Sardines. Why is it that I keep feeling like I should take out the spine? Just chomping 'em doesn’t feel right. Too crunchy for the meat texture or something. And do you eat the guts of anchovies? Ewww!
Cauliflower squash…it looks like a blunt Chinese throwing star. Steam, fry or ???
Endive. Salad fixing or something else? I see it at the store and have no clue what I should do with it. Same with Fennel root. Ever see something at the supermarket and go “Boy, that looks good. Wish I knew how to cook it.”
I don’t think sardines have guts, at least if you are talking about the canned ones. I can only eat the canned ones, because I don’t like the little hairy bones in small fresh fish. I have a slight fish bone phobia altogether.
I’m not sure what cauliflower squash is. Your description sounds like pattypan squash. You can cook them like summer squash or zucchini and they are also great for scooping out and baking with stuffing.
You can eat endive like regular salad, although it is a bit strong by itself. It works well in wilted salad recipes that use a hot dressing. You can use fennel raw, roasted or sauteed. It has a slight licorice flavor.
I’ve got one: How do you eat fresh lychees? Our co-op has them sometimes, and I’ve been tempted, but I have no idea how to attack one.
My brother likes to toss lychees (the whitish, fleshy part) in fresh fruit salads. They’re very fragrant, almost perfumy, and pretty tasty. I suppose you could use them like any fresh, juicy fruit.
I always feel gauche when I eat minced chicken like a taco. It’s served in a lettuce shell and is clearly meant to be eaten this way, but it still feels like I’m being a cretin.
I was invited to Maine by a friend of mine for a Classic Lobster Dinner! being a novice lobster eater I was instructed by my host about how to eat the damn thing …mainly not to break the claws a certain way or juice will squirt everywhere.
Of course after a few brews I broke the claws the wrong way and squirted lobster juice all over my host!
After many apologies on my part (and much laughter on their part) I enjoyed the best dinner of my life!
Is there a propper way to eat Mouleaux Marinier (sp?, Mussels in white wine and garlic broth)?
Should you take the Mussels out of the shell one at a time, and eat them together with the soup, or should you take all the mussels out of their shells and put them in the soup and then eat the soup and mussels together. Or do you eat all the mussels and then eat the soup?
One thing I would like to say, I believe strongly that you should use a little bread to mop up remnants of a good sauce in finishing off a good meal. Though it is considered gauche, I wish that consideration rejected. The mopping up of a good sauce with a little bread is less unseemely than getting it up with a fork (or Og help us on a knife blade) and shows that the sauce is so good it cannot be wasted.
Crawfish. I see them available cooked, but all the legs and antennae put me off. Just what do you do with those things??
And I recently found sliced fennel root on a salad bar. It was just sliced vertically into thin slices. I ate it and left the rest of the salad behind. It was one of the tastiest things I discovered on our last vacation.
DeVena, presuming they’re cooked already, set them up stem side down on your plate. Peel off the really tough first outside layer of leaves, if present, and throw those away. Not worth it.
Then take the individual leaves off one at a time, and dip the fleshy end in something yummy. I like plain mayonnaise, and some people like garlic butter and whatnot. After you dip it, flip it upside down and scrape the bottom third or so off with your bottom teeth. Throw out the top. Go around and around and around… sorry got a little distracted there.
When you get in to the really tender leaves, you can just bite off the bottom end. Once you get in to the center where the tiny leaves have sharp purple tips, run a dull knife around the perimeter where the leaf bases meet the bottom of the artichoke, or heart. Pull that off and chuck it, or else you’ll learn why it’s called a “choke”. Now take what’s left, and scrape off any stringy bits frmo the outside of the base with your dull knife. Cut the rest up and eat it - it’s the very best part, and why you went to all that work with the darn leaves in the first place.
Mmmm.
Jules - over the hill from the artichoke capital of the world
Grasp very firmly in the middle. Break the tail section off of the body section, the meat should slide out. You can crack the claws and get a bit of meat. Basically, just like a mini lobster. Another practice is to pull the head off and suck out the brain matter. I never could bring myself to do it, though.
If they’re cooked with plenty of spices they’re really tasty. Also, if you have kids or people with weak hands (like me) the breaking can cause problems. I always had my brother do it for me.
By the way… am I the only on who doesn’t like lobster? The taste and smell of cooked lobster makes me nauseous. I love other fish and shellfish.
For me, it’s not so much the taste and smell as it’s just rather mediocre for the cost. I can get a wonderful slab of grass-fed ribeye for several dollars less per pound than a bland bottom-feeder tail.
I can confidently declare that there is no food worthy of eating that I cannot deduce how to eat.
There may be some things that present me with difficulty at first. Or I may not follow the specific ceremonial requirements. But I can guarantee that if it’s tasty, I shall climb the gustatory learning curve posthaste.
This talent is similar to my mealtime language skills. I suck at learning foreign languages, except in one respect – food.
I’ve loved sardines since I was a kid but I always refused to eat the bones. My mother was nice enough to slice them open (they really just pop open with a fork) and pull out the spine when she made me my lovely sardine sandwiches, with lettuce and mayo on white bread. Nowadays I have to despine them myself but I still can’t bring myself to eat the bones.
I also heartily agree with the comments that all the work that goes into eating an artichoke is well worth it.
Often to slice them, I leave the skin on, and just cut into the flesh without piercing the skin. Then, I’ll cut the skin off in one piece, which leaves nice slices.
Well, since the Bandwagon o’ Confessing Ignorance of Food is getting loaded up…
Salad. Say you’re out at something fancy-shmancy - wedding, bar/bat mitzvah, nice resteraunt, whatever. You sit down, they bring you salad. There may be a little thing of dressing of some sort on the table. You pour a polite amount on.
Now what? Just let the salad dressing pool so the first few bites are “dressing with a little lettuce” and the rest is dry? There are chunks of lettuce, tomato (I despise grape tomatos just for that reason), etc that are too big to eat. Do you break out your knife?
