Black Diamonds

Looks like a Buffalo apple.

The truffle must have been the inspiration for the metaphorical phrase " Don't judge a book by its cover." 

Well then, i guess i'll just have a cheeseburger with a side of slaw and potato salad. And a chocolate malt with a side car to wash it down.

Well- there's a thing! My son's racing yacht is named Black Diamond and he was unaware of the connection with truffles. How strange that a subterranean fungus that looks like a lump of dog poo can be so valuable. Caviar looks like bat poo - I wonder what other rare and potentially expensive delicacies have remained undiscovered because of their unappetising appearance?

Good morning UMM, PENN, LOT, PL, & HAZE..........................
 
PL...................a cheeseburger............................mmmmmmmmmm............................
I am hungry...............................
 
PENN.........................so true..........................
 
I have never eaten truffles, but I would like to.......................I look forward to CHEFD's musings on this topic.........................
 
Have a wonderful day all..........................................

Celeriac, a knobbly root vegetable, was activeley marketed as 'The Ugly One' - and the marketing campaign got a good result. It made me think - making a virtue of 'ugly' was a stroke of genius. The knobbly bits have little root bits - they really are ugly. Examples appear on local TV because either they are very rude or they have funny faces or somebody has spotted an image of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. Who would have thought that root vegetables could be such fun?

I can't say I'd ever buy a truffle.  That's way too much for food.  I do have a tiny bottle of truffle oil that I tried several times.  The idea is to sprinkle a little on the food just before serving.  I thought it was pretty good; no one else was impressed.  Oh well.  It was a really small bottle and didn't cost that much.  Can't say I've ever been impressed with caviar.  They're just fish eggs.  I had an Iranian chap serve it to me.  He heated some butter in a tiny iron skillet (4 inches across) and warmed the caviar.  He mixed in a small amount of powdered mustard.  That was an improvement.  The biggest secret in the caviar world is that none of Russia's caviar comes from Russia.  The Russian end of the Caspian Sea is so polluted that nothing grows.  They get it all from Iran.  Big industry.  Been going on since the days of the Shah.  Had co-workers who had been over there and saw the whole thing.

Hazel, "Eat us & praise the lord" is nonresponsive, yet nevertheless the answer that has been deemed to be acceptable for umpteen years. Your reference to the possibility that somebody has allegedly spotted the image of Jesus on a truffles' gnarled profile reminds me of the way that some of the nuns used to explain certain concepts fundamental to Catholic theology. Mary's immaculate conception had a Baltimore catechism textbook definition, but it was deemed to be much too cerebral for the boys of the 8th grade theology class. Instead we got "it's a mystery of faith, furthermore who do YOU think you are, expecting GOD to have to explain his miracles to YOUR primitive satisfaction...how presumptuous." Perhaps celeraic is also so close to godliness that it on first impression defies explanation.....

There is an expensive fungus among us. In the web version of Wild About Mushrooms "The Cookbook of the Mycological Society of San Francisco" it is written that in Italy one Ping-Pong ball-sized Italian truffle has been said to have perfumed an entire apartment. The powerful pungency of this small tuber was such that some of the inhabitants were forced to flee! Tis a fine line between enormous flavor and being fart-like.  

Bert~ My cabbages say 'Eat us and praise the Lord' Who needs truffles?

The truffle and it's aroma "reputation" make me think of that Southeast Asian fruit durian.  Both are valued for their delectability, but one needs to steer clear of their scent.  I've never had the fortune to try either one.

anything that smells like a male pig in "Makin Bacon" mode...I'll pass.

aka 'Stacking pork'; :\Laying pipe', etc?

Tommy, I wouldn't know...and you?   my favorite....truffled mac n cheese made with xtra sharp vermont Cheddar.....mmmmmmmand a nice dark chocolate truffle for dessert...and a glass of good red wine.....

      http://virginiatruffle.com/   I have contemplated growing my own but I'm not sure if my soil meets the requirements.

Miss B- If "something" exists it is somehow related to food, getting you to food or helping you prepare food or enhancing food (i.e. your wne pairing with dark choc) or stuffing it liberally into your pie hole. My partner's grandmother from Vienna could not stand the smell of bacon frying but would fry it for him with a clothes pin on her nose. Love conquers all. I am a sniffer and if it is edible I must inhale before I eat. As the campfire scene from Blazing Saddles suggests it's just a matter of time...

 taste is smell but let decorum prevail   .....where is paolos?

"50,000 Frenchmen can't be wrong"....a little magic goes a long way with some ingredients...a shaving of truffle, a pinch of saffron, a bite of foie gras.

I have never worked with truffles professionally, other than in making pate for catering, mostly because I have always tried to keep the price of a wonderful dining experience less than a weekend in Aruba....BUT should your rich pal be showing off and takes you out for dinner, take that Mt. Everest risk and order a truffled dish. If your rich friend brings you a piece of truffle--you need but the smallest shard--grate it over scrambled eggs or buttered pasta. Believe me, it will not smell like gorilla poop. But even if you try and don't love it, so what? As I have said before, food is nothing more than pre-s**t.

The only Black Diamond I ever knew was beautiful, black horse with a white diamond on his face.  Can't afford the Black Diamond you eat or the one you can wear on your finger.

CD- Your first line the "magic" is so Proust like- When from the distant past nothing remains, after the beings have died, after the things are destroyed and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, yet more vital, more insubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of everything else; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the immense architecture of memory. Yet again I had recalled the taste of a bit of madeleine dunked in a linden-flower tea which my aunt used to give me (although I did not yet know and must long await the discovery of why this memory made me so happy), immediately the old gray house on the street where her room was found, arose like a theatrical tableau...Your last line is so Hemingwayesque succinct and full of direct truth and it is worthy of Honor Roll

Miss Blue I was reading through the Virginia Truffles website, it all seems a bit experimental at this point, but it would be interesting to find out what their first harvest it like this winter.
 
Call me lowbrow but diamonds are overrated, give me regular old sauteed mushrooms on a grilled steak any day. 

TOMMY! My heart be still. Thank you!!

But they loved them too much.  Ah!  My
friends, does that not speak the sum total of the human condition?  Anything anyone does for or against another
is for that very reason…the excessive love one holds in one’s heart for
another.  Take my own wretched life as an
example.  I was born so many, many years
ago and I loved them all, I loved them all too much, as if each were a warm
hearted woman, a sensuous albeit warm hearted woman, an intelligent and sensuous
albeit warm hearted woman and each held true to form in its beauty, elegance
and grace just like each and every sensuous, intelligent and warm hearted woman
that e’er I have known.  Out of all those
wonderful years I have learned one lesson, this, you can never love them too much.  And one other lesson no less significant, you
should never trifle with the years or the woman or the truffles or the topic or
those that take this page like they take their coffee, two sugars and three
creams.

DEB - you hit the nail on the head, so to speak!!  Your last line - I had never exactly thought about food so anatomically before.
Truffles - I don't think so - even the dogs weren't interested and we couldn't get away from the smell!!

I had to ask.

CD - your last line......let me add my appreciation

This one is for you Bert, it would be for Miss Bebe too if
she could youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG3jYaN0iUk

and Hello to you, Miss Blue, I hope your education is
proceeding unimpeded by the vicissitudes of life.

PAOLOS!~ You silver tongued devil....and you had us thinking  you were just ordinary folk like the rest of us! Man! I wish I'd said that...they'd be running a headline in The Cherokee Scout..."Hometown Boy Makes Good"

Anatomy and physiology final in a few hours....digestion is
one of the items on the exam menu.

Thanks for the good wishes. Life is crazy.

I have never understood the fascination ...
 
Tried them three times, just to be sure .......
 
Non-Plussed is the word .......
 
 

ChefDeb ~
Brilliant!
I have been served shaved truffles on two different occasions or ambushes  you might say.
One was over scrambled eggs, which I hate, but a pitcher of mimosas made it doable.
The other was over a pasta dish with chestnut cooked in a demi glace and big hunks of the best Italian sausage I ever et.  Fabulous.
I doubt there is a gracious demurral available when someone has gone to that expense apart from allergy.

No, Miss BEBE is NOT like anyone else!!! Dealing with what she does as a teacher she still manages to MAIL Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies to someone she loves!

Giraffe, Andy thanks for the backpat. Hope no one was offended!

the magic atributes of a certain 'other' plant make even the lowly 'nilla wafer' taste as good in your mind.....  jus sayin

RoadYacht, I thought that was brownies.

I went to a local nice restaurant last year and they had a three course truffle menu. Except they had run out of truffles: they used truffle oil instead and cut the price in half. I tried it, it was tasty, but I didn't really notice the flavor, so I guess I've never had truffles.  I wouldn't pay that amount of money anyway.  However, morel mushrooms are coming into season around here.  They are also expensive, anywhere up to $50/lb. , and I will pay for them.  I just went to the local coop and they are expecting them this week.  My secret for preparing morels is to dredge them in flour before sauteeing in butter. That gives them a little crispiness that adds the perfect touch. Have them with steak, with chicken, with asparagus, maybe with some ramps (or was that rants?) just have them!  I can't wait!!!

Stoney--you made my day!

Oh, and Chef Deb, I do love your last line. I've already borrowed your remark about freshly ground black pepper being the punctuation mark of a meal, now I get to borrow this one!  Yea!

The truffle..... A-to-die-for delicacy that is hunted and gathered with the aid of pigs, looks like petrified toy poodle poop, can be purchased for one or two grand........ A people buy it!

Now that is what i call successful Marketing!  Makes me want to put some in my chip-n-dipit does.

Meanwhile and far away....... Would someone pass the salt and ketchup please....

P.s. ChefDeb..... Thank you for the very enjoyable post!

Peas out........

Wasn't there a storyline on Pushing Up Daisies about someone trying to find a way to mass produce white truffles? 

"Too much of anything is wonderful." (Mae West)

All I know about truffles is how to pronounce the word in French because many years ago I had to give a "talk" about les truffes en francais.   Sufficiently impressed?  Don't be.  It was a very brief talk...OH! and the other thing I know about les truffes is that their oil packs a powerful taste-punch, and that it should be used in moderation cut in half then cut in half again.  Strong stuff, and one little molecule too much absolutely ruins whatever it's put on or in.  (Bobby Flay)...But I'm with nachista:  grilled regular button mushrooms on a steak, and I'm good.

I smell a cook out coming on, who wants to come over?

But really, don't you think this truffle thing is a scam?  A mushroom found beneath certain trees in France that have to be nosed out of the ground by a pig's snout?   If you didn't know what a truffle was, and someone explains it to you like I just did, would you believe them? I'd be certain that someone was puttin me on.

PARK4, I think the only way to find out is a massive blind taste test.  But I doubt truffle suppliers would be too excited about it, just in case it turns out that they do taste an awful like like other mushrooms.

ChefDeb ~ But what about Bert?  Just so you know, Sacred
Mushroom was a Cincinnati band that Bert and Bebe rocked to while you were
at Woodstock. Can you picture Bert in his hippie rags and bandana, bogarting that
joint as the incense and peppermints bounce off the walls and onto the
ceiling?  Members of the group later
played with Pure Prairie League. 

It looks like you’re having one of those days when all your
***** are out! Or in the words of Chef Ivan Good on You!

George Hall ~ I was just goofin’ but thanks for noticing.  I was going for a mix of Ivan Turgenev, the
Reverend Jackson, Kermit the Frog and Shawn Spencer.  I might have missed the mark, but as they say
in PA When the bar is set high, the shoo
fly pie.

Paolos, you can do anything you want, but DON'T step on my blue suede shoes....or trash Pure Prarie League. Actually you will be happy to know that like many survivors of the 60's, here & overseas, I have evolved. The Asparagus Festival is soon to take place in exotic Mays Lick, Kentucky. Firing up the roadster, packing a picnic lunch, and seeing if the live music gets these raggedy feet to move like they did the time before. By the way, you need to know that you're getting my coveted "dubious achievement award" for the syrupy paragraphs of prose which likely will melt the hearts of even the most finicky lasses....

I live an ordinary life
In ordinary ways
Ordinary hours
Ordinary days
Conspicuous consumption like caviar and truffles would not be comfortable.
I have geared back many notches from the Pedro Ximenez sherry that I loved and that loved me back.
Single malts, on the other hand, offer a soft and silky buzz without a desire for revenge in the morning… that's a nice thing.

Black diamonds on my ring finger set in an emerald cut..I'd take them that way...No pig snout snuffled shrooms for me....That's all I want to say about diamonds...No truffles...But ....sauteed button or bella mushrooms in butter, a little garlic, a Tbs of Moore's sauce mixed in and pour them over my steak.....would never pay that kind of money for a foodie item.....If the wealthy want 'em, let'em.....over and out.

Good image on the end result of all food taken into the mouth and savored by the tongue, taste buds, and tonsils, ChefDeb!! Makes it seem hardly worth the effort to put a sauce or gravy on it, or chop that cilantro or parsley for it...same result, be it weiners or chateau briand. Sorta takes the romance out of the old dining effort!

"MMMMMMMMMMMM............donuts"   H.Simpson

PAOLOS......................I am imagining that your youtube was of nekkid people eating truffles........................ got to see Pure Prairie League.......................... that country fried southern rock, the beards ( I am thinking of The Ozark Mountain Daredevils too................oooooooooooohhhhhhhhh those boys had it going on!)mmmmmmmmm...........................
 
CHEFD.....................your post did NOT disappoint!  KUDOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yes, they came today! Ha!
 
MISS BLUE.................our southern belle supreme................you will nail your test of course. I want, I NEED your truffled mac n' cheese..........................pleeeeeeeeeeasee.......
 
IMARJORIE....................I plan to try your flour tip!
 
NACHISTA & PARK, glorious PARK........................butter sautee'd mushrooms over steak, I am dying............................
 
STONEY.....................the sausage pasta dish has my mouth watering...............................
 
OT......................I want tons more of my tax dollars going to investigate for the 80th time if someone injected steroids into their gluteous maximus.....................STOP! I hope they all lie just to trash the trial. It deserves to be boondoggled!

Miss Bebe ~ It wasThe Sacred Mushroom youtube I'm not like everybody else.  Please tell me you remember the Sacred Mushroom...long hair psychodelicatessen hippies.
                                                                                                                                           Bert ~ Old Tom Savage be rollin' over in his grave if he read that drivel o' mine.

My most memorable French Restaurant experience was at Le Bec-Fin in Philly. The truffle aroma permeated the air and a 4 course evening left me comfortably numb and my AMX was sizzling. I laughed as my friend told me tales of owning a minor league hockey team and I remember my wife leaving the room when I unpacked my bag and my favorite suit that reeked of cigar smoke and the memorable menu. My friend, Ron is gone but not forgotten like that night.

Terribly  off topic, and a real bummer,actually, but as I sit here, sipping some chianti, and watching the TVee machine, I'm seeing a rare,valiant attempt by another individual; a professional football player that took his own life,one of some very few,that are trying to bring to light the tragedy of brain injury from concussion, repeated concussion for high pay....

Tommy, my favorite Proust....mentioned in my profile description. 
Paolo...always amused....you do have a way with words...any old way.
bebe...I'm with you, Nachista and Park4..love sauteed mushrooms with steak...make mine very rare.  
I've had truffle paté which was tasty, but nothing to write home about. When I first saw truffles at the top of the page, I instantly thought chocolate...now those are truffles I won't pass up.

ChefDeb...we used to laugh and say everything we ate turned to s**t.
 

JANE, JANE, JANE.......................................great to see you. I agree, rare. I do love pate'. When I go to visit my mother w go to a place that makes the most delicious batch. On thin toasts smeared w/ bitey dijon....................it is heaven to me! Maybe in our next life we will come back as ladies who lunch and we can all eat togther. I hope your Friday is wonderful as you deserve it just for being you. Corny, but true........................

PAOLOS.......................I was playing w/ Barbies & reading Little House on the Prairie while those boys were rocking out................................sigh...................rock on....................

bebe...such a youngster...haha...you're a love...I could eat dijon with a spoon...mmmm
 
Paolo...a song we can all identify with it....haha...but I only vaguely, vaguely remember that group...

Me too, Miss Bebe, me too.  My mother told me about them.