Tastykakes. Butterscotch Krimpets, to be precise.
Now I think I have to make giardiniera. It sounds like exactly my sort of thing.
Of course being a live-food snob, I will try to salt-cure it...
So efficient! You can make your pizza spicy and add pickled veggies, all with a single condiment!
Lorne sausage
Chippies that sell deep-fried haggis [poss. with curry sauce]
Good Indian/Chinese food [not explored the best places in London, yet, but in Oxford it was universally shit] -- Especially pakora
80/- and 90/- beer
Is it possible that Chinese and Indian food in Oxford is very good and you just didn't notice. I ask because of 4.2.
Fannie May (Pixies/Turtles, specifically) is near the top of my list of things to pick up when I visit my family in the States. Also, Lucky Charms and peppermint bark, although those two are increasingly available in the UK. That's the stuff I can transport. As for missing in general: easy access to baseball and American Football, cheap and good seafood and steak, barbecue, streaky bacon, free refills, malted shakes.
When I was a kid, we had mostaccioli. Now we have penne. As near as I can tell, they are the exact same thing but I liked the old word better.
Convenient 24-hour diners. Cheesecake. (I can get it around here, but it's rarely as good.)
Is it possible that Chinese and Indian food in Oxford is very good and you just didn't notice.
No, it's really not. There's a good Thai restaurant, and the Mongolian Wok is fun but certainly not amazing quality. But for Chinese and Indian the choice is suprisingly poor.
I presume "streaky bacon" is what Americans call "bacon"?
To the OP: These things. Have never been to the location with the rock 'n' roll decor, though.
7: Mostaccioli are apparently smooth penne.
what items do you miss from a former place of residence>/i>
Trees;planted some;take walks;wallpapers of verdancy
AVOCADOS. When I luck onto a decent batch, I can eat two or three in a sitting.
Pocket Coffee, one of the world's great candies, which I totally miss from when I lived in Rome (and have always brought back from trips there in massive quantities). Or missed, I should say, as the upscale bodega right around the corner from me has suddenly and randomly started carrying it (based on the packaging, his source is getting it from Germany).
I presume "streaky bacon" is what Americans call "bacon"?
Basically, yes. The main variety of bacon sold and served in the UK is back bacon (loin cut). You can get US style bacon (belly cut) in most UK shops, usually called streaky bacon, but it's a little bit harder to find. It's also almost never served at restaurants/sandwich shops that do bacon. The only time I'm ever served it in the UK is at places purporting to be American diners.
Gumbo. Crawfish boil. Shrimp creole. Po-boys.
My roommate gets me a giant box of Zapp's for my birthday every year, and I have one of these.
I still live here, so the question doesn't work for me. There are things I'd import from '70s New York to the present, mostly breads, but they're not really unavailable, I'd just rather be buying them from ancient German men covered in flour than schlepping down to Fairway or someplace.
There's not much I miss from other places I've lived: the seriously fresh tropical fruit in Samoa was great, but that's not the spirit of the question. If there were a way to get a hold of some Vailima beer, I'd do it, but it really wasn't that exciting, just a good German-style lager.
When I first started dating Buck, he got some ice cream sent to NY from Toscanini's, a Boston place with the best flavors ever. That was spectacular.
But when I move away from here, I think I'll miss Vernors which seems to be a localized thing.
Lorne sausage
Chippies that sell deep-fried haggis [poss. with curry sauce]
Good Indian/Chinese food [not explored the best places in London, yet, but in Oxford it was universally shit] -- Especially pakora
80/- and 90/- beer
I've seen 80/- in London, at a pub in Highgate, but I think it was only on tap for a few weeks and then vanished. (Deuchars is fairly widely available.) Drummond Place is where you want to go for decent Indian food.
On the haggis and sausage front you are probably out of luck...
Vernors is a Michigan thing but it's also in other parts of the Midwest. It was at most supermarkets in Pittsburgh.
Oh yeah, proper Italian ice-cream, which again, is good in Glasgow. No doubt available in London, I just don't know where yet.
I spent a little while in New Mexico and was fascinated by the beef jerky that's so dehydrated it's practically dust. That's the first thing that comes to mind. It seems pretty expensive by mailorder.
re: 21
I can get normal haggis everywhere; just not the deep-fried 'mummy's cock' looking version. Occasionally I see butchers with Lorne, but not often.
I'll check out Drummond Place. I ate here a few weeks back:
http://londonist.com/2007/10/whats_for_lunch_23.php
which was OK.
Brownberry bread, bagels, Breyers ice cream, and Goldberg's Peanut Chews.
Oh man, real bagels. And lox. I've never lived anywhere for longer than a few months where I could reliably get real bagels and lox, but that is a very deep personal tragedy.
Maybe that's what my prosthetics could dispense.
I think Pittsburgh has fine bagels, but I have no standard for comparing and am not hugely fond of them anyway.
This thread is more amusing if one imagines that people are talking about their preferred pizza toppings.
It is just barely conceivable that both I and Smearcase have been fed giardiniera on pasta from the same hand.
I'm trying hard, but either there aren't any regional affectations in the NoVa exurbs and rural territory where I grew up, or they totally failed to stick (I know there are regional affectations in Rhode Island, but I wasn't really old enough to acquire them).
I'm sure there are things I would miss if I left here now, though.
Giardiniera sounds suspiciously like an intestinal disease.
Oh, giardiniera is delicious, and you'd think they'd have it in New York, but they don't. I mean, not that I've found.
I haven't imported anything from Texas, but I've thought--no less seriously than any of my other travel daydreams that come to naught because, among other things, I hate travel--about going to Atlanta partly because it's the closest place there's a Taco Cabana, i.e. fast food chain that is surprisingly addictive, makes their tortillas fresh...
Now I'm fantasizing.
Scottish morning roll, with a slice of lorne sausage, a fried egg, and some sauce. [Actually, I'll have two]
Cup of coffee, or strong tea.
When I lived in the 11th district of Vienna I couldn't get anything green without schlepping miles across town. I had a large box of stuff coming to me by FedEx and I asked my parents to stick a couple of fresh lettuces in it.
Oh and I always used to get Rebecca Ruth bourbon candies (which are totally wonderful) for my old grad school mentor whose family had lived in Kentucky, when I could.
Not that many things are regional nowadays. We used to love going to Philadelphia, where my dad's side of the family was, and getting Tastykakes, when I was a kid. I feel like you can get them outside of Philly now.
Taco Cabana is the most amazing fast food chain. The tortillas are fantastic.
This is funny. I mostly loathe Chicago-style pizza, but giardiniera as a topping is aces. Chicagoans are always slightly surprised to learn that it really isn't a thing anywhere else. We buy giant bottles of the stuff on visits and haul them home.
It is just barely conceivable that both I and Smearcase have been fed giardiniera on pasta from the same hand.
Is said hand's husband rumored to be a CIA agent?
Kraab, don't let anyone hear you lamenting Breyer's in the land of Blue Bell!
I couldn't find good grits or good barbecue anywhere in Boston. The few barbecue places everyone raved about were deeply mediocre.
34: Del's!!!!! I moan for Del's all summer long. I didn't grow up in RI or anything, I'm just very fond of it (and of gnawing on pieces of lemon rind).
(Oh, good. It's nice when people understand about Taco Cabana. An uncomprehending stare and "but it's fast food..." are common responses.)
I've lived within a 25-mile radius of my current location since I was 9 years old. Your argument is invalid.
24: Oh yes. One of very few foods that I seriously crave. I just finally found a regular source of raw peanuts in NY and was making them like mad at home until I got the next month's gas bill. Turns out, boiling a giant pot of water all day costs money.
From home, it's mostly just boiled peanuts that I *couldn't* get. With everything else -- actually good citrus fruits, farmer's market tomatoes, oysters, fresh fish -- I can get them in NY but at a price that detracts from the experience. Getting something good for cheap actually enhances the good part. I miss ordering oysters by the bucket instead of the half-dozen.
Oh, smoked mullet, I've never seen that anywhere but home.
Jesus, I am actually, literally drooling. Gross.
Drummond Place is where you want to go for decent Indian food.
Drummond Street? - Diwana/Ravi's /Zina etc? or is there another bunch? I tried to persuade the London mob to take either LB or AWB to Diwana when they were over, but Werdna didn't seem to want to.
Is said hand's husband rumored to be a CIA agent?
I … have no knowledge of said hand being married, or even gay. So I'm not sure.
Ok, different hand. I am thinking of a woman, and come to think of it I don't know any reason you'd know her. But that's who served me giardiniera on pasta.
When AWB was here we went to an Ethiopian place whose name I can't remember. I remember tierce had the raw Ethiopian haggisy stuff.
¡Taco Cabaña! ¡Sí!
Wait, seriously? I've never been; I just assumed it was the Tex-Mex version of Schlotzky's.
When AWB was here we went to an Ethiopian place whose name I can't remember. I remember tierce had the raw Ethiopian haggisy stuff.
Plenty of Ethiopian restaurants round my neck of London. Not sure what the raw Ethiopian haggisy stuff is, but I'm sure at least one of them will serve it.
I have a sense memory from when I was very small of Vernor's being incredibly spicy. And I loved it. Of course now it's just a tad more gingery than Canada Dry. I never really figured out if my palate matured or if they changed the formula. Some places if you ask for ginger ale will actually give you sprite with just a bit of coke so it looks yellowy. That should be illegal. Anyway, I never really schlepped Vernor's anywhere, but I feel better when I know that it's available.
Surly Beer--I have a beer snob friend ship me some every now and then in exchange for Firestone beer from here, and I've occasionally loaded checked luggage with a couple dozen cans.
I seriously crave food from a few different restaurants--decent Vietnamese is available if I'm in Oakland, but I live 1.5 hours away. I haven't found decent barbecue here, nor acceptable Ethiopian. I would kill for a decent woodfire pizza.
OTOH, when I move, I will miss good Mexican food like crazy. There's a tacqueria 3 minutes from my house that is insanely good.
55: I don't know how to answer, since I also kind of like Schlotzky's. I mean it isn't artisinal, hand-stretched cuisine of interior Mexico, but it's just...it's enjoyable. Who knows, maybe this is college nostalgia talking.
Giardiniera recipe. Haven't tried it yet so no idea if it's good.
Also, RTFA.
ice cream sent to NY from Toscanini's
I've mentioned before, my brother owns a premium/local/handmade ice cream shop here which really does does make great ice cream. It's always fun to take visitors from out of town there.
I've never had Toscanini's, but I'd happily match my brother's ice cream against it given a chance (no, my brother has never had his ice cream described as "the best in the world" by the New York Times, but I blame East Coast media bias).
I haven't found decent barbecue here, nor acceptable Ethiopian. I would kill for a decent woodfire pizza.
All three of those are also available in Oakland, but again, 1.5 hours away. I have to say I'm surprised you can't find a good woodfired pizza up there, though; insofar as there's a characteristic style of pizza around here, that's it.
Everything Molly says in 57 also holds true for me.
I was excited to learn that Trader Joe's sour cherry juice tastes just like the Turkish version I've craved for years, better than the Turkish imports the Mediterranean stores here get.
26: the deep-fried 'mummy's cock' looking version
There's a product at Super America (large chain of gas station-convenience stores in the Midwest) that looks like this. It's a tubular arrangement of fried and re-heated offal that rolls on the little rollers with the hot dogs and Polish sausage and similar things. I've never eaten one, and it's supposed to be some kind of "Mexican" comestible, so I doubt the spices are the same, but wouldn't it be weird if somehow, through morphic field resonance, food scientists here had managed to synthesize something identical to deep-fried haggis, just by trying different concoctions until they got something that passed the LD50 in focus groups?
I've never lived anywhere long enough to get really attached to something different, or to really miss Mpls. cuisine. I do wish birch beer was more widely available here. The Sioux City kind is mediocre, and they put huge amounts of red food coloring in it for some reason. I don't believe there was anything unique to Omaha besides "Runza" -- a deracinated pastie/pyroushky-type hand-held fast food item. They were okay, but nothing to write home about.
If I had stayed in Beijing rather than just visiting, I'm pretty sure I would have subsequently missed all the various Chinese junk food quite sorely. Especially the many different flavors of Pringles and the Pineapple Coke and the Pan-Rico chocolate miniature doughnoughts. God those were amazing! Totally the Platonic ideal of the shelf-stable miniature doughnought.
65: they put huge amounts of red food coloring in it for some reason
Makes you look like a goddamn mentat after just a few swigs.
I don't believe there was anything unique to Omaha besides "Runza" -- a deracinated pastie/pyroushky-type hand-held fast food item. They were okay, but nothing to write home about.
Runzas are delicious! Dough and meat: what more do you need?
57-58: There's a bar here which has all the Surly you could want, but if you ask for ginger ale, they don't have it in the can or the gun, so they make up this weird concoction with Sprite as the base, a dash of bitters and grenadine and maybe some Coke too. It's bizarre that they don't just stock regular Schweppes or Canada Dry in the can.
Vernor's taste weirdly to me like they started from a cream soda base. So not spicy, and kind of odd. I adore ginger ale though, but my heart belongs to Reed's Extra Ginger.
I'm surprised Chopper hasn't found decent Ethiopian; the one place I've been to in his general area I thought was really good. It's possible, though, that I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to Ethiopian food.
67: It's not that they're bad, I didn't mean to suggest that. I had them fairly regularly, but I could go the rest of my life without eating one and not miss 'em. If I moved away to some place with no or few Somalis, I would totally miss the great $1 beef sambusas you get around my neighborhood. They're so, so good. Probably taken years off my life eating them, but it was worth it.
69: All digestive tract problems may be solved with a bottle of Reed's Extra Ginger.
When I was studying abroad for a year in college, my mom FedExed me some avocados.
Zweigle's hot dogs from Rochester. i once brought some back from Rochester NY in a dry-iced cooler (they came pre-packed that way, and were sold at the airport! this was pre 9/11). for a brief while i could get them at the local supermarket here. now i have to wait for relatives to drive down.
Grandma Brown's baked beans. another upstate NY thing. i buy them by the case from NY and have them shipped to NC. my dad sometimes brings me cases when he drives down from NY.
CAMP maple syrup. it's from Ontario, and is not sold in NC. the only places i can find it on-line are either very expensive or only carry the inferior organic variety. so, my brother in Brooklyn mails me bottles of it.
For ginger beer, I really like the Goya stuff, which is super-spicy, but they kind of cheat by adding capsaicin as well as ginger.
My people wither if we don't get our weekly green chile ration. Maintaining sufficient supplies in the DC area is...not easy.
There is so much! This is a depressing question to even consider. From Canada I miss HP sauce, many flavours of chips (dill pickle, ketchup, sour cream and bacon, all dressed, everything baked potato), chocolate bars that taste like chocolate (and especially the Crunchie bar with sponge toffee in the middle that I have been craving like mad for weeks now), Vachon cakes (especially Joe Louis and Caramels), Coke/Pepsi not the over-sweetened stuff here, fish and seafood (it is the worst here). I make my visitors bring me the junk food. Except my dad, who normally does not touch sweet food at all, will eat an entire box of Joe Louis in a day. So he's not the best person to ask to transport stuff.
From California I miss people caring about local and sustainable (and sometimes even organic), also the February strawberry season, cheap artichokes, and real Chinese food. And the seafood.
But I know when I leave here I'll miss the pork rinds and access to Mexican foods/brands. All of my taco needs will have to be patched together from Old El Paso. Maybe they will have corn tortillas next time I go home?
The Philly cheese steak place here has birch beer - it is delicious.
For ginger ale, the only possible version for me is now the freshly grated stuff that the Caribbean halal places make.
Taco seasoning from scratch is super easy. Ground cumin, ancho or mulatto chile, a good bouillon cube. Pinch or oregano. I add a pinch of thyme too, but not necessary. But basically, cumin, a good dried chili (which you can mail order in bulk and store), and good bouillon.
Like LB, I live where I'm a native so the question doesn't really apply. I also feel like in LA there are very very good if not absolutely best-in-class versions of most regional American food, at least from the regions that I've lived in. So (if I still ate pizza) I'd miss having good NY pizza so readily available, but the truth is that my local NY style pizza joint serves the same thing and is better than 98% of the places in NY, if not better than that elusive 2%. If you're from Detroit, there's a place that serves Coney Dogs; if you're from Chicago there are good (but not perfect!) Chicago style restaurants and markets that stock the stuff. Etc. etc. But you have to know where to look.
One foodstuff that I miss a lot (but can't now eat) -- and that as far as I know is served at exactly one place on earth -- is the Hot Truck. Come to think of it, why not start a Hot Truck here as part of the food truck craze?
CAMP maple syrup.
Gah, now I want waffles *right now*.
I did learn how to make various 'tacos' after a stint in Mexico but it was/is surprising how much the locals relied on packaged stuff. Not seasonings but canned refried beans (though this was the students not the fishermen), canned salsa, canned chipotles, packaged hot chocolate.
But actually, that seasoning mix does sound easy and good. It will go on my list to try after I try the easy recipe for carnitas from Smitten Kitchen/Homesick Texan blogs.
Re 83
I think that's universal. I had a flatmate whose parents ran a Chinese restaurant. While she cooked chinese food her cooking was just as heavily convenience/packet based as anyone else. She just bought her packaged stuff in Cowcaddens/Garnethill.
81: Hot Truck! My BF in college and I had both done summer college at Cornell, and we often talked about driving up to Ithaca just to get some Hot Truck.
65.2 is several types of wrong. First, the Reuben was invented in Omaha and that right there excludes saying that Omaha hasn't made an original contribution. Second, runzas are from Lincoln. Runza, the trademarked company, started there. The lower-case runza is from Russia, but the Volga Germans brought them to the U.S. and they settled enough in Lincoln to get a museum there. It's called the Germans from Russia Museum, because who needs creative naming when you have a great sandwich.
84: Which brings another thread to discuss 'authenticity'!
Not really.
But I will say that my grandmothers (they who Pollan advocates as my reference for 'real food') used a lot more processed and prepackaged food than my parents. E.g. canned Irish stew.
I use "several" to mean "two" when I'm upset about Nebraska sandwich history.
84. Yeah. I think it's mildly racist to be surprised at people from different cultures using convenience foods. I mean, why not? Are they too stupid? Too ideologically pure? Too remote to have come across them? Makes no sense.
Cheese. You can get good cheese here but it costs a fortune, and certain kinds are just unavailable, either due to the raw milk silliness or because Americans apparently haven't figured out that variety yet (good gruyere, and good comte come to mind). Also I dreamed of raclette the other night. And fish terrines. And a few other things. But overall, NYC is better than Geneva for food, so I shouldn't complain. Now if only we could have the equivalent of the Alps starting in north Westchester it would be perfect.
I also miss good corned beef and pastrami and rye bread. And knishes. And pickled tomatoes.
87: Yeah, my Irish grandmother enjoyed a variety of terrifying processed foods, most notably tea that was half "evaporated milk" from a can. Ugh that stuff.
Hmmmm, yes, 90 is totally right. Although I can't understand why its an issue for gruyere (there's plenty of swiss gruyere imported into the US, so is it a raw milk issue? Obvs there's a raw milk reason why you can't get real cammembert, but gruyere seems so much less "raw").
93 -- so, basically, you miss living in Los Angeles.
Posted b/c IME absolutely nothing pisses off New Yorkers more than this article.
prepackaged spice blends vary hugely. Buying a better brand and maybe supplementing with one fresh spice (eg canned mole + unsweetened chocolate, the most expensive ingredient for the packer) yields pretty good food. Indian prepack blends in particular are great, most brands are not oversalted, the usual US package problem.
I don't know what the issue is with gruyere and the various other hard mountain cheeses. They just don't import the good stuff. Admittedly, the majority of what is sold in Geneva isn't top of the line either, on the other hand at least they don't charge crazy prices for generic gruyere.
San Diego has some great delis, oddly.
89: Mildly racist seems too judgemental. Perhaps ignorant in the not-super-insulting way? I don't think it's a crazy assumption that people of a certain region make food using local foodstuffs and techniques their relatives taught them. I mean, I didn't know any Mexicans before I went there but I imagined that they had better tomatoes than we had for a longer season so they'd make their own salsa. I mean I'm not slamming on people for using convenience food, I just didn't even know that convenience mole existed (or that mole existed).
Anyway, when I translate that to myself making another culture's food, I feel like it's somehow more respectful to make it from scratch? Mole is also on my list of food to make someday but the canned mole and additional chocolate idea is brilliant.
Prepackaged Indian sauces are so delicious (and I have to admit I started using them once I was told that was the way it was done in India (by a white guy so maybe not authentic either)).
63 and 70: oh, there are OK alternatives, they just don't live up to the Platonic ideals from St. Paul--those being the original Punch Woodfire Pizza on Cleveland, Fasika on Snelling, and Big Daddy's BBQ on University. Each of which I would cry real tears if I found out that they had closed.
I'm willing to concede that their are bahn mi places in Oakland that equal the ones from Saigon Cafe on University in St. Paul.
96: I know better than to disparage LA as a deli-poor town. Good delis are one of its few advantages.
I still haven't had better meat than at Katz's (though I am soon going to try Schwartz's in Montreal, which is supposed to be better), but Greenblatt's rye was superior to anything I've had on the east coast.
DC, on the other hand, has such lovely places as Star and Shamrock.
:'(
How is LA for knishes? It doesn't seem like the right climate for them...
I'm not the right guy to ask.
Well, I will be in town in October, so maybe I will find out myself.
106: because you're an antisemite.
Every Passover, he eats unbreaded leaven.
Two peoples, united in their love for corned beef.
110: Fortunately I read the reviews instead of actually trying that one.
74. and by "Ontario", i mean "Quebec".
I don't know what the issue is with gruyere and the various other hard mountain cheeses. They just don't import the good stuff.
I've had fantastic raw milk Rolf Beeler-affinaged washed rind alpine cheeses both in NYC and here in Austin. So they're importing at least some of the good stuff.
Some things are best prepackaged. As the cook at the restaurant explained, you really don't want to have to boil down a load of gristle and bones every time you need some consomme.
Wobegon is good for sausage, pork products, pickled herring, and (surprise) smoked carp and whitefish. Also fresh fish and vegetables in season. Otherwise, not good. No local beer or cheese traditions.
Re: 114, it definitely isn't cheap, of course.
I think that if yuppies realized what kind of food typical Hispanic or Black Americans usually eat, the Democratic coalition would fall apart.
On horrible processed food, I used to use Oudemia's mother's canned milk in coffee and I'd do it again. Don't test me. Also, I still like that fake canned meat they call corned beef (also sold in Scandinavia and Britain). and possibly mentioned in Ulysses as Plumtree's Potted Meat.
Strong hot tea with sweetened condensed milk is the shiznit. Best accompanied by canned corned beef sandwiches with huge dollops of mango chutney.
117: Do not eat what is sold in the U.S. as Potted Meat.
Or at least avoid potted meat food product.
Well, it's sold as "Corned Beef", and it's *good*. Not a health food, though.
122: I like that stuff. I eat Spam, if I'm camping. I'm just saying there are lines you should not cross.
I think that if yuppies realized what kind of food typical Hispanic or Black Americans usually eat, the Democratic coalition would fall apart.
Not sure that's the case with blacks. Hispanics, yes.
I like canned corned beef hash pretty well. Childhood &c.
possibly mentioned in Ulysses as Plumtree's Potted Meat
I doubt it. "Corned beef" (not to be confused with corned beef) is quite different from potted meat (known in these parts as "potted dog") which is a coarse paste, possibly mildly spiced and always highly salted, used as a spread on sandwiches etc. They're both good.
Basically, if you don't have much money or convenient access to a grocery store, what do you eat? Or if you're working two minimum wage jobs and raising kids too. Not all blacks and Hispanics are poor, but a disproportionate number of them are.
I think that if yuppies realized what kind of food typical Hispanic or Black Americans usually eat, the Democratic coalition would fall apart.
"Momma's little baby likes truffles. Momma's little baby likes caviar." - Charles Mingus
Basically, if you don't have much money or convenient access to a grocery store, what do you eat?
Venison.
San Diego has some great delis, oddly.
Not really that surprising; lots of my people have settled there in their retirement.
This reminds me that I cannot fucking *wait* until this place opens up. I love my regular deli in the East Bay, but these guys are 900 kinds of awesome too.
A person (oh there should be a kinship term for "person one knew in college and is now facebook friends with and does not dislike enough to commit the grand high internet drama of defriending but is frequently annoyed by") I know posted a link to an article about raw milk with the comment "This is what fascism looks like" and it took a lot of my inner reserves of not-slapping-people to not slap him. I would have had to reach through the internet all the way to Texas, so I guess it's for the best.
I used to work for a guy who'd been a rep for a big grocery wholesaler -- mostly coffee, canned goods, and booze. He insisted on condensed milk in his coffee, and swore blind that the higher the fat content in the milk, the better. Anything stronger than ordinary whole milk puts me off, though. But I can sort of understand it in coffee.
Condensed milk in tea seems deeply wrong, old Irish/Scottish grannies notwithstanding.
We got some venison a couple years ago and it was awful. There must be a special way of cooking it. I tried several that didn't work. My ignorant conjecture was that it either had been subsisting on skunk cabbage and ditch water, or else the carcass hadn't been handled right.
It turns out that we got it because the hunter didn't like venison either.
I've heard you need to cook venison with a bunch of fat. I've never tried to cook it myself, but I remember eating some venison sausage that was great and being told there was a fair bit of pork fat added.
the higher the fat content in the milk, the better
When I make hot chocolate (which is often, because I'm a child) I make it with half half-and-half and half whole milk. Delicious.
Ideally I use thick whipping cream (not wimpy ordinary whipping cream) in coffee. Milk in coffee makes it almost undrinkable for me.
I've had venison prepared by my sister, and it was pretty great.
136: That should be called one-quarter-and-three-quarters.
137: Have you tried unsalted butter?
I have not tried unsalted butter, but I've thought of it.
139: I make my own half-and-half with half whole milk and half cream.
Commercial half and half is never quite as good.
Venison's really nice. I think I've had it a few times when it was a bit bland, but generally it's a pretty reliable meat. You'll get it in most supermarkets here, and certainly from most butchers. An ordinary venison steak just fried and served medium rare is nice. It's easy to make it a bit leathery if not careful.
"This is what fascism looks like"
Listen my children, and you shall hear the epic story of Stichelton cheese.
Once upon a time there was a tradition of cheese making in the village of Stilton, which was in an area of England where the Unspeakable went in pursuit of the Uneatable. The Unspeakable decided that they liked the cheese made in Stilton, so it became fashionable.
Fast forward a couple of centuries. Most Stilton is now being made with pasteurised milk, because it's convenient, but a few dairies insist on using the raw stuff, and a few foodies insist on buying it. Then the farmers of Stilton decide it would be clever to make their product an appelation controlee, so they go to the EU and in the fullness of time it is done: Stilton is now made in a defined region, by defined methods and of defined ingredients. But somehow, the main ingredient has got defined as pasteurised milk, so the foodies and their suppliers are shit out of luck.
Except. The bacterial cultures used to make the raw stuff still exist, so an enterprising dairyman decides to keep on making unpasteurised Stilton, but call it something else (Stichelton is supposed to be a mediaeval spelling of Stilton). So the dairyman makes a fortune, and everybody in Europe can still get the stuff if they remember the new name.
Is this fascism? I bet they wished for this sort of fascism in the 1930s. Of course Americans are shit out of luck, because of their weird food laws, but the rest of us, meh.
Try salted butter, but with tea! It'd be like that stuff they make at...well, at American Tibetan restaurants, and if you ask them about it, they tell you that if they serve it like people drink it in Tibet, Americans would not drink it.
140 was a joke, my deep respect for the people of Tibet and their yaks aside.
so an enterprising dairyman decides to keep on making unpasteurised Stilton, but call it something else...
Velveeta.
Italian beef (with giardiniera) from Chicago
Lebanon baloney and cup cheese from Lancaster, PA
Christina's ice cream (Nietzsche's Chocolate Ascension or Gina's Mocha Explosion or Wild Turkey and Walnut) from Boston
Cancun burrito from SF
144 Really cheap venison (the stuff the game snobs wouldn't touch) makes a pot roast to die for.
Tibetan tea includes barley, salt, and clarified butter (without the milk solids). It's more like a caffeinated soup.
The venison we got was gamier than lamb, not at all bland. That's the reason for the skunk cabbage conjecture.
The raw milk fascism thing is about the prohibition of raw milk and raw milk cheese. I remember people with Bangs disease (brucellosis) and someone dies of listeria now and then, but the anti-regulation people are fierce. They claim that pasteurization destroys essential nutrients.
152. I have eaten the same kind of cheese, made with raw and with pasteurised milk, while stone sober in the middle of the day. You cannot tell the difference. Anyone who says otherwise is either deceiving themselves or flat out lying.
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Take it away, Mineshaft!
When I make hot chocolate (which is often, because I'm a child) I make it with half half-and-half and half whole milk
Similarly, I like Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo sausages.
Well that explains it. Good cheese is best eaten with a couple liters of wine at 1 in the morning.
I like bumblebee bumblebee tuna, yum yum bumblebee bumblebee tuna.
153 is insane. Certain kinds of cheeses just don't ripen properly when made with pasteurized milk. Brie and camembert turn sharp and nasty rather than the intense rich flavor they get when made with raw milk. Pasteurized reblochon is bland, same goes for tomme de savoie.
If you melt them over nachos, can you still tell the difference?
I think you're striking!
That's pretty cute.
I strongly approve of the tone and bold stance of 153, but unfortunately it's totally wrong.
So you approve of the boldness of the stance, rather than the bold stance, then.
I think I'm good there. Stance=manner of presentation, not the claim itself. Fuckin A.
I'm not positive about that. "I like your stance on cheese", said to A, sure seems to indicate that A and I are in substantive agreement about cheese.
Oh, so a "bold" stance would have been fine? Now you tell me!
164: Note that the construction Halford used in 161 differs from yours and is fine. But I agree his 163 is a bit too broadly stated.
Add me to the "153 is crazy talk" camp. The difference between raw and pasteurized cheeses can be striking, even if it isn't in every case.
Summer sausage, aka deer sausage. I'm sure it's available around here somewhere, but I can't just pick it up at the regular store. You can't do that where my parents live either, but people are always giving it away, so it's almost always around.
I second Togolosh on biltong and tea with condensed milk.
Iced espresso with condensed milk is the bomb. Tibetan tea with salted yak butter is nasty. Venison, it could go either way.
Iced espresso with salted yak milk and venison is tough to find done well.
161: Is raw milk a paleo thing? The (unhinged) paleo person with whom I am "friends" on FB rants about raw milk a lot (and Buddy Roemer for prez!).
NB: I don't consider her unhinged because of paleo. Just unhinged. (And prone -- beyond weirdly -- to rape apologetics.)
There is no One True Paleo, but many folks are opposed to eating dairy at all. (In the immortal words of my gym owner "Do you want to be weak like a baby? No? So why do you drink what a baby drinks").
Being pro raw milk is definitely not a core paleo value, though there are affinities (love for weird animal products, hatred of the USDA).
Hmmm, I don't think there are affinities between the paleo diet and rape apologetics.
OT: I don't link to Gawker usually, but this is a thing of such great beauty.. Chet Haze! I love that guy. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.
177 Well there wouldn't be, you guys like animal fats.
I miss German tissues. I now steal them from my kid, who gets them when her German grandparents send packages.
I don't think there are affinities between the paleo diet and rape apologetics
Both frequently involve silly "evolutionary" arguments?
Oh man, this could be a long list for me:
Schwarzwälderschinken
Pfälzer Leberwurst
Milka
Bahlsen Lebkuchen
Lübecker marzipan
Party kegs of Warsteiner
Dr. Oetker vanilla sugar
Fleur de sel
Sel gros de Camargue
Calvados
Various other eaux de vie
Graisse d'oie
Foie gras
Nando's peri-peri sauce
Oma rusks
Lingonberry preserves
Smithfield country ham
Various cheeses
I'm sure there's dozens more. I collect/import foodstuffs and beverages so avidly it probably rises to the level of a hobby.
OMG the mediocre deli/buffet/sushi bar/bar downstairs from my office has started making pupusas!
This is almost as good as when they were doing pho!
They just started selling Milka at the 7-11 by my house. It is very odd.
The marzipan actually brings me to my biggest sticking point with the question in the post: there isn't that much that I absolutely can't get, but there are lots of things I wish were as cheap and readily available as they are in Germany. I got a little box of Niederegger marzipan for my dad for Christmas, because he really likes it, but it cost a ton and I had to make a trip to a special store. I would buy it for myself in Germany, but not here. I could get fancy honey at the farmer's market or probably at Whole Foods, but I wish the regular grocery store had a giant honey section with a bunch of different kinds. Non-shitty Riesling under 10€, Radeberger on draft at least half the bars I might go to, Frei Öl, the full line of Eucerin products.
There is one thing I absolutely can't get, due to its perishability: Landliebe stracciatella yogurt. That stuff is better than ice cream.
Various things that are black currant or violet flavored. Like lemonade or ice cream or gum or candy or or or.
I do miss the ready availability of awesome, inexpensive fish tacos in California. Also, those little tiny avocados that are just bite-sized.
Stanley! Giardia is a floor wax, not a pizza topping.
Brown paper packages tied up with string.
This isn't my complaint, but I learned on Saturday that it's not so easy to get proper Shanghai-style steamed pork mini-buns in Boston. One dim sum place had them, but they didn't pass muster.
You can get black currant juice pretty easily and cheap in Greenpoint. Just be careful to look at the labels and check the actual black currant juice content. But that's just the same as in Poland. I think all the East Village places that used to carry that sort of stuff are gone. I still miss Kurowycky's.
Riesling... fuck. One (the only) good thing about living in Koblenz was access to insanely cheap local wine. The vintners would sell it to you at the same price they charged their wholesalers. We're talking about a third to forty percent of the NYC retail price. They'd also treat you to close to unlimited amounts of whatever they had on sale, and often older things that weren't on sale. On the other hand, local wine stores didn't carry any German wines. Oh, another good thing about food in Germany - excellent quality reasonably priced Pffifferlinge.
The main thing I miss from NM is Mexican food, of course, but I don't really feel that as a constant lack. It's more of a pleasant thing about going back to visit. From NJ, the main thing is the pizza, which is both really good and really cheap. Alaska actually has some surprisingly good pizza, but it's hella expensive. Of course, so is everything else, so you get used to it.
Speaking of local delicacies, I just tried some of the smoked salmon filet I bought at Costco the other day. It's quite good, but again, super expensive.
Pfifferlinge aren't my thing, but I can appreciate their quality and cheapness in Germany. As far as veggies go, I do like the wider availability of celery root.
the Crunchie bar with sponge toffee in the middle
I miss the Crunchie bar, and also the Crispy Crunch. All-dressed potato chips; and fries/chips from a chip wagon, generously sprinkled/doused with salt and vinegar (they should fill the box only halfway with chips and then hand it to you for the first round of salt and vinegar, so that the seasoning goes all the way down to the bottom of the box, and then you give it back to them and they top it up with more fries: if they don't offer to do this, it's not a good chip wagon). PEI potatoes. A certain kind of supermarket cheddar: not the aged-since-the-day-before-Confederation artisanal Canadian cheddar that you can buy here as an expensive import, but regular, everyday medium that tastes different from NY or Wisconsin cheddar (though I like NY and Wisconsin cheddar too).
I would miss Quebec maple syrup and Fry's cocoa, except that I always stock up on these when I go home.
I miss some junky food from the UK. Jacket potatoes with beans and cheese. Beans with toast for breakfast (we used to eat this for supper when I was a kid, in the wilds of Canadia). Takeaway sandwiches from Marks & Spencer: the bread is so good (yes, I'm serious), and they're not afraid to make the sandwich soggy with salad cream. Cheddar w. scallions is the best. Also, UK double cream is so much better than anything I've tasted in the US or Canada: why can't we have that here?
NY pizza really is the best (but NJ has really good pizza too). Pizza from other places just doesn't taste right to me anymore, I think the sauce is too sweet.
Oh, yeah, NW style smoked salmon is a wholly different beast than lox-style. I could eat it like candy.
Also, poutine from Canada. I haven't had the legendary Montreal stuff, but the Vancouver version is good enough for me.
192: We've already established that no one here has seen that movie.
Oh, yeah, NW style smoked salmon is a wholly different beast than lox-style. I could eat it like candy.
Yeah, I'm not very fond of lox, but real smoked salmon is great.
Rye bread without caraway seeds. Again, not impossible to find here, but it takes quite a bit of intention.
195: So, teo, did you ever have a Fat Darrell while at Rutgers?
203: Oh god yes. Keep your nasty seeds out of my rye!
Good pho. Or any cheap noodle shop. Apizza. Thai food. Falafel. I'm suffering a serious green curry deficit here, and it came to pass that it came to pass that I am a wanderer in the land of casseroles.
204: No, but I had a Fat Elvis once. Those things are insane. Some people even eat them sober.
I also miss Shoppers Drug Mart (Canadian drugstore chain), not so much for any specifically Canadian products as for the readily-available and not crazy-expensive stuff from France, Germany and the UK (Klorane shampoo, Ombra bath products, Boots cosmetics). Yes, you can buy them here in the States, but not easily, and certainly not cheaply. At Shoppers, they are higher-end drugstore brands, not luxury-level Euro imports. On the other hand, some American drugstore brands (e.g., Neutrogena) are priced like department-store products in Canada.
185. Knecht, you are stretching "home" here. Mary Catherine can mention those foreign brands because she can get them at "home".
So, oudie...how do you feel about caraway seeds in soda bread? I feel they are essential.
203, 205: It's funny, when I was a kid I *hated* rye bread 'cause I couldn't stand caraway seeds. Now I love both. (And dammit, now I'm craving good rye bread.)
I, too, rather miss NM mexican food -- not from childhood but from my first marriage, which won me Hatch chiles by post and frequent visits to the region. Though I did manage to tour the 2nd Mrs. K-sky through a couple winters back.
Good pho.
It can be had, but perhaps not up in the uncouth northern territories. Try here if you get a chance.
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/view-place-3539-cindy-lee-cafe.html
3 hours of panic attack, 3 hours of food poisoning.
Condensed milk in tea seems deeply wrong, old Irish/Scottish grannies notwithstanding.
This is a massive thing in India (or at least among Indians). You brew the tea really strong, then you pour it carefully into a tall glass that already has about 1cm of condensed milk sitting at the bottom. If you like your tea with milk, you stir it. If not, you drink it carefully, and it gets gradually sweeter and stickier as you go down the glass.
Funnily enough my Glasgow grandparents always had condensed milk in the house. Possibly a legacy of 20+ years in India, or maybe just the usual Scottish-old-people thing, as most older people I knew growing up always seemed to have tins of Carnation.
Condensed milk != evaporated milk. The distinction is important, as one is good, the other bad.
Actually I think I meant evaporated milk. The really viscous sweetened stuff. Not Carnation.
Having tins of Carnation around, I suspect, is just a legacy of not having a fridge. Even in Scotland you can't keep your milk cool on the windowsill all year round.
No, the stuff like sweetened glue is condensed. Evap is less thick and less sweet. I suspect you're right that this came into existence only because milk goes off. Condensed, OTOH, is one of the major food groups, and improves anything intended to be unconscionably sweet.
Ah. OK, I always get those two confused.
Knecht, you are stretching "home" here.
But Stanley specified "from a former place of residence."
Are Blume and Knecht familiar with Rodmans, near Friendship Heights? People coming to visit us from DC are given lists (as, obviously, are visitors from Germany).
215: Maybe more of a 'stomach-flu' than a true food poisoning. This may be the sickest I've ever been -- basically can't stand up for more than a few seconds. Housemates should be able to monitor me though. The panic attack was pretty much the worst ever too. This is like TWO balrogs, and I am already weary.
TWO balrogs
Have them fight the yog.
224: Natilo, if it's what I have, I had two days of racing heart and crazy pulse and light-headenedess (only symptoms I noticed before) and then, um, ridiculously outrageous stomach emptying for about twelve hours, combined with my whole body aching like my bones were trying to break and a fever that kept me shivering at all times and incredibly foggy. The fever broke about 24 hours after the stomach symptoms started and I'm now just drained and exhausted but so relieved that I can drink broth and so on. I just ate jello, even!
226: Yeah, pretty much that. I'm pretty sure that the panic attack component was separate though. I've been under a lot of stress at work and with the radical scene. Ironically had to cancel my psychologist appt. today. I wish someone could come by and give me some Valium or Ativan or, in fact, any benzo whatsoever. Even propping my head up to type is very stressful.
Thankfully, I ate fairly moderately yesterday, so I was all emptied out after a few hours.
29: Have you tried Wholy Bagel? You'd have to make a trip to the city, but it's down south, across the street from the complex with Costco and Chuy's. They've also got whipped cream cheese, like you get in NY delis.
I'd forgotten that Wholy Bagels is supposed to have real bagels. I'll have to check it out.
I'm disappointed that no one picked up the gauntlet in 154 to write ridiculous Valentine messages.On the other hand, I'm delighted by Flip's actual Valentine-related news updates.
231: There have been a ton of terrible ones doing the rounds on finance/economics blogs.
I'd never heard of Wholy Bagels! Thanks, Suomen.
I can't read the word "Carnation" without hearing the jingle: "Carnation Instant Breakfast [dramatic pause] you're gonna love it in an instant!".
Morel mushrooms are a midwestern (sort of) treat. They are very good when fresh. They are available in their dried form on the internet , but they are expensive and I don't know how good they taste. I have thought about selling some on eBay, but I haven't found enough of them to make it worth the time.
For some reason I find the idea of eating mushrooms ordered from the interwebz to be deeply vexing, not that they're inherently more or less safe than anything else ordered online.
214: Someone's got to man Winterfell up here. Thanks!
235: Saul's in North Berkeley. I've gone there most Sundays since I first moved here.
237: I think Morels are popular because they are very distinctive. I've seen Morels, and pictures of a false Morel, and it is really easy to tell them apart. The Morel is hollow and the false morel has a fleshy center. The false morel also looks less symmetrical.
198: I forgot the cheddar! Old fort. Just normal stuff in the grocery store. Made by normal companies (Kraft or whathaveyou) but proper cheese.
Improper cheese comes from low culture.
Proper cheese is theft, Stanley.
Dried morels are very good, less subtle but much more intense than the fresh version. Not cheap, but not crazy expensive given the intensity and how light they are.
"Proper cheese is theft, Stanley."
Yeah, and morels are a luxury of the rich.
Yeah, and morels are a luxury of the rich.
Not really. They grow wild on public land, and are specifically legal to pick. Wild onions are not legal to pick, because they require digging up and disturbing the soil.
To my knowledge morels have never been domestically produced.
I guess for fresh morels you do have to have the free time to walk around the woods during the correct two weeks of Spring.
Otherwise you gotta buy them.