Food Thoughts

[jayfurr]

I really don't like ratatouille.

In 13 years of being involved with Carole (December 1995-January 2009) I have never, even once, prepared ribs for her. My parents never served ribs at home and my first experience with them at a cookout was "okay, insofar as that goes, that was food, I guess, but now I'm all sticky, where's your restroom?" Also, I don't own an outside grill or a smoker and my barbequeing buddies assure me that you've got to have one to do ribs right. So I simply don't make them.

I am, for some odd reason, really jonesing for some fries with ketchup right now. Since I'm dieting, I'm not going to have any, but cold black coffee isn't serving as much of a substitute. Perhaps one of these Crystal Light beverages might confuse my taste buds.

Gravity should be optional.

Wait, that last one isn't a 'food thought'. Never mind.

Comments

[bethzebra.livejournal.com]

I will preface this by saying that we are philistines and we know it, but we do various kinds of lazy ribs at our house (primarily when ribs are cheap) and while I'm sure they would horrify your barbecuing buddies, they taste good to us. The only food I'm sort of a purist about is Buffalo wings, and then only because I really like them much better when they're traditional.

I share your feelings about ratatouille, though. I toy with making it every year when eggplant, tomatoes and zucchini are in season, and then I remember it's foul. (However, I really liked Ratatouille and the rat's version looked better than any I've ever had in real life.)

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

One of my absolute favorite foods is buffalo chicken tenders, as sold at restaurants like Friendly's. I've never been a buffalo *wing* guy because you seem to get so little meat out of the deal. You get this tiny little thing, mostly skin and bone, and somewhere in there there's some meat. Seems futile. :) So I just have the same sauce on breast meat instead. Yay me. :P

[bethzebra.livejournal.com]

Well, this is why I am not a big adherent of One True Wayism when it comes to food. Personally, I like chicken wings because of the yummy crispy skin - the meat is almost beside the point. So while I sometimes eat chicken tenders with hot sauce (because, let's face it, there is no food that cannot be improved by hot sauce, except for those which can be improved by whipped cream) I prefer fried unbreaded wings. But I'm not evangelical about it and I absolutely support your chicken tender preference. I do get annoyed when restaurants *say* they have Buffalo chicken wings and instead they have breaded wings doused with barbecue sauce, but that's not to say that I have a problem with people who like breaded wings in barbecue sauce. I just don't want to eat them myself so I prefer accuracy in labeling.

Okay, upon reflection, I've been known to bitch about the existence of things like cinnamon raisin nut bagels too, because bagels should have fish on them and putting fish on a cinnamon bagel would be horrifying. But honestly, it's just kidding around. I'm pretty democratic about food, if only because many of my own preferred foods are so weird. Since there's a demand out there for cinnamon raisin nut bagels with sweetened cream cheese, I'm glad they exist. Just make mine poppy seed with lox and we'll all get along famously.

oniony

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

My favorite kind of bagel-oriented food item is a large, chewy, very very oniony bagel with a piece of sharp cheddar cheese in the middle, or on the side, or somewhere in the vicinity. This probably has a lot to do with my not being a fish eater, but I can certainly understand a purist's desire for lox.

I'll eat a cinnamon raisin bagel if I'm hungry and that's what's around, but I tend to prefer my bagels to be savory or spicy to sweet. I quite like jalapeno cheddar bagels, but again, that's getting away from what a bagel traditionally should be.

I own a copy of The Bialy Eaters (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767910559?ie=UTF8&tag=furrsorg-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0767910559), a book all about the bagel's cousin the bialy. The author found quite a few bakers in the USA who had impeccable bialy credentials, coming as they did from the old country, but found that they'd been brainwashed by the demands of their customers into coming to believe that chewy bialys, soft bialys, bialys with all manner of strange flavorings, were still "authentic". Apparently a true bialy should be almost crispy. She also made it clear that I shouldn't even bother to try making my own -- I'd never get 'em right. :)

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

I must have been unlucky on those occasions when I've tried buffalo wings. The ones I've tried have mostly had soggy, not-crispy-at-all skin. I can see how that would add to the appeal.

And I agree with you about the hot sauce. You know that the Army now includes a microbottle of hot sauce in every field ration? Apparently the troops found that it made even the stalest MRE almost edible. Smart guys.

[jhvilas.livejournal.com]

I think ribs are a pain in the ass. They can be yummy, but they're a PITA. But there are a lot of different ways to do them and dress them, and some people like one but not the other. So know your rib eater! :) Personally, I go to a rib place where the ribs aren't such a mess.

[caroleotter.livejournal.com]

It's okay that you haven't made me ribs. I'm perfectly happy to have them be a restaurant food. They're so fatty, anyway, that one shouldn't have them more than once a year. Fish, by contrast, should be eaten as often as possible ... so I'm glad you learned to cook it.

The first few times I ordered ribs, I liked them, but I did find them too much work to be worth it. It was when I was dating X, my first southerner, that I learned to like them more, because X tutored me on the right way to eat them: Hold the rib daintily by the extreme ends; hold it with most of the meat on the lower, near surface; then tear it off with your lower teeth, taking most of the meat off in one strip. If you know how to do it, you can tear through a rack in ten or fifteen minutes. Take me to an all-you-can-eat barbecue, I'll show you how.

There's a carnal pleasure (carnal? get it?) in using your incisors and canines for the job they were evolved to do. Grr. Yum.

(Much like the pleasure of smacking your shellfish against a rock to get it open.)

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

You sometimes say "Why don't you ever make me ribs?"

But I know I'm married to various Caroles and they don't necessarily share the same opinions. :P

[caroleotter.livejournal.com]

Actually, at least two more of my favorite foods are "too much trouble" but extremely worth it. Namely: Lobster, and artichokes with hollandaise sauce.

Which doesn't mean I don't love to eat lobster that somebody else has shucked for me, and artichoke hearts by the can.