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Foodie fun

Started by Alps, July 04, 2019, 09:45:19 PM

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Concrete Bob

#50
I have a weakness for anchovies.  I think it is due to my Croatian bloodline.  Sometimes my Dad and I share a plate together.  I take a tin of anchovies, empty them onto a plate.  Then, I top them with some sliced red onion and a few splashes of red wine vinegar.  Then, I have that with some sliced, crusty sourdough bread, along with a glass of red wine or beer.  A little goes a long way.   

Occasionally, my Dad and I can get fresh anchovies at some nearby Asian supermarkets.  The fresh anchovies are roughly four or five inches in length.  Once they are scaled and gutted, they grill very nice on a barbecue.  When they are nearly cooked through, they get a coating of with a smearing of seasoned olive oil, chopped garlic and parsley.  My Dad and I do this with mackerel as well.  It is pretty good with trout, too.  But nothing beats the briny taste of anchovies or mackerel. It's a nineteenth-century recipe handed down from my Grandfather.  You can do the same with fresh sardines, as well.

I also enjoy chicken feet when I go to dim sum in South Sacramento, and enjoyed it many years ago in San Francisco's Chinatown.  The chicken feet are coated in a very tasty soy-garlic based sauce.  Eating chicken feet is similar to eating chicken skin, and you simply gnaw off all the edible parts of the foot until you hit the bones and toenails. 

All that being said, the thought or action of eating intestines, organs or liver absolutely repels me.  It brings stomach to mouth.     



tolbs17

I think I've had too many chicken tenders.

cjk374

To me, anchovies  = fish bait. So that is a hard pass for me.
Runnin' roads and polishin' rails.

Takumi

Quote from: tolbs17 on December 19, 2020, 05:12:50 PM
I think I've had too many chicken tenders.
I can't imagine such a concept.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

sparker

Quote from: Takumi on December 22, 2020, 09:14:52 PM
Quote from: tolbs17 on December 19, 2020, 05:12:50 PM
I think I've had too many chicken tenders.
I can't imagine such a concept.

Actually, the chicken tenders at Popeye's aren't bad at all -- provided you order them blackened!  Then get their Buffalo sauce with it for dipping (that stuff's good on the "Cajun fries" as well).   

TheHighwayMan3561

self-certified as the dumbest person on this board for 5 years running

kphoger

Amazingly, considering all my travels to Mexico, I had never had menudo until just a few weeks ago.  My wife and I went out on a lunch date while Christmas shopping, and that's what I ordered.  Never having had tripe before, I wasn't sure if it would be rubbery.  It was kind of squishy, but then shortly thereafter it just melted in my mouth.  Quite good, in my opinion.  I think that, based on my experience, you'd like it if you like beef fat, but not if you don't.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

webny99

#57
Quote from: kphoger on January 13, 2021, 11:34:22 AM
... you'd like it if you like beef fat, but not if you don't.

Interesting. I'm somewhere in the middle on this issue. I acknowledge that fat is part of what gives beef its taste, and I don't mind a little bit of it, but I certainly wouldn't eat a big bite of plain fat. Blech.

kphoger

Quote from: kphoger on May 07, 2020, 11:12:36 AM

Quote from: kphoger on September 26, 2019, 12:39:52 PM
I recently started getting my feet wet with sardines (figuratively, not literally).
Anyone else on here eat sardines?  If so, I'm curious how you prepare them.

Update:

Until recently, I had been on the hunt for the smallest sardines available in stores.  This is because I was born after 1979, and turning to Google for answers is what we do, and a lot people online said the smaller sardines have the best flavor.  Well, I've only been able to find one type of two-layer sardines in town (fish small enough to be packed in the tin in two layers), but I've tried a few different kinds in addition.

Since posting in September, the most obvious use of sardines has been to make sardine salad out of it, similar to tuna salad, with mayo and mustard and diced pickles and stuff.  This is versatile for a snack (crackers or toast) but all the mayo probably negates the health benefits of eating oily fish.  What was a big winner with my younger two kids was to coat the fish in an egg wash with Frank's hot sauce mixed in, then bread them in seasoned flour, then pan-fry them and serve them as part of a pasta dish.  It was fantastic but, when my wife and eldest son arrived home, they said the house completely reeked of fish.  The biggest frustration with trying to use whole sardines has been that digging the little guys (which have been thoroughly cooked and soaking in oil) out the tin and then manipulating them in various ways–without breaking them–is an exercise in futility.

But I had a breakthrough on Tuesday evening after the kids went to bed.  I had an idea pop into my head, more or less completely formed, for something to try.  I had at some point bought a tin of Bela brand sardines in lemon-flavored olive oil, from Portugal, at the local Sprouts store.  These were definitely not the smallest sardines out there:  instead of, say, 20 fish per tin, there were only four.  To start, I sautéed some diced onion and bell pepper in a skillet, then added garlic, paprika, coriander, and salt.  When all of that was sautéed to my liking, I put in some red salsa and Frank's hot sauce.  Finally, I cut each sardine into three chunks, added them to the skillet, stirred everything around, and put it on a plate.

Served with some smoked Gouda cheese, it was a might fine nighttime snack.  The chunks of fish stayed pretty much intact, even after some stirring-around.  The only thing I missed was a squeeze of lemon, but we were out of that.  Served over a little bit of rice, the dish would be even better.

So now I'm no longer on the hunt for the smallest sardines.  Now I'm on the hunt for more Portuguese or Spanish sardines, and I no longer want to use the little ones for anything other than mashing them up into a salad.  I saw at Sprouts yesterday that they carry two other varieties of the same brand.  Next time I'm at Whole Foods, I'll have to review their selection as well.

I've found my new go-to for sardines.  I can find these at World Market here in town, but it's possible no other store carries them.  Anyway, they're fantastic!


And here is a video of the cannery.  Super cool.  Sure enough, too, I can tell the packaging is hand-taped.

Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

kphoger

#59
OK, I'm going to give some more back-story.  This might be like when you find a recipe you want to try, but it's down at the end of a 26-paragraph blog post, and you don't really care about how the author came upon the recipe or what her "hubby" thinks about food or how many ducks live in their pond, and so you scroll and scroll and scroll until you finally come to the recipe.  That's fine.  If you don't care about my personal life and only care about the recipe part of this post, you won't be offending me.  But if you're curious, then please keep reading.

I grew up with a father who loves to cook and is darned good at it.  Before I was born, my mom worked swing shift at the hospital, and so my dad was in charge of dinners when my sister was little.  His friends would sometimes come over to help him, and he got a New York Times international cookbook to learn how to cook.  I remember sitting on the countertop while I was little, with the TV turned toward the kitchen and the Frugal Gourmet on PBS.  I grew up with tasty, nutritious, high-quality, home-cooked food.  Also, I was an active child–I rode my bike everywhere, I went swimming all day every day during the summer, I ran track, etc.  Doctors told me at check-ups that I had a healthy heart.

When I moved away from home, I took the knowledge I had gleaned growing up and continue healthy eating habits.  I also got around without a car:  cycling, walking, public transit, hitchhiking, roller blades, skateboard, bumming rides from friends–a transportation model that kept me from being lazy.  Furthermore, my jobs for the first seven years were all manual labor:  pushing shopping carts, warehouse work, driving a delivery truck.

In 2008, when we moved to Wichita and I got my current job, my job description gradually shifted from manual labor to office work.  Several years ago now, it shifted to 100% office work.  Meanwhile, I had settled into a regular lunch routine of a lunchmeat and cheese sandwich.  When my wife and I were broke, I'd shift to peanut butter and jelly for a while.  One of those times, I simply never went back away from PBJs.  For the last few years, I've eaten the exact same thing for lunch at work every day:  a PBJ, a hard-boiled egg, and three cookies.  I was still eating a balanced diet at home for dinners, but my lunches weren't exactly the healthiest.  I know some people say peanut butter isn't that bad for you but, unless you're buying the unsweetened stuff, it's a lot of fat and sugar.

Gradually over the last one or two years, I've started to feel generally unhealthy.  Now, I'm skinny, and most people assume that skinny people are healthy people.  That's a big misunderstanding going around.  People on my dad's side of the family are mostly tall and skinny, and yet, between three brothers and a father, my dad is the only male on that side not to have had a heart attack.  I never go in for check-ups (not having health insurance aids that decision), but I went in last year when I thought I was having circulation issues.  I wasn't having circulation issues but, even though I'm over six feet and under 120 pounds, my blood work showed borderline cholesterol.  OK, I though, I need to start worrying about my heart.  More recently, I started to get winded more easily than ever while mowing the lawn or shoveling the driveway, and I'd been starting to feel discomfort in the chest.  My wife and I had stopped going to the gym about a year and a half ago because we were lazy and, just when we were ready to commit to going again, COVID shut the gyms down.  Not long after they reopened, cases were rising enough that we were no longer comfortable going, so we were getting zero exercise except the occasional halfhearted home workout.  It's only been since we've gotten vaccinated that we started going back to the gym.

So, about three months ago, I decided to completely change my lunch diet and make minor adjustments to my non-lunch diet.  I'll start with the non-lunch part first.

The main part of my non-lunch diet shift is that I drastically cut down on meat-derived fats.  No more cooking with lard.  No more bacon cheeseburgers when eating out.  No more liverwurst or salami for evening snacks.  Grilled nuggets at Chick-fil-A instead of fried.  Olive oil and high-oleic sunflower oil are now the only cooking oils I use.  Also, I made the family switch to a low-sugar brand of salad dressing–not just for their sake but also for mine.  I now buy 1% milk for my morning granola instead of using the kids' whole milk.  Etc.

But my biggest shift was lunch.  I've gone to a Mediterranean-style meal routine for lunches.  It's not strictly a "Mediterranean diet", but rather it's meals inspired by general concepts of the Mediterranean diet.  All at once, I dropped the PBJ/egg/cookies habit and switched to home-cooked lunches.  It is not an exaggeration when I tell you that within two days of that change in diet, I began to feel healthy again.  Literally two days.  I feel almost like my old self again.  Part of that has been pushing myself more at the gym, but I'm confident that most of it has to do with my diet.

I have four lunch meals, and I cycle through them–two meals one week, and the other two meals the next week.  On the weekend, I cook the first one, which I eat Monday and Tuesday and maybe Wednesday.  On Tuesday or Wednesday, I cook the other one, which I eat the rest of the week through Friday.  I've been doing this now for about three months.  So, without further ado, here are what I've been eating at work:

1 – Couscous

Tossed together, then stored in the fridge
Couscous, toasted in olive oil and boiled
Sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
Green onions, chopped
Pine nuts, dry-toasted

Taken separately to work to add at the last minute
Feta cheese
A tin of sardines to chop up
Half a lemon to squeeze over the top

2 – Meatball wraps

Meatballs, made in a large batch to last a few months, kept in the freezer until that week
Ground turkey
Spinach
Garlic
Seasonings

Taken separately to work, to make wraps
Lavash (eastern European flatbread)
Red onion, diced
Tzatziki sauce (store-bought is just as good as homemade)

3 – Farro and chickpea salad

Tossed together, then stored in the fridge
Farro, boiled and seasoned
Chickpeas, sautéed and seasoned with Moroccan-inspired spices
Homemade tahini sauce (canned tahini, garlic, lemon juice, water, and spices)

Taken separately to work, to add at the last minute
Half a bunch of parsley, chopped
Grape tomatoes, quartered

4 – Kale with quinoa and red pepper sauce

Tossed together, then stored in the fridge
Red quinoa, boiled and seasoned
Cucumber, chopped
Kalamata olives, chopped
Pepperoncini, chopped
Sauce from the blender (roasted red peppers, almonds, anchovies, garlic, lemon juice, pepper)

Taken separately to work, to add at the last minute
Kale, chopped
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

kphoger

For several months now, I've had the idea to try this...  glanced at the item in the grocery store, kept walking by...

Tehn, a couple of weeks ago, I went ahead and bought it.  If you've never tried it before–and there's a good chance you haven't–then allow me to describe the flavor to you:

Imagine this...

Take a good beef chuck roast.  Dry the beef with some paper towels and then cut it into chunks, as you might for making chile con carne or beef stew.  Then cover each chunk with WAY TOO MUCH salt.  Like, totally coat the chunks in salt.  Heat some cooking oil in a large skillet, and brown the beef chunks on all sides.  Remove the beef from the oil and set aside to cool.  Then take one of them, pop it into your mouth, and suck on it.

That's what it tastes like.  Can you guess?
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

zachary_amaryllis

Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on December 30, 2020, 06:12:18 PM
Runza was cool.

runza WAS cool, but the name kind of describes what i usually had after eating there.
clinched:
I-64, I-80, I-76 (west), *64s in hampton roads, 225,270,180 (co, wy)

abefroman329

Quote from: kphoger on March 10, 2022, 04:08:08 PM
For several months now, I've had the idea to try this...  glanced at the item in the grocery store, kept walking by...

Tehn, a couple of weeks ago, I went ahead and bought it.  If you've never tried it before–and there's a good chance you haven't–then allow me to describe the flavor to you:

Imagine this...

Take a good beef chuck roast.  Dry the beef with some paper towels and then cut it into chunks, as you might for making chile con carne or beef stew.  Then cover each chunk with WAY TOO MUCH salt.  Like, totally coat the chunks in salt.  Heat some cooking oil in a large skillet, and brown the beef chunks on all sides.  Remove the beef from the oil and set aside to cool.  Then take one of them, pop it into your mouth, and suck on it.

That's what it tastes like.  Can you guess?
Beef jerky?

Dirt Roads

Quote from: kphoger on March 10, 2022, 04:08:08 PM
For several months now, I've had the idea to try this...  glanced at the item in the grocery store, kept walking by...

Tehn, a couple of weeks ago, I went ahead and bought it.  If you've never tried it before–and there's a good chance you haven't–then allow me to describe the flavor to you:

Imagine this...

Take a good beef chuck roast.  Dry the beef with some paper towels and then cut it into chunks, as you might for making chile con carne or beef stew.  Then cover each chunk with WAY TOO MUCH salt.  Like, totally coat the chunks in salt.  Heat some cooking oil in a large skillet, and brown the beef chunks on all sides.  Remove the beef from the oil and set aside to cool.  Then take one of them, pop it into your mouth, and suck on it.

That's what it tastes like.  Can you guess?

Quote from: abefroman329 on March 10, 2022, 06:02:28 PM
Beef jerky?

Kind of like what I was thinking, but how about Dried Chipped Beef?  No spices, just salt. 

kphoger

Quote from: abefroman329 on March 10, 2022, 06:02:28 PM
Beef jerky?

Quote from: Dirt Roads on March 10, 2022, 06:35:28 PM
Kind of like what I was thinking, but how about Dried Chipped Beef?  No spices, just salt. 

Nope.  You're taking my description too literally.

Hint:  it comes in a jar.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

dlsterner

Quote from: kphoger on March 10, 2022, 08:56:07 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on March 10, 2022, 06:02:28 PM
Beef jerky?

Quote from: Dirt Roads on March 10, 2022, 06:35:28 PM
Kind of like what I was thinking, but how about Dried Chipped Beef?  No spices, just salt. 

Nope.  You're taking my description too literally.

Hint:  it comes in a jar.

Vegemite?  (which I've seen but had never consumed BTW)

Takumi

Quote from: kphoger on March 10, 2022, 08:56:07 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on March 10, 2022, 06:02:28 PM
Beef jerky?

Quote from: Dirt Roads on March 10, 2022, 06:35:28 PM
Kind of like what I was thinking, but how about Dried Chipped Beef?  No spices, just salt. 

Nope.  You're taking my description too literally.

Hint:  it comes in a jar.
Marmite
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

kphoger

Quote from: Takumi on March 10, 2022, 11:09:34 PM

Quote from: kphoger on March 10, 2022, 08:56:07 PM

Quote from: abefroman329 on March 10, 2022, 06:02:28 PM
Beef jerky?

Quote from: Dirt Roads on March 10, 2022, 06:35:28 PM
Kind of like what I was thinking, but how about Dried Chipped Beef?  No spices, just salt. 

Nope.  You're taking my description too literally.

Hint:  it comes in a jar.

Marmite

Yep!

It's now part of my before-church Sunday morning routine.  A cup of coffee, and an English muffin with butter and Marmite.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

english si

Quote from: kphoger on March 11, 2022, 09:37:21 AMbutter and Marmite.
Excellent combo. Cheese and Marmite similarly is a classic.

Just use it sparingly (at least at first). The little individual servings of jam you get with toast in hotels are an ounce. The ones of Marmite are a heaped teaspoon (just over 1/4 oz) and meant for two slices. This is where people go wrong and go yuck - its an extract, and so concentrated flavour and you should 'dilute' it.

I like putting some in beef gravy to deepen the flavour, or as an umami / salt boost in 'oriental-style' dishes. And the 'MarMars' I refer to on page 1 (actually, Marmite and Marmalade would make a good base for a glaze for chicken - a bit like the Malaysian Marmite Chicken)
Quote from: dlsterner on March 10, 2022, 10:12:11 PMVegemite?  (which I've seen but had never consumed BTW)
Tried it once as it was cheaper than the Marmite in the shop at the time. Literally gave it away as it is vile vile stuff! love Marmite, hate Vegemite. Though that's probably mostly the narcissism of petty differences - a bit like Pepsi vs Coke but with some national sibling rivalry thrown in - the texture felt wrong, the taste was slightly off, etc.

kphoger

Quote from: english si on March 11, 2022, 11:40:56 AM
Just use it sparingly (at least at first).

Yes, but I've found that to be rather tricky on an English muffin, because of the rough spreading surface.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

english si

Quote from: kphoger on March 11, 2022, 11:45:32 AMYes, but I've found that to be rather tricky on an English muffin, because of the rough spreading surface.
True, and we wouldn't typically use muffins for marmite because of that. Toast typically as a base for the marmite and butter, though I'm partial to Nigella's Marmite spaghetti.

But you're eating it anyway, despite that - so you jumped into the deep end and found you can swim.

While it's vegan, your description of oversalted beef is pretty spot on. Yeast extract is used to make cheap beef stock cubes as a cheaper alternative. Something that happens in the US a lot (also with chicken broths).

kphoger

Quote from: english si on March 11, 2022, 11:40:56 AM
I like putting some in beef gravy to deepen the flavour

Hey, I tried this out yesterday.

We made meatballs with mushroom gravy for dinner, and I added a little bit of Marmite to the gravy.  It was a small amount because I didn't want to over-salt the gravy.  Well, I don't know if it was the Marmite or what, but my wife was head over heels for how it turned out.

diced onions and sliced brown mushrooms, sautéed in butter and olive oil
salt, ground black pepper, ground chile ancho, ground thyme
flour, to make a roux with the ingredients above
ketchup
Worcestershire sauce
Marmite
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

HighwayStar

Quote from: nexus73 on July 28, 2019, 09:59:28 AM
Quote from: mrhappy1261 on July 27, 2019, 06:36:36 PM
I love eating chicken with fries. My favorite! Either Jersey Chicken or KFC or even Popeyes. :)

Just wait until you dine at a Raising Cane's.  Succulent chicken tenders are their specialty and yes, they do have fries!

Rick

Cane's tenders are usually good quality, but they are not generous with their sauce. Fries are average. The sweet tea is quite good, and the one's I have been to lately have good service. Definitely a step up from KFC. Against Popeye's you are loosing some variety I think.

Also on the chicken bent

Golden Chick-kind of an oddball concept, but has tenders and usually catfish as well. Many have free dine in ice cream cones.
Layne's Chicken Fingers-very similar to Cane's
There are those who travel, and those who travel well

abefroman329

Quote from: HighwayStar on March 16, 2022, 01:31:20 AM
Quote from: nexus73 on July 28, 2019, 09:59:28 AM
Quote from: mrhappy1261 on July 27, 2019, 06:36:36 PM
I love eating chicken with fries. My favorite! Either Jersey Chicken or KFC or even Popeyes. :)

Just wait until you dine at a Raising Cane's.  Succulent chicken tenders are their specialty and yes, they do have fries!

Rick

Cane's tenders are usually good quality, but they are not generous with their sauce. Fries are average. The sweet tea is quite good, and the one's I have been to lately have good service. Definitely a step up from KFC. Against Popeye's you are loosing some variety I think.

Also on the chicken bent

Golden Chick-kind of an oddball concept, but has tenders and usually catfish as well. Many have free dine in ice cream cones.
Layne's Chicken Fingers-very similar to Cane's
Zaxby's > Cane's, but Cane's is a close second.  I like being able to get BBQ sauce and bleu cheese at Zaxby's, but if I'm eating Cane's at home, then I can still dip my chicken fingers in BBQ sauce and bleu cheese.



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