# Abominable local cuisine **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322 "2008-10-10T14:28:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/101 "2008-10-12T05:27:22Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > True! Like something out of the Hundred Years’ War. Swinging one of those things around and whapping someone up beside the head might kill them. Still better than _feeding_ it to them, though - I suspect even the Spanish Inquisition would hesitate to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/102 "2008-10-12T05:56:41Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I had something that was supposedly a durian milkshake at a Thai restaraunt in the Boston, Massachusetts area earlier this year and it tasted a lot like onion. That’s been my sole experience with the stuff, and I didn’t think it was offensive at all, assuming it really was what it purported to be. Yeah, the durian I had tasted banana-ey pineappley with a touch of onion. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/103 "2008-10-12T07:14:27Z")
Oden Take things you wouldn’t be too keen on eating fresh (turnip, pressed fish paste, taro root, another pressed fish paste) and leave them sitting in a pot boiling intermittently for, oh, about a month. Serve from a wooden pushcart only taken out at night when the health inspectors are gone. It’s a fraction the price of regular dishes, and can be easily found at 3am when you’re dead drunk. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/104 "2008-10-12T15:27:10Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I had something that was supposedly a durian milkshake at a Thai restaraunt in the Boston, Massachusetts area earlier this year and it tasted a lot like onion. That’s been my sole experience with the stuff, and I didn’t think it was offensive at all, assuming it really was what it purported to be. > [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > Yeah, the durian I had tasted banana-ey pineappley with a touch of onion. I suspect if they did not cover up the taste with heavy doses of other ingredients, they’d be deported from the US. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/105 "2008-10-12T15:35:00Z")
> [@Yossarian](#): > > I love chorizo–especially good lymph-and-pancreas chorizo–but I don’t care for the local semi-scrapple around here: goetta. > > [Goetta - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goetta) > > But it’s not the local abomination. For that, I refer you to Cincinnati-style “chili”. I can at least finish the goetta. Now now, fellow Cincinnatti–dweller…goetta isn’t _too_ bad (it’s far superior to Scrapple, which I suppose isn’t saying a lot), and Cincy-style “chili” is pretty damn good on a hot dog with mustard, onions and cheese (coney). I can’t stand that stuff on spaghetti, though. I just don’t like it at all, as it’s too watery for the noodles to hold it. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/106 "2008-10-12T16:16:42Z")
I LOVE Cincy chili! Agreed, it’s gotta be Skyline. Back in my meat-eating days, I couldn’t get enough of their Coney’s. Three at a time smothered in the goods! ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/107 "2008-10-12T16:25:34Z")
> [@TVeblen](#): > > \*quoth Veb, Cincinnati native and proud possessor of an arduously developed, fairly-authentic recipe to satisfy the homesick Skyline joneses. I even own heavy white ceramic oval plates to serves it on. Any chance you’d be willing to part with that recipe? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/108 "2008-10-12T17:49:44Z")
None of these are particularly abominable in my book, but people are hesitant to eat them because of their relative exoticness and our midwest white bread sensibilities. Some Eastern European local delicacies include: [Duck’s Blood Soup](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czernina)- aka Czernina, nuff said. Never had the opportunity to try it. **Hungarian Chicken Livers** - Reallygood- basically sautteed chicken livers creamed with onions, paprika, finished with some brandy, maybe. Eaten with bread or toast points, rice, or noodles. * * * **Turtle Soup** - It’s been a local specialty here on the Lake Erie Basin and in the Great Black Swamp since the area was settled, still available in some finer restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/109 "2008-10-12T23:32:21Z")
[QUOTE=Drain Bead] Any chance you’d be willing to part with that recipe? [/QUOTE] Happy to, Drain Bead. Let me rustle through my various recipe files–some paper, some electronic, disorganized mess and I suck–and I’ll e-mail it to you. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/110 "2008-10-13T00:23:47Z")
I went to Bali last month, and on my things-to-do list was: TRY DURIAN. We stopped at a roadside fruit stand where they had a couple hanging up. My Javanese girlfriend was going on about how wonderful durian is, that it’s an aphrodisiac, the most delicious thing in the world. I couldn’t get within a meter of them. The smell was something like vomit, with undertones of dirty diaper and hints of wet dog. Our Balinese driver said he didn’t want me to put one in the car. I sampled mangosteen (so good that I bought a kg of them), but I had to stand at least a meter away from the durian to eat any of the fruit I bought. Kecap was pretty gross too. I think American kechup is a profitable use for rotten tomatoes and a terrible thing to do to good tomatoes. I use it about once every two months on fried potatoes, never on meat or eggs. Indonesian kecap is much worse. Imagine soy sauce mixed with karo syrup. That’s pretty close to it, but not so salty. The sambal was good. Imagine american kechup made with chili peppers and without the sugar. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/111 "2008-10-13T14:56:11Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > That’s my point. In order to have a successful restaurant serving “Cuban cuisine,” you have to serve food that is nothing like what 97% of Cubans actually eat. (It doesn’t matter if the cooks are actually Cuban or not.) The only kind of place you’ll find food like that in Cuba is in the Hotel Nacional in Habana, where mostly foreigners eat.Of course I know that. :rolleyes: I’m going to have to disagree with you here. The Cuban food that is served in most Cuban restaurants in the US and Canada is in most cases pretty standard Cuban food. We’re talking black beans, rice, fried ripe or green plantains, and those are absolutely staples of the Cuban diet. True, somedays you can only find rice, and some days it’s only beans, and meat, we had heard something about this thing called “meat”, but most felt it was just a myth. My point is that, while most Cubans will not eat like you can at any Cuban restaurant outside Cuba, that does not mean that the dishes served there are not Cuban. I do have to add a caveat here though, I have been served refried beans at a Cuban restaurant in Jacksonville, Flroida when I asked for beans. So you are not completely off base. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/112 "2008-10-13T19:51:12Z")
Abominably delicious… Tony Packo’s Restaurant’s: **Chili Sunday** -A sundae you eat before dinner! Tony Packo’s world-famous chili, sour cream, and shredded cheddar cheese, all layered into a sundae glass, and served with warm taco chips on the side. **Fried Green Pickles** - Tony Packo’s Original Pickles & Peppers hand-breaded and deep fried! Served with ranch dressing, Tony Packo’s Salsa, and Tony Packo’s Spicy Ketchup for dipping. Packo’s is basically a Hungarian Delicatessen… nothing like it. The Chili Sundae looks a little incongruous, it’s like a savory chili parfait or pudding. The pickles are quite the twist on deep fried dill pickle slices because they are spicy, pickled with just enough heat from Hot Hungarian Banana Peppers. Really nice breading. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/113 "2008-10-13T19:54:16Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > I went to Bali last month, and on my things-to-do list was: TRY DURIAN. > > We stopped at a roadside fruit stand where they had a couple hanging up. My Javanese girlfriend was going on about how wonderful durian is, that it’s an aphrodisiac, the most delicious thing in the world. I couldn’t get within a meter of them. The smell was something like vomit, with undertones of dirty diaper and hints of wet dog. Our Balinese driver said he didn’t want me to put one in the car. I sampled mangosteen (so good that I bought a kg of them), but I had to stand at least a meter away from the durian to eat any of the fruit I bought. > > Kecap was pretty gross too. I think American kechup is a profitable use for rotten tomatoes and a terrible thing to do to good tomatoes. I use it about once every two months on fried potatoes, never on meat or eggs. Indonesian kecap is much worse. Imagine soy sauce mixed with karo syrup. That’s pretty close to it, but not so salty. > > The sambal was good. Imagine american kechup made with chili peppers and without the sugar. I agree, javanese ketjap is quite different from the american tomato-based condiment. Any reason why the name was adopted? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/114 "2008-10-13T20:12:13Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Let me tell you about durian. Back when the wife and I were first married, we lived in a small studio apartment in Bangkok for a couple of years. My in-laws were still alive then, and we went over for a visit one day. Unbeknownst to me, my mother-in-law gave the wife some durian to take home. She had wrapped it in aluminum foil and sealed it in a Tupperware container. When we got home, the wife placed the container inside our fridge. So the durian is wrapped in foil, sealed in Tupperware and inside a refrigerator. And I still don’t know it’s there. > > We start watching a video. During the course of the video, I start noticing an awful smell. I think it’s me, because I’ve not showered yet after being out in steamy Bangkok all day. The smell grows worse as the movie progresses, and I’m thinking: “Man, I don’t remember ever smelling this bad before. The wife may actually divorce me over this. What gives?” After the movie, I apologize for the smell and head off to take a shower. That’s when the wife tells me it must be the durian. Sure enough, opening the refrigerator door, this sickening stench rolled out in a big wave. > > And it tastes as good as it smells. Hmmm…Maybe something is lost in the travel, then. They sell fresh durian at some of the Asian markets here, and I bought one, only to be severely disappointed in its lack of offensive stench. I mean, it was stinky, but it was hardly the stinkiest food I’ve ever eaten (that award would go to surstromming, fermented herring. I love fish sauce. I love herring. But this shit was orders of magnitude beyond either.) All in all, the durian was pretty yummy. Kinda banana-y, tropical, creamy, onion-y, maybe a background hint of cheese or something. I remember it being pretty heavy–a little went a long way. After having it fresh, I’ve also had it in sticky rice, (at a restaurant here called Sticky Rice, which specializes in Northern Thai cuisine and has insect dishes on the permanent menu), and it was awesome in that. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/115 "2008-10-13T20:34:39Z")
A few mentions of Tibet but nobody’s brought up (and I mean that in both senses of the word) [tsampa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsampa). Man, that shit is _nasty_. “Roasted barley flour” as a definition does it too many favors. Texture of dirt, tastes like dirt, looks like [compacted dessicated maggots barfed up by a dog](http://www.everestmax.com/images/ti-tsamba.jpg). No wonder Tibetans seek escape from the profane in spiritual union; no wonder they say “life is a suffering sea”. [See the suffering on her face](http://www.himalayanchildren.org/Images/nepal/07-updates/eating-tsampa.jpg). Also rancid yak butter tea. 'Nuff said. Momos, though. They’re damn tasty. And I also had yak bourgignon, which was delicious. ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/116 "2008-10-13T20:35:06Z")
In the central US and Texas, in addition to chips and salsa, ‘American-Mexican’ places put out ‘queso’ which is supposed to be melted cheese, I think. The queso used in Texas is at least cheese-like, if not very good tasting, similar to Velveeta. The stuff in Oklahoma is vile. It is a thin, watery, off-white fluid that tastes both bitter and acrid and is most reminiscent not of cheese, but diluted low quality margarine. People eat it by the pint while waiting for their food. It is truly a disgusting spectacle. Really, most Americanized Mexican food is abominable, at least around here. It’s the same handful of ingredients, recombined and usually deep fried: Low grade ground beef, adrift in orange fat Chicken, boiled and shredded such that it resembles fluffy sawdust Refried beans that are mostly Crisco Flour (?!) tortillas Iceberg lettuce with a dash of diced tomatoes Mountains of preshredded processed Cheddar cheese Salsa composed of crushed tomatoes and too much salt Yet more of that accursed queso I refuse to go to these places with friends anymore, no matter how good they claim their latest favorite is, there is no difference. It’s Taco Bell with waiters. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/117 "2008-10-13T21:44:51Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > Scrapple. It’s the stuff too nasty for use in pet food that they scrape off the slaughterhouse floor. I was visiting colleges in that area, and my mother and I stopped in at a diner near one campus and they showed us a brick of the stuff. I think it was at that moment I decided not to go to that particular university, solely due to the presence of scrapple in the vicinity. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/118 "2008-10-13T23:55:32Z")
Guatemalan food is pretty lame. They manage to ruin black beans by pureeing them into a gloopy paste. This is inevitably served with gloopy cream, salty tasteless cheese, and some egg. If you are lucky you’ll get a slice of ham or some fried plantains to take the edge of the bland gloop-and-dairy feast. Their tortillas are good though. > [@Furious\_Marmot](#): > > Flour (?!) tortillas Oh come off it. Flour tortillas are a specialty of some Northern regions of Mexico and the United States. Tex-Mex cuisine has long history going back to well before the American west was under the control of the United States. It was created by Mexicans, on Mexican soil, and continues to be enjoyed by Mexicans in a place that is deeply culturally influenced by Mexico. Now fake cheese and nasty meat are something I can’t abide with, but the “a real Mexican would never eat a burrito” thing is just pretentious. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/119 "2008-10-14T00:29:46Z")
> [@lalenin](#): > > I’m going to have to disagree with you here. The Cuban food that is served in most Cuban restaurants in the US and Canada is in most cases pretty standard Cuban food. We’re talking black beans, rice, fried ripe or green plantains, and those are absolutely staples of the Cuban diet. True, but if this is all that you served (morros y cristianos, etc.) your restaurant wouldn’t do too well in a cosmopolitan restaurant in the States, even while throwing in a piece or two of unseasoned, flavorless pieces of pork. I had to eat this in Habana, and staple though it may be in Cuba, I would never pay good money at a restaurant in Miami or Los Angeles for it. Typically restaurants that announce themselves as serving “Cuban cuisine” fancy up the food into something that is seldom found in the Cuba. Would you pay $12 a plate for rice, beans and tortillas at a Mexican restaurant because it’s in West Hollywood and has fancy decor? Probably not (though some people inexplicably to), so they serve up some tasteless piece of meat and you think you’re eating real Mexican food. (The ratio of good Mexican food to bad in L.A. is about 25 to one, in my estimate). ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/120 "2008-10-14T02:02:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Guatemalan food is pretty lame. They manage to ruin black beans by pureeing them into a gloopy paste. This is inevitably served with gloopy cream, salty tasteless cheese, and some egg. If you are lucky you’ll get a slice of ham or some fried plantains to take the edge of the bland gloop-and-dairy feast. I agree with you there–I was there for 5 days and lost 3 pounds. The non-farmers cheese and crema all tasted like sour milk. Always huevos racheros and beans, and maybe you could get some waaay overcooked chicken. Everyone likes to rave about food from wee little villages off the beaten track, and I went to them and the food was _lousy_. But yes, very fine tortillas, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322.md?page=7)