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#2
06-12-2007, 08:14 PM
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Re: Exotic food...
My brother is Vietnamese, and his girlfriend cooked up these things that made me spit out the first one, with a WTF expression. I thought it was some kind of section-of a-cylinder-shaped whitish noodle or turnip or something, but it was this big hunk of cartilage. I ate the rest of them, but I chewed and swallowed FAST. My brother says he loves them, but I'm not sure why, whether it's his culture's native food or not. I guess he just likes the texture that I find pretty offputting. If you could combine rubbery with a bit of gooey and some unexpected hard parts, and add in some tasteless, well, there's your giant chunk of cartilage for you. How is this actually food?
They also took me to a chinese dim sum place for breakfast a couple weeks ago. Most of the little plates were either one variety or another of chicken feet or of things like rectangular boxes of blood they had managed to harden/gelatinize somehow. There were five different plates of chicken feet alone. One type of chicken feet looked just boiled, so the white skin just made it look nasty. Boiled chicken skin is not very good. And there's nothing on the feet except -- you guessed it -- cartilage! to eat. There was another type of chicken feet, that was deep fried, and I bit into one and found there was nothing in it at all besides cartilage and small bones. So basically it seemed to me the kind of stuff you clearly throw away because there's nothing really to eat there. But they loved eating the cartilage and skin. Definitely not a satisfying breakfast for the most part, but there were some dumplings and such, that I tried not to totally hog. And some good greens. The thing about some authentic Asian food is they're really into eating an animal's fat and skin, and cartilage. Anything but the best part of the animal! To a Westerner, this translates as them being happy with the very worst cuts of meat, or at least fattiest. So I often reluctantly push their pork aside, or beef, or at least eat the bare minimum of it, compared to everything else. This is hard when you're a guest! It will so often be half fat. I'm no fan of fat, and besides, my family history is all about quadruple bypasses and such, so I really try to stay away from that stuff. But sometimes when I eat with Asians, I just have to settle for plenty of wads of fat or a bucket of beaks. 
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#4
06-13-2007, 11:31 AM
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Re: Exotic food...
Blarg,
I am with you on the cartilage. My gf orders this semi-often. It is just as you desribe it, like a piece of rubber. I dont feel that it has any flavor at all. Even when she orders it, she will only eat a tiny bit of the cartilage, so many it just adds some flavor to the dish. As for chicken feet, anytime I have eaten them it is still fatty and its insanely delicious to me, one of my favorite dishs is red curry with bambo and chicken feet. Cooked chicken blood is also very delicious. So is pork inwards cooked in a thick rice soup and especially pork liver. God do I love pork liver. Btw, you are right that asians use the worst cuts of meat. I cant think of a single Thai dish that revolves around an expensive piece of meat. I dont know why this is exactly, but they sure do a good job at it.
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#5
06-13-2007, 12:00 PM
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Re: Exotic food...
Ever eat this Blarg?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/killerturnip/461277428/ The pork knuckle has two sections, one is just pure fat and the other is a very fatty meat.
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#6
06-13-2007, 12:03 PM
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Re: Exotic food...
that photo album has a nice collection of thai dishes.
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#7
06-13-2007, 12:19 PM
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Re: Exotic food...
[ QUOTE ]
Ever eat this Blarg? http://www.flickr.com/photos/killerturnip/461277428/ The pork knuckle has two sections, one is just pure fat and the other is a very fatty meat. [/ QUOTE ] Haven't had that. That looks like it would kill me right there at the table. I guess it goes to show you can develop a taste for pretty much anything. What for me is stuff you'd throw away, is for others a happy gristle festival. It's hard for me to even picture liking that.
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