I'll bring the meatballs! :wink: Not very exciting, I know.

Well, if I bring this then maybe it won't seem so bad!

I was just wondering, has anyone tried absinthe?

Elaine

André in Zuid-Afrika

Walker

Yes, that's mashed potatoes. Absinthe is an anise-flavored liqour. I've never tried it but I'd like to because I'm a bit intrigued by it, mostly due to the ritual that's (or can be) performed before having a glass. Apparently it's so bitter that many drinkers use sugar to make it more drinkable. Well, the article says how this "ritual" is performed. Apparently the demand for absinthe has increased the last few years because of movies like Moulin Rouge and From Hell in which absinthe is drunk.

Deborah

Walker, is that lingonberry sauce with your meatballs & mash? I suppose you call those berries something else, though. (Or is it cranberry sauce?)

Joanne

Walker

Walker

Julian

I'm having dinner guests over tonight and I don't know what to serve. The missus doesn't feel like cooking (she doesn't feel like doing anything these days

), and my oven doesn't work. Any ideas short of ordering out?

Deborah

Too bad we no longer have that salmon recipe Yann posted on the old langcafe...

Uriel

Sashimi. You won't need to cook.

Actually, while I like sushi a lot, sashimi has never appealed to me. Then one day a friend of mine insisted that I try it -- he said it was heaven on your mouth -- and I did, and you know what? The boy was dead right! With sesame seeds and soy sauce and a little wasabi on the side...mmmm! Been craving it tonight. Wouldn't mind some of him, either!

Deborah

Julian

Deborah

Great choice, Thai. I get something from a Thai restaurant 2-3 times a week.

Deborah

Oh, I'm so stupid! I had a great recipe all along, that someone at work forwarded to me. Here it is, for future reference:

Ingredients:
1 whole turkey
1 large lemon, cut into halves
sprig of rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
butter or olive oil, whichever you prefer

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Rub butter or oil over the skin of the turkey
until it is completely coated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and any
other seasonings you prefer. Take a knife and gently separate the skin
from the breast meat;
Slide lemon halves under the skin with the peel side up, one on each
side. This way the juice from the lemon will
release into the breast. Place sprig of rosemary into the turkey. Cover
and bake for 30-45 minutes. Remove cover and continue to roast until
juices run clear, basting every 15-20 minutes. If you've followed these
steps correctly, your turkey should look like the one in this picture.

Bon Appetit!

fab

Even if it is hard to find, (Swedish people seem to prefer speudo-italian restaurants) Swedish food :

Salmon of course, but also reindeer balls with berries, with potatoes :

with of course Swedish beer...

André in Zuid-Afrika

Elaine

André in Zuid-Afrika

Benjamin [inactive]

Sander

Deborah

André in Zuid-Afrika

Deborah

André in Zuid-Afrika

André in Zuid-Afrika

I'm still waiting for that turkey recipe...

Maybe I should try curried turkey....

Lazar

Andre, that is excellent news! I really love Indian food.

André in Zuid-Afrika

Deborah

I suppose the yellow Thai curry sauce uses turmeric, but the green curry doesn't look as if it uses it. I must find out about the red curry. Meanwhile, I'll have to increase my consumption of Indian curry.

Deborah

Yesterday was the annual cookie exchange at my firm. I've never participated, but I think I will next year. Wait a minute -- I don't want to be here next year! Anyway, one of the people in my department participated and donated her share to our department.

How it works is, the participants bring a batch of homemade cookies or candy to work. Everything is placed on a table, and then you walk around the table several times, taking a cookie/piece of candy from each dish until everything's gone. You then have a great collection of treats.

I know all this because the woman in my department who joined in couldn't break away from what she was working on and asked me to collect her stuff for her. When I opened the door to the room where it was all happening, I was nearly knocked over by the wonderful aroma! Everything was pretty delicious, but my favorite were the very thin, extremely buttery, sesame seed cookies, which I think also contained coconut. If I get the recipe I'll post it, also converted to metric. Another one I liked was a ginger cookie that also had pieces of candied ginger mixed in.

Our department also got a plate of really good brownies from one of the secretaries who depends on us a great deal. Yum!!

Deborah

One of my co-workers went to the nearby farmers' market and came back with one of these:

(We quickly captured it before it could kill anyone.)

Read about this odd fruit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha's_hand

(You'll have to copy and paste the url -- the apostrophe messes up the link.]

André in Zuid-Afrika

Pauline

Deborah

Daniel

I'm now an excellent cook in my own kitchen. I slap up delicious gorgeous meals for my friends!

Have you heard of Adobong Manok? That's Filipino for Chicken Adobo, which is a very popular Filipino dish where pieces of chicken are marinated in soy sauce, garlic and vinegar, served with hot white rice.

How do you make it?

First, here are the ingredients that you'll need (served for one person only):

two pieces of chicken (drumstick and thigh)
one garlic clove finely chopped
vinegar
dark soy sauce
two bay leaves
a pinch of salt
ground black pepper
one chicken stock cube
a cup of water

Instruction:

Chop up and crush the garlic and put in a pan of little oil when heated. Then add both pieces of chicken and stir, waiting for them to turn golden brown. Give a good shake of vinegar at least five times into the pan, do the same for dark soy sauce and then stir. Then add a pinch of salt and a pinch of ground black pepper. Then a cup of water. Once water is hot, add the chicken stock and wait 'til it dissolves before adding two bay leaves. Put on low heat and then leave to simmer for at least 15 minutes or until the interior meat of the chicken has no more pink areas (check!). Once ready, serve with hot rice!

Alternatively:

You can use pork (simply chop them into biteable sizes). Or even both.

Bon appetit!

Deborah

A few weeks ago we had a potluck lunch at work. There's a sizable Filipino contingent here, so there were several Filipino dishes, including chicken adobo. Everyone says it was delicious. I wouldn't know, as I don't eat meat. In fact, everyone said everything was delicious, but since almost everything had either meat or cheese in it, I didn't eat much. But my fruit salad was delicious!

Uriel

Hate curry, won't eat it. I guess I'll have to resign myself to becoming duller over the years!

Loic

Deborah

Ever since I discovered Fuji apples, I've eschewed (not chewed) other apples. But today my market didn't have any Fujis, so I bought a type that's new to me, the Cameo. It's delicious! And that's not surprising, given what I learned from the Wikipedia article:

Uriel

I'm not a big fan of apples in general. Cameos are one of the few that I will buy (I won't touch a red or golden Delicious -- there'e nothing delicious about either one, in my opinion) -- but my absolute favorite apple is the Pink Lady:

It's fairly similar to the Cameo in taste, actually -- sweet and tart and exceptionally crispy. Not as sour as a Granny Smith, not as blandly sweet as some others -- it has just enough bite to make it refreshing. And they really are a dark pink, not a red, usually with a reverse blush of gold. I think they're quite wonderful!

Deborah

I wasn't a big fan of apples until I tasted Fuji apples. MacIntosh was my favorite variety until then, but that was when I lived in NY, where MacIntoshes are grown. I once had a MacIntosh that had fallen, ripe, from the tree, and that was great. They make great cider, but I always got tired of MacIntoshes, even, before I finished them. That all changed with the Fuji -- I'd actually buy large apples and eat every last bit (except the core).

My roommate also tells me that Pink Ladies are delicious. I must have had a bad one the only time I tried one, so I'll have to give them another go. I certainly think they're very pretty.

Speaking of pomes, how about pears? My favorites are Comice (la reine des poires, IMO), d'Anjou and whatever the variety of Asian pear is that was sold as "Brown Asian Pear" in the San Francisco markets last fall. I read somewhere that "Brown Asian Pears" could be any of several varieties. The ones that were so good tasted like Hosui, but they were smaller and even tastier than I remembered Hosuis being when I used to get them at a farmers' market.

Hosui:

Recently I had something I haven't tasted since I was pretty young: a really good Bartlett pear. For years all the Bartletts I've bought have been fairly dry, and by the time the outside gets ripe, the inside is mushy and brown. But this particular pear was organically grown and fully ripe without being mushy. It was also about as juicy as Bartletts get, which is not very juicy, but it had that very strong, sweet-tart flavor that I remember from the Bartletts of my childhood.

Bartlett (aka Williams in Europe):

Comice:

d'Anjou:

Uriel

I like the red Anjou pears. Especially with sharp cheddar cheese. Or Dubliner cheese. Really, they're all good. The Asian pears used to be my favorite, because I ate them so much in Japan. I can't believe how much they jack up the price of them in the US! Once in a while I'll reconcile myself with paying a buck for a piece of fruit, but not often, so I don't eat them much anymore.

Have you ever tried a pummelo? Citrus maxima. They are wonderful! (speaking of expensive fruit...) They are like giant grapefruit with extra-thick skins, but sweeter, without the bitter pith and sourness. Sometimes the skins are green and almost pear-shaped. I had never heard of them until one day while I was in the produce section of Walmart, of all places, and an older gentleman near me started waxing lyrical about them. I was in an adventurous mood, so I bought one. So good! But not cheap, not cheap at all, especially compared to an ordinary sweet red Texsun grapefruit, which is what I normally console myself with instead.

Deborah

I've never tasted a pummelo (I've always seen it spelled "pomelo" around here). I just read about them and found out that the grapefruit is a hybridization of an orange and a pummelo. I also read that they can grow as large as a soccer ball. I think I would avoid walking under pummelo trees.

Ruby red Texas grapefruit...mmm!

Loic

I've eaten pomelos before, but I was always under the illusion that their outer surface is green in colour.

Do any of you like bananas? I think they're the perfect fruit. Always useful to have in between games.

Uriel

I only eat whole bananas when they're not quite ripe. Once they're fully ripe, I find them too sweet and mushy. Then they can only be chopped up and put on my cereal, or mashed into banana bread.

Fried bananas are good, though, as is Bananas Foster. Gotta love a banana split, too! I don't like banana-flavored candy or banana pudding, though.

Deborah

Loic

Well, banana only seems to thrive in warm and wet climates so I never thought that they seem to form a staple fruit for many americans. Oh yes, you do have many Banana Republics further south - is that where the bulk of your banana imports come from?

Speaking of bananas, do they actually thrive in the wild or have they been carefully cultivated by Man over the centuries through the process of deliberate selection?

Deborah

Daniel

The other day I went to a bookshop to look for some Asian/Oriental cuisine books.

I noticed that there are tons of cookbooks on Asian (Indian/Sri Lankan, etc.) and Oriental (Thailand, Malaysian, Indonesian, Burma, China, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese). But everywhere I looked, there is no Philippine cuisine. Philippine cookbooks are hard to find.

Why is that?

Don't they like Philippine food? Personally, I absolutely love this because it is exotic and varied and definitely mouth-watering. I just don't understand why they aren't promoted or popular in many Oriental/Asian cookbooks. OK, there would be just one or two pages dedicated to Philippine cuisine but that's it. Chinese/Malay/Indonesian/Thai get tons. As do Vietnamese and Korean.

It's sad because they are missing out on the faaaaaabulous Philippine food!

Deborah

Here's an article that addresses that very subject.

http://www.epilipinas.com/food.htm

Uriel

Walker

I had...

...tonight. Being Swedish I went to the store looking for the medium-spiced spice mix as usual, but they were out of "medium" and had only the "hot" spice mix and I went with it, and ayayay por Dios, I couldn't even finish the meal, so strong that stuff was! My semi-latino brother tells me that if you eat hot spices you won't just eventually get used to them; the more of them you consume the more you'll want. Sure, I believe that. I just haven't reached the same spice resistance/craving level as certain people have. Naturally, Elaine sprung to mind when my mouth was burning up, and I wonder if you've ever been as amused by the sight of someone suffering from hot-spiced food, as a certain Ethiopian woman in my dorm in Uppsala was when I'd tasted her food. The polite thing might've been to wait and drink when I'd gotten back to my room, but I just had to go gulp, gulp, gulp a few seconds after I'd tasted that one bit of her stew that she'd offered me. She just laughed at me. Don't get me wrong, though, I love spices, but too much is just too much!

Joanne

I hear you about the spice addiction!

A few months ago, I was even eating the hot stuff for breakfast. Empanadas soaked in ají or tabasco sauce or Thai red pepper sauce.

By the way, after eating spicy hot food, you shouldn't drink water to relieve the pain. That will make it worse. You should eat something starchy, like bread

Deborah

Recently I've been eating my eggs with good ol' Tapatío and corn tortillas. Much better than plain eggs!

Deborah

And speaking of tortillas...Elaine, when (if) you eat tortillas at home, how do you heat them -- steam them, stick them in a skillet, or what?

(Actually, this is addressed to anyone who eats tortillas at home.)

Elaine

Deborah

Uriel

When I nuke them, I have to do it on a paper towel to absorb the moisture, or they get soggy underneath. I prefer them dry. But the ones heated on the stove (you can even do it on the bare burner if you don't let it stick) do taste a little different.

And if stuff is too spicy for me, I cool it down with milk or sour cream. Both will instantly soothe any taste buds that have accidentally caught on fire.

Walker

Uriel

I tried lingonberries for the first time the other day. Finally bought a jar of lingonberry jelly, just to see.

They taste remarkably like ... cranberries. And yet are much, much smaller. Weird!

Joanne

I started drinking lingonberry juice when I had a UTI a few years ago, and sort of got addicted to the stuff for a while. Hell I even trekked over to the Ikea in Bumblefuck, NJ to get some.

(This was before the mega-Ikea opened a few miles from my place.)

Walker

Uriel

Yeah, I could see them being good with meat (just like cranberries are standard with turkey). Not so good with peanut butter -- too tart.

I am a little perplexed by the IKEA phenomenon. I love the stores themselves, but I wouldn't actually want to buy anything in them -- modern contemporary just ain't my style when it comes to decor.

Plus, I can't get that association with Fight Club out of my head!

Walker

Deborah