Van Gogh's short and tumultuous life could perhaps have been made it a little easier, if he had been discovered during his lifetime. Which begs the question, what is it about us that we can't recognize genius when it's right before our eyes?
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03/12/11
June 27, 2012
"Wise choice, sir. It is a local delicacy."
Is there another phrase that can strike more fear into the heart of the veteran traveler, hunched over the menu in a bracingly "authentic" local bistro and puzzling over the descriptions of various items with a shaky grasp of the local dialect? Surely "birds in a nest" must be a bit of poectic license, you reason, looking for confirmation from the perpetually smiling and agreeable waiter.
And then you wait for the plates to arrive. What you ordered could be a delightful array of succulent squab nestled in some doughy creation shaped to resemble a nest. Or it could be half-plucked sparrows splayed in an actual nest.
That kind of gamble can be part of the joy of travel, a gateway to new sensations. Or it can be sheer torture, depending on how much of your mistakes courtesy and hunger force you to swallow.
But really, you can't call a trip much of an adventure unless you've suppressed your gag reflex a few times. There's a large swath of Asia, for example, that you really haven't experienced unless you've at least sampled the flesh of the durian fruit. Football-sized and covered in formidable spikes, the uncut durian looks about as intimidating as a fruit can get. (Asian newspapers routinely carry reports of rural people injured by falling durian.)
But you don't truly appreciate the durian's offensive power until you cut inside and release its smell, a malodorous symphony that has been variously compared to dirty gym socks, stale vomit, skunk spray, raw sewage and rotten onions. The scent is so powerful that Singapore and many other metropolises expressly forbid durian consumption on public transit and in hotels.
But muscle past the gag reflex induced by the smell, and you discover the wonderous flavor of the fruit's creamy interior, a custardy mash with hints of almond and caramel. Anthony Burgess compared the nose-vs-tongue durian experience to "eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory."
Similarly, you haven't really done Europe unless you've sampled at least a few organ meats generally reserved for pet food in the States. Whether it's Scottish haggis (sheep stomach stuffed with liver, heart and lungs), Greek splinantero (lamb liver, spleen, and small intestine) or French tete a veau (a calf's head, classically served with brains, glands and all), just tell your brain that "meat is meat" and try to enjoy. I'm always reminded of an old Jay Leno routine about searching through a British garbage can after one too many nights of kidney and pancreas pie and finding that's where the Brit's keep the filet mignon.
Or maybe your buttons will be pushed over what types of animals, rather than which parts, are fit to eat. Consider the guineau pig -- cute, low-maintenance pet here; revered delicacy in Latin America. (Jered Diamond notes in Guns, Germs & Steel that it was the sole domesticated food animal in the Americas pre-Columbus.) Spend much time in any of the Andean countries, and you'll no doubt have numerous opportunities to sample cuy, fried, roasted, fricassed or, best of all, barbecued, and served more or less whole.
The flavor? Guineau pig is frequently described with perhaps the second-most-fearsome phrase for off-the-beaten-track diners: "Tastes like chicken!"
But nobody's calling you chicken. Tells us about your most adventurous dining experiences, favorite local dishes, and saved-by-Tabasco moments.
still thinking about today...
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That's why I always take along packages of peanut butter and crackers when I travel.
Did somebody say Calf Fries?
Or Rocky Mountain Oysters?
Waking up @ 3 am with a strange desire to view Jackson Pollock images and after reading Das Topic thinking of George Harrison's "Piggies" and-
"Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon."
Alas, I am adventurous in what I do in life, but not, definately not, in food.
lotlot: I carry a four pound jar of SKIPPY with me whenever I travel, and a box of Matzoh, even if I am driving to wherever I am going ... Never can tell whats gonna happen, and AAA isn't always Johnny-on the-Spot getting to where one might be waiting .......
Odd food? My strangest adventures were in China. Dog is tasty, kind of like lamb but smaller - tiny chops in the stir fry. Snake "tastes like chicken." Donkey was almost like beef - again in a stir fry. I had Chinese snail in New York when I was in college. There were two kinds, one like the French serve and the other larger and sliced for a stir fry. Both were tasty. The smaller one was cooked with garlic. I prefer the French addition of butter to the garlic. Chinese squid soup is excellent but now uncommon. The haggis I had in Scotland was served with breakfast at a B&B and had very little taste. The British black pudding (made with beef blood) and white pudding (made with lymph, I believe) are served with breakfast and are iwthout much taste. I'll have to try durian. The local Asian markets sell it. It's a bit intimidating. It is large and has formidable spikes. Oh yes, I have had canned locusts and honey (taste like peanuts with honey) and canned chocolate covered ants (taste just of the chocolate). And a can of caterpillars. They taste like your worst imagination would conceive. My advice is "don't." Usually being adventuresome comes out pretty well as long as I don't carry along any preconceptions.
I am wrong about white pudding. It is really a type of sausage made from oats or bread, suet, shredded pork, sugar and sometimes other spices. By the way, I had a friend who tried the caterpillars and thought they were great (!). He finished the can. Deformed taste buds, no doubt.
Bacon made America famous,and grits...and deep dish pizza
Oh Mr Peterman! I am drooling at the thought of durians. It is, by the way, pronounced like due-rians and not doo-rians. It is really, the king of fruits, right through SE Asia. Durians are graded by taste, smell and texture; the better the quality, the more bitter the taste. In a sitting, it is better to start with the lowest grade (the sweeter ones) and work upwards to the bitter ones; otherwise the bitter taste will overpower the sweeter taste of the lesser grade. Top “brand” names include D24, XO and Hong Xia (meaning red prawn). Incidentally, you never ever pick a durian, it falls by itself when it ripens and folklore says always, at night. Durian aficionados are known to make driving trips through Malaysia during the season, just to buy them straight from the plantations (guilty, been there, done that).
Durians are also known to be a very heaty or yang food ie, it raises the metabolism (Chinese philosophy classifies food as heaty, cooling or neutral). It is usually consumed together with something cooling like coconut juice or mangosteen, a fruit that seasons the same time. And oh, it’s supposed to be an aphrodisiac.
If you make a trip to SE Asia, you just have to ask the locals, at least to feel and smell it, just to say you’ve met the food that floored Andrew Zimmern. His video below also features some other foods which is normal fare to me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o_1qillkJs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQj-hFfmYkQ
Another of my favourite dish …. Pig’s offal soup! On my last trip to Singapore in April 2012, I was surprised by this western expatriate digging into it for lunch
http://www.petermanseye.com/photos/602451
http://www.petermanseye.com/photos/602401
Lynn...i knew i would see you here with all your food adventures!
You are certainly very adventurous! :)
Durian, haggis, cuy ....... not exactly household words for the average person. Perhaps we have turned the corner, no longer needing to fear the possible demise of our host. Vintage recycled topics are a great idea, especially since the audience has morphed into something fresh and ripe for consumption. I do remember the gentle warning that I received when inspecting bananas that I watched being cut from trees with machetes in the rainforest in 200 pound bunches..... "Don't go bonkers if you encounter an occasional tarantula, they's huge & hairy but they really would rather just avail themselves of the opportunity to go about their business."
YUCK! I shall stick with Italian Wedding Soup thanks.
The advice I received many moons and trips ago "always eat and drink as the locals do" has MOSTly served me well. I have not, however been to Asia or Africa, so its easy to say.
A piece of advice from another friend has also come in handy: "there is always an Italian restaurant where you can get spaghetti."
I consider myself somewhat of a foodie and will eat just about anything. But I've never been to SE Asia: I'm sure that experience would truly test my resolve. I've been to Europe a lot and I've frequently ordered things off the menu where I'm not really sure what I'm getting. Some of the words may sound familiar, so I figure, what the heck! I've usually been happy with the results. This is getting harder to do now because so many restaurants have English menus,(which is both good and bad). Even Paris! The other thing that is happening in Paris is that the toilets are being modernized. There used to be a number of places where the facilities were a hole in the ground and a sink. Every time we return, I make sure to check to see if they have been modernized. The wine bar on the Rue to Rivoli upgraded a few years ago. There is a great restaurant near St. Sulpice that still just had the hole last time we were there, but I'll check it when we return. Hope to get there is 2013. But sorry,I've strayed off topic.
Typos!
ROADYACHT: Well Butter'd Grits with Crispy, Bacon Bits mix'd in is a Great base to mix properly Scrambled Eggs into, for a real, Stick-to-Your Ribs Breakfast !!! Day Old Grits, cut in chunks and fried in Bacon Drippins, with a little Clover Honey, or Maple Syrple over 'em is a mighty fine taste treat also !!! With a cup of Hot Coffee with Chickory and a Big ol' glass of Cold Buttermilk on the side ... and the plate cleans up real well with a broken-up Cathead or two .......Larrupin' Good Stuff !!!
perhaps not so far off topic IMarjorie....
I wonder how hungry the first person who ate durian fruit had to be to overcome the smell?
The only time I bowed out of eating something was when I was a teenager in france on a school tour and they served us individual whole trouts riding waves of aspic. I wasn't into eating fish then and I couldn't eat something that was staring at me. I kind of regret it now though. I'm too old to knowingly eat the really crazy stuff, but I'm old enough to know that refusing food offered in good faith is bad manners especially when the people kind enough to share don't have much to begin with.
In my family I'm the weirdo because I like pickle soup, sushi, pot au feu, and chicken feet. The rest of the family is fairly white bread in their tastes, but my theory is that you never know until you've tried it. I've even eaten roasted worms and crickets...they sort of tasted like dorito chips, but with the crickets the wings get stuck in your teeth and that's unpleasant.
During my years as culinary historian for the LA Times Syndicate, I traveled to many countries and tasted many foods that otherwise would not have hit my dinner plate. Most were interesting, to say the least, some I refused on principle (horse in Canada, dog in China), one I declined for its ick-factor (Australia's witchetty grubs that supposedly ooze and taste like fried mozzarella), a few left memories that will last a lifetime.
The 7-Bowl Bridal Feast in Hong Kong included a course of stir-fried chicken feet. Not the oddest of all that had been put before me, but under their brown sauce these tootsies were pink and my mama always told me 'never eat pink chicken'. When I expressed my desire to pass on this particular offering, the other journalists disdainfully pegged me as 'one of those Americans who only eat Big Macs'. Few things annoy me more. For Flag and Country's sake, I poked about the bowl until I found one evenly browned appendage and nibbled just north of its toenails. Pronouncing the meat unremarkable, covered as it was by the spicy sauce, I saved America's dining dignity and thought the issue closed. Six hours later, every one of my party - except me - became violently ill. Feeling pretty smug at my good fortune, I carried on with the scheduled festivities. My superiority evaporated two days later when I too succumbed to chicken feet poisoning.
That was the worst foodie disaster in my career. Other memorable moments are more enjoyable. Piping hot Haggis doused with a splash of aged Highland Scotch on the shore of a misty loch. Black pasta in a sauce of squid ink by the light of a massive full moon at a cafe alongside Venice's Grand Canal. Deep fried Rocky Mountain oysters and sauteed rattlesnake patties at an al fresco barbecue under the Arizona desert's star-studded night sky. A bowl of exotic rambutans and mangosteens in a tropical garden overlooking the Indian Ocean at a Balinese breakfast. Alligator etoufee slurped to the thumping beat of Zydeco accordions washboard rhythm at a Louisiana Cajun Country cafe. Pato no tuqupi (duck w/ an untranslatable Amazonian herb) in a Rio restaurant, a meal that had an unexpected euphoric
oooops hit the send button to fast .... will continue later
epreet-you're making my mouth water (not the chicken feet, but the rest!)
Gosh, no offense to you adventurous eaters, but my stomach is most definately up-ended at the moment... I can handle the bacon and grits and eggs, etc. though!!!
I think all of you who have ventured down the path of food less eaten (at least by some) are VERY brave...
You know what really bugs me are the people who, when given something to eat, ask what's in it? I'm not referring to the folks with food allergies, just those picky eaters who, god forbit, would eat something with broccoli or spinach in it. I had a boss like that once. He made me crazy! He acted like a 10 year old saying I can't help it if I think brocolli tastes like shit! Anyway, one time he told me about a great meal he had at a mutual friends house, and a lot of his "forbidden" foods were included. He enjoyed it saying that everything was cut up so small, he couldn't tell what was what. Hmmm, exactly! I mean, ok, if you don't care for something, and it's just sitting out there looking at you, well don't eat it. But if it's a conglomeration of different things, bit on in and enjoy. Grrrr. Thanks for letting me vent.
I marjorie, my exhusband was like that. He had a long list of foods that he never wanted to eat or see in our house. I always took a perverse pleasure in sneaking them into things and he never noticed. These weren't extreme food items either, simple things like mushrooms, any kind of greens, tomatoes, pickles, flax seed, bran, basically any vegetable that wasn't corn on the cob or baby carrots or onions, fish, shellfish, sausage, lamb, strawberries, etc. He lived to eat meat, potatoes, and cheese...no wonder that at 25 he was diagnosed with diverticulosis and the doctor that did the colonoscopy told him he has the colon of an unhealthy 70 year old man.
Until the Thyroid Episode some years ago, I would eat almost anything that didn't move or wiggle and was quite fortunate that I never was ill from anything. Having traveled the world I ate some strange stuff. Now I am cautious because of the thyroid and I have become allergic to shellfish. Not a good thing - I live on the Chesapeak Bay and my favorite food was always shellfish.
As a child my mother always told me when eating at someone's home, eat whatever is put in front of you, even if it something you really don't like or lookls suspect.
OOPS - that was TYPHOID not thyroid!
Giraffe! I too am allergic to shellfish---crusteaceans. (I can still eat clams & scallops & mussels). You have to be SOOO careful---I no longer can take a chance ordering anything fried at a restaurnt that has shrimp on the menu ...in fact, if for some reason I am eating a an all Seafood restaurant I usually send a note back to the Chef. All you need is your piece of salmon picked up by tongs just used on crabcakes.
I am so glad I could enjoy shellfish for my first 1/4 century.....
The only food I have ever disliked is (are) lima beans. I don't know why. I like everything else in the world, but every few years when I give them another try it is still ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
apology for the interruption as I'm sure you're wondering about that Brazilian duck dinner... Tuqupi, I was told later, is believed to be a slightly narcotic plant that's used frequently in rainforest cooking. I won't swear to it, but we did have an exceptionally jovial meal.
The oddest meal I ever had was when I was doing a story on the ages old practice of eating insects. It saw print on 1/1/2000 when there was great global buzz on computers bound to crash worldwide due to the supposed 'Millenium Bug'. Dishes served included: appetizers of roasted grasshoppers (sort of like overdone peanuts), green salad w/ lemon ants (the critters had a definite citrus tang), orzo w/ lightly sauteed crickets (I was picking little legs like toothpick shards out of my teeth for hours), and the piece de resistance - Scorpion Scampi (venom sacs removed), which had a soaplike taste that even post prandial chocolate covered bees could not erase. The dinner was only the tip of the insect eating discoveries I made while writing the article. It turns out that bugs of all kinds are deemed ok to be present in food by the FDA! Vermin eggs are impossible to eliminate from rice (moral: use it quickly or toss it before it starts crawling). Ditto weevils in flour. And next time you're having pasta try not to think of the aphid bits present in any tomato sauce!
Deb - with me it's Cantalope. I try and try but I just don't like it or any sort of melons really. Is your shellfish allergy a breathing situation or gastric? Mine is gastric so it isn't terribly serious. It's more a timing issue - 3 house after eating anything shellfish, I had better be in the loo!!
Giraffe-- oh I wish...no mine's the one bite and you're dead kind of allergy. I carry an epi pen which I have had to use and my poor kids get much more nervous than I do!
I did have to stop cooking in my restaurant at night because of the exposure to fumes, etc. My doctor explains that it is something that gets more and more virulent. He told me about a patient of his who was allergic to shrimp but whose family had a fish market. She would wear double gloves to peel shrimp but she died from a hole she never detected. That made an impression!
Welcome EPREET very interesting post(s).
I've had chocolate covered grasshoppers. It was crunchy chocolate! I always consider lobster (yummie food to me) to be a big ol' bug anyway so what the heck? There is a lot of good protein in bugs, and they are low on the food chain, we probably should eat more of them. I have some friends that are allergic to shellfish. My best friend developed the allergy later in life, like you, Chef Deb. She often wonders if she has grown out of it. Her doctor told her the best way to find out is to purchase some, go to the hospital, then eat it. If she has a reaction, they can take care of her right away. She hasn't tried it yet. I can't say I blame her. BTW, lima beans are not on my list of favorite foods either, but I'll eat them if they are well prepared, hot, with lots of butter. I'm sure Julia Child has a good recipe for them. She can make anything taste good.
nachista--good for you! Hide those vegtables from the lout. Did you know that one way they would get more vegtables in school lunches was to put beets in the chocolate cake? I don't think I've ever had that, but it sounds really good to me.
Oh..Alaisha.....please do not serve me buttered-up frog legs....and never...and never...please remember this...never ever....ever.... order a 70 lb. Shark from the gulf and have it shipped to the outdoor community pool party to celebrate the end of summer...in this ocean fishless town...of Pennsylvania...and please....please .....if ever....your chef sweetie...goes beyong my authority...and orders such a monstrastity...to showoff his chefly beginner skills....my heavens, Alaisha...Can you remember......do not forget to thoroughly cook the dang fish carcus....so no one has the horrid taste of raw sandfishy nauscious tripe, a skewered Shark is never cooked...very well on the firecoals....which by the way is harder to prepare than playing an oval spinet! Finally, Just a pie-reminder, Alaisha, never serve Blueberry after a debauchery of Beer and Tom Collins or never ever....never...after a round of Pink Squirrels...Thanks, Alaisha for being so cooperative...and polite...allowing us to have dignity...in our food and drink choices...Happy Cooking.....everyone..... Sorry, I have to mention one more unsavory food selection... greasy rabbit pate....I don't want any of that rank....slime in my kitchen, Alaisha! Good Day!
Knock knock
Who's there?
Cantaloupe
Cantaloupe who?
Can't elope tonight, Pop took the car.
I always think of this silly joke when someone says
cantaloupe.
When it comes to making decisions i have usually depended on fact-finding research to narrow down the options and then instinct and my heart of hearts to guide me the rest of the way.
When it comes to food i rely on sight, scent, and texture to feed my final decision tool which is of course 'gut feeling'. Nothing in this realm comes with a guarantee, but it is far more accurate than flipping a coin and the recommendations of strangers.
If i have a strong urge to brace myself or to have foreknowledge of where the nearest bucket or restroom are located....... I won't bite.
What is considered exotic fare to some is commonplace to others.
With that said, I'm reminded of the line from a Melanie ? song about new roller skates........when it comes to food, 'i don't go too fast but I go pretty far'.
That at times describes me in a nut shell.....which is appropriate for me i think.
Peace out
Park4......... Happy Birthday Month.....Day 2 North-Sider!
epreet..... Welcome to you. I hope you enjoy it here.
I Marjorie, my mom regularly puts beet puree and refried beans in her scratch chocolate cake, sounds bizarre but it is dang good.
"On the Mosquito Coast, you need hardly any clothes and can just reach out and grab food to eat." Loving the conch on Grand Turk. Theroux's aforementioned view is so Vonnegut and howdy epreet~keep on keepin' on chewing the fat here 'cause as Kurt sez "You can't just eat good food. You've got to talk about it too. And you've got to talk about it to somebody who understands that kind of food.” I consider everything that doesn't eat me first food and perhaps a Human Guinea Pig for cheap wine.
TT--I had that conch on Grand turk. Our tour guide cracked one open and gave it to us raw, right out of the shell. I should say it tasted like chicken, but it didn't. It was a little sweet, but also salty from the sea water. What a great experience. Nachista, I would have never thought of refried beans in chocolate cake. Love it! Vegtables and fiber and chocolate goodness. I love food, and I love thinking and talking about food too. Hubby and I went out to a bar for lunch and had cheeseburgers and watched some baseball.
It is surely, and don't call me Shirley, just a matter of time when medals are awarded for courage in the face of exotic and out of one's ordinary type of food. It seems to be a source of pride for so many....... Charging that plate and bowl......armed only with knives, spoons, and forks........
Interviewer: How did you earn your medal?
Interviewee: Oh, i got this one for having my stomach pumped three time in one week after trying to eat something that i could not pronounce and smelled like a five day old egg and beer fart.
Bon apetit.......
I always TRY everything...don't always EAT everything....generally, if it doesn't smell good, I'm a little hesitant, but the durian fruit might prove me wrong on that! I have been to Greek Easter at a close friend's house..lamb on the spit (poor thing, but delicious) and had (sorry, can't remember what it's called) the lamb organs roasted on a spit and wrapped in the intestines. "like some Greek Meat??!!" A bit too strong for my taste, but I tried it. Ostritch tates like chewy flank steak, octopus just plain chewy, and everyone told me alligator tastes like chicken, but it just tasted like a dirty swamp lizard to me. Some friends were joking about eating an endangered animal...the winner was "a succulent roast filet of baby Panda." and "Too bad the dodo bird is already extinct....a great pot-pie, and you could have the feathers to trim a hat!" Bon Apetite
I, too, am allergic to shellfish but never had a reaction. A month ago I had lobster, it was sooooo good, and I was sick the whole next day. Really sick and I still had to work.
My first client was a doctor who said no more for at least a year.
The oyster, clam, crab and scallop are calling but I'm afraid to try.
I live on the eastern shore of Maryland. Steamed crabs, cream of crab soup and crabcakes are staples here.
What to do? What to do?
epreet---welcome and oh! my goodness! you are a brave soul. The whole topic reminded me of a line from the movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".....the character played by Maggie Smith (she's soooo good!) is offered an Indian dish en route to India and she hastily turns it down with her nasally "I don't anythin' I can't pronounce!" (The book is ever so much better than the movie, but the movie is good.)
Carol - Marigold is at the top of my 'must see' list...and I LOVE Indian food - make a pretty darn good dahl and cumin roasted cauliflower if I say so myself but haven't got aloo gobi (cauliflower w/ potatoes & etc) down yet...
I'm a died in the wool carnivore. My Father was/is a meat eater, so was his dad and on and on. My lovely youngest daughter declared herself a veggie-sarus for a moth or two and I was in full support of her efforts. She rejoined her true heritage over a medium Rib-eye cooked "Big Daddy" style. Truth was, I baited the field and she fell willingly into the trap.
Me? I like what I like and never get goaded into eating anything I'd not feed to my dog (If I had a dog). When I go to a specific restaurant, I get the exact same thing at that particular place, generally from years of experimentation. I also generally won't eat any thing that, when alive, left a shiny trail behind them when they traveled. But that's just me.
It reminds me of a story my son told me when he was waiter-inclined:
Do you know how to tell if someone is a Vegan?
They'll tell you.
a moth...month...
Having being bought up on my mothers cooking, I don't think anything food-wise would phase me.
Spring Fragrance - If other folks are eating it, I will try it. It's a lot of fun. I call myself a secondary vegetarian. I eat the things that eat the vegetables. If we look at our teeth, the answer is obvious. We are omnivores - we eat everything. Not just vegetables and not just meat. That is how we stay healthy.
I am allergic to eating bugs. period. I let the birds have them. Along with worms, I'm awfully allergic to eating worms. ...............thank you PL. I got sunburned, a bit. More than a bit but it was fun fun fun. tomorrow I shall be a new woman, I'm pretty positive about that. Why does fun usually hurt I've always wondered....;)
When I was researching a project years ago I learned quickly that people often believed what they were told to believe. No judgment just my observation. It wasn't long before that spilled over into many arenas and food selection being another learned behavior. I believe that part of one's education is to begin tasting as many things as possible and not making lifelong dislikes based on no or incomplete information. Pairing food and drink is an art and a science and should be encouraged. At the very least a "no thank you" instead of a contorted yuck face. As we explore our humanness, we shall find that the perfect order of things requires our natural curiosity and like Native Americans a sense of sacred deference to the natural world that sustains us. When I bless the food I ingest It is not without an universal Thank You!
Is there a special blessing for Soyalent Green?
RY- Grant me the ability to know the difference txixt Soyalent Green and Baby Poop...Shit/Shinola...Charlie Sheen and Charlton Heston
Jane - I saw the quilts from your post y'day...wow! They're really nice!
Epreet...welcome to the village! What a delicious sounding job you've had!
Nachista, I believe that humans were led to durians first by animals who love the fruit. Monkeys, squirrels all love it but if I have to hazard a guess, it would be the Orang Utan, a primate whose malay name means Man of the Forest, and which would be capable of tearing the fruit apart. Here's what it looks like
http://true-wildlife.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/orang-utan.html
TommyT @10.03...I agree, at the end of it all, everything breaks down into the compounds that our body needs, it's the packaging they come in that differs
Here's a story, from an encyclopedic site, about how serious Asians take their durians... http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/durian.aspx
Defending the Durian
It has been said that Asians enjoy pricking the somewhat constrained food preferences of foreigners by offering them durian and watching the knee-jerk negative reactions. Usually the results are harmless and amusing, but sometimes when the untrained nose meets the noisome fruit, the culture clash can be more antagonistic than amicable. Some years ago in Thailand, where durian is a matter of national pride, a Thai lady from Bangkok's red-light district was accused of slashing an American's face with the sharp spines of the durian. Her excuse was that she had been innocently dining on the durian in the back of a bar, when the American stormed in to castigate the revolting smell coming from the fruit. What choice did this woman have but to claim durian rights and defend the fruit? The Thai magistrate, a patriotic durian eater himself, found the assault was, alas, criminal. But in deference to the noble durian, he penalized the woman the equivalent of a mere five dollars and, as if to underscore the virtue of her actions, paid the fine himself.
MISS KORTHAL: I have a Recipe for a dish called, TEXAS RIVIERA CRAB ... that I will send you, and that you might like to try ... since you have such an abundant supply to draw from ....... This dish works exceptionally well with an Orvieto White, or a three to five year old Pommery Champagne .......
Let me know if you are interested .......
IVAN:
I'm looking forward to that recipe.
Thanks.