Chocolate-dipped fruit - like Shari’s berries. Blech! They certainly look enticing, but so cloyingly sweet - two great tastes that DONT taste great together.
My prejudice against chocolate with fruit also extends to chocolate cakes with raspberry filling, chocolate-dipped apples (and caramel-apples), and chocolate bars with fruit. If the fruit is good, and the chocolate is good, there is no reason for their union. I love them each - separately.
And scotch. I see people enjoying it, so I need someone to give me a lesson there - it is one drink I cannot stand - tastes and smells like something used for cleaning machinery.
That is because there are people like my ex-wife and I that are taking the bullet for you. It is a noble profession in that way. You won’t ever be able to buy the disgusting ones in your local supermarket because they have been carefully vetted. There is a market for stinky cheeses but it is easy to pass the limit of what any normal person can tolerate.
I’m not a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination, but olives just have an off putting taste to me. I’ve never been able to find them appetizing. Yet many people find them delicious. I use the hell out of olive oil though. It’s my go to oil for almost everything.
Huh. I have a brother who doesn’t like olives, and he’s the only one in the family who doesn’t.
Oh, I’m sure there are some truly disgusting cheeses I’ll never get to try. I’m quite happy with the level of disgustingness I’ve encountered thus far.
That sounds like a plan, and I’m just enough of a glutton for punishment to actually try it. If nothing else, I’ll have some good white bread and unsalted butter.
I like olives as a “back flavor,” that is, when they are one of many ingredients in a stew or sauce, and they just add a grace note. But I can’t stand eating them plain, because the texture is off-putting. I don’t care for them on a pizza for that reason, although I’ll accept them if I’m the lone dissenter in a large group, or if it’s the compromise I have to make to get a veggie pizza. I’ve been known to get them on a sandwich from one particular place, though, because for some reason, theirs are not very salty, like most peoples’.
I use the hell out of olive oil in everything but sweet things. I use corn oil for that. If I had my way, I’d use more sesame oil, but it’s expensive. I use olive oil during Passover instead of the expensive KFP margarine.
Yep. I get some strawberries in the spring from farmers who set up little stands on the side of the road, and those things are so freakin’ good. Unlike anything you’ve every had from a conventional grocery store.
I’m with astro on olives. I really, really wish I could like them, but I just don’t. They ruin anything they’re in.
The Kosher dogs my dad used to buy in the American Midwest (primarily from Chicago) came from a different universe than the all-beef franks I get here in Toronto. (I suppose I could try a Halal butcher and see if I can find anything like them. I have yet to see Kosher meat offered anywhere near where I live.)
I lived in Russia full-time from 1992 to 2008. I can recall only one instance where I was offered caviar in someone’s kitchen, and that was because (a) the couple was rich (we’re talking BUCKETS of fresh black caviar) and (b) I was giving the wife English lessons. Nowadays, the average Russian can barely afford a tin of the stuff to enjoy at New Year’s, and supermarkets keep their selection under lock and key. I go back to Russia at least twice a year, and have noticed that ersatz caviar made from kelp is now on sale in a lot of stores. (Not bad stuff, either.)
This is quite common wherever hors d’oeuvres are served. The bread is normally a round slice from a baguette, and is not terribly thick. The caviar is usually red salmon roe and comes with thin slices of smoked salmon curled and placed on top. You can sprinkle it with lemon juice, if you want.
Neither do I, though my local supermarket (in Moscow) always has a bewildering variety of bread on sale.
On one cooking show, I saw a French chef make a dish with layered foie gras and grilled apple slices. If I ever make it back to Paris, that’s a menu item I’m definitely going to try!
I had fugu exactly once, at a restaurant in Japan. It was some of the best sashimi I’ve ever tasted. Subtle, yes. Bland, no.
Japanese food is not like American food. Americans go for BIG FLAVORS. Thick sauces that sometimes drown out the food they are on. Japanese food is pure and delicate.
You’re not the first one I’ve heard who’s made this complaint about blueberries but I’ve noticed it seems only to apply to blueberries in the Northeast US. Not to brag but the blueberries grown in the Pacific Northwest taste pretty sweet even when eaten raw. Must be a different variety.
The best use I’ve found for roasted chestnuts is a cream soup using them along with wild rice. We serve it once a year around xmas, and people are always amazed.
It’s a difficult soup to make (scoring, roasting, peeling the chestnuts) but worth the effort.
Like I said, I lived in the Soviet Union. It was a different place.
I remember the food generally being terrible in Russia (I once was served a bowl of chicken soup with a feather in it), but the bread was amazing.
In S. Indiana, we had neighbors who had blueberry bushes in their backyard. They had a high yield, and the neighbors used to invite people to come and pick blueberries, because they had more than enough for themselves. They were delicious. It’s probably just another garden vs. store thing. In New England, they are very proud of their blueberries, so they cultivate them, and they are better there-- there are several varieties. My mother lives in Maine, and overnights me fresh blueberries a couple of times a year, in addition to sending blueberry jams and other things. They are fantastic. But year, fresh blueberries from the store in Indiana are like eating slightly sweet packing peanuts. When I bake blueberry muffins, I use frozen. There is a brand that is way better than the fresh ones. My mother also sends me dried Maine blueberries for my Hamantashen.
I ordered a blue-cheese stuffed burger once. I love burgers and I love blue cheese, so I expected to like it. Unfortunately the flavors seem to clash instead of complementing each other. It wasn’t inedible but I would rather have had a regular cheeseburger.
I have learned that I should order blue cheese in upscale restaurants only. Blue cheese is one of those things you should never buy on the cheap. Huge quality difference between cheap blue cheese and expensive blue cheese. I’m going to guess that restaurants that serve hamburgers aren’t the place to go for really good blue cheese.
I get a “black and blue burger” at a local restaurant that is delicious. Home made blue cheese dressing on the bottom bun and crumbled Maytag on top of the meat. Mmmmmmmmm