Yeah, we have a few places around here that offer a “black and blue.” My favorite one is from a pub where they make it with Stilton, roasted garlic, german mustard, a black pepper-crusted patty, and serve it on a pumpernickel bun (although now they’ve changed the name to “Stilton burger.”) Another place I like does cajun spices and blue cheese topping and dressing (similar to yours.) Not sure of the blue cheese they use there, but it’s just as fantastic.
I think blue cheese & beef pair fantastically and blue cheese really brings out the beefiness of a burger and gives a nice funky umami edge to it, but it certainly can be overdone and overpower. Christ, it’s 10 a.m. and all I want is a blue cheeseburger.
Not that I’ve observed. I live in a heavily Muslim part of the GTA (Scarborough), so there are lots of Halal stores around. I would buy Hebrew National if I could find it.
I was there as a tourist in 1975, and again for graduate school in 1989–90. There was absolutely nothing special about the food in low-budget hotels or my institute, but restaurants like the Uzbekistan in Moscow were always good. There was a little pizzaria not far from my dorm where I would still happily eat today.
-Chestnut puree in a can is good for making pastries, but little else. A rather toothsome French pastry, called a MONT BLANC, uses it to good advantage.
-Fresh, whole chestnuts are imported, usually from Italy, but by the time they make the trip over, mold can set in. If you ever buy them, dump them in a bowl of water, whichever ones float, discard, they’re the bad ones. Due to the Chestnut Blight of last century, American chestnuts were wiped out, and unfortunately, they were quite sweet and tasty. The imports cannot compare.
-Please, please, please, the upthreader who prepared HORSE chestnuts, do not do that ever again. They can be toxic. Yes, yes, they are used in some herbal preparations(for varicose veins), but as for food, ixnay. Keep one in your pocket to avoid arthritis or rheumatism(old wives’ tale)
Major olive avoider here,man oh man, just looking at those things gives me the heebie-jeebies, they’re just little salt bombs. If ambrosia had not been the food of the Greek gods, I’m sure olive oil would’ve been on the list of runners-up.
I’d love to try some blueberries from the Pacific Northwest because I agree that I don’t see the appeal of them. I know people that love them. I can eat them, but I don’t see what’s special about them.
The trick is to give the sauce a chance to coat the pasta and penetrate it prior to serving. It’s best to add some sauce to the pasta right in the pot (after draining it) and then serve it with more sauce on the side, added to taste.
Always boil the pasta in salted water, and do not rinse the starch off it when it’s done cooking. Small portions of the cooking water can be added to the dish if it’s too thick for your taste.
You’re aware that olive oil comes in a wide variety of flavors, depending on the soil and climate where the olives are grown? You should never, ever buy any grade other than extra virgin, first cold pressing. I love sopping up olive oil with bread or pizza crust, straight out of the bottle, or heating it in a little pot with some butter, garlic, and anchovies first.
Canada doesn’t have Hebrew National. Best tasting kosher dogs were made by J.W. Kwinter, but they’re out of business. I think President’s Choice Ball Park tried to copy them. Nathan’s are okay.
Anyway, lots of foods don’t live up to their reputation.
Just my opinion, of course, but:
Yorkshire puddings are delicious (Mom’s homemade)-- and so often are really terrible when eaten at restaurants or buffets.
Clam chowder? Yum. Oyster crackers – no taste, no thanks.
Mushrooms. Lots of types, some better than others, but not worth big bucks to me. Worst if described on the menu as “foraged”.
It takes effort. You have to get to the third sipping glass, where it starts to taste much better. I recommend a straight scotch from the southwest, called Oban, which has a lovely buttery note to it.
Good prosciutto has its place. On top of ripe melon. On top of a sauteed chicken cutlet and under a blanket of grated Parm and slipped into a hot oven long enough for the cheese to melt and the prosciutto to get slightly crispy.
On an Italian hero, no. The prosciutto resists your incisors and comes stringing out of the sandwich, leaving the cappicola and Genoa salami and the provolone behind. And then it gets stuck between your molars.
I know, but there IS a difference. I don’t know why, but non-kosher beef dogs just aren’t the same.
Here, I have to drive a few miles to find a place that sells NON-kosher meat.
And then there’s supermarket gefilte fish in jars. It tastes NOTHING like authentic gefilte fish. It has no flavor or texture, and it’s ground, not chopped.
I love blueberries because of how easily they freeze. I made blueberry waffles for breakfast yesterday from last year’s harvest and couldn’t tell them from freshly picked.
I can’t warm up to gin or scotch. Gin smells lovely, but tastes so medicinal. Scotch just tastes bad. Even the really good stuff which I have been fortunate enough to try.
I was terribly disappointed with caviar. Salted snot. Ugh.
However, all of you olive haters can send them all to me. I have never encountered a variety of olive that I didn’t love. Same with mushrooms.
Peppery greens look pretty in a salad and should taste green and fresh, not bitter and peppery. I am always disappointed when these appear in my salad.
I agree on the sandwiches. It’s also too delicate a delight, I think, to waste on a sandwich buried beneath all that. (Although maybe it’ll work on a very simple sandwich, not buried under spicy meats like cappicola and salami). I have a friend from Naples who buys prosciutto by the whole legs and eats it throughout the year, after slicing it thinly on his deli slicer. Whenever I go to his house, it’s one of his standard finger foods: just a plate of prosciutto, and some fresh baked bread and olive oil, along with a glass of wine. The stuff is just so divine and buttery soft. Melts in your mouth with a beautiful, almost parmesan-like nutty flavor to it. One of life’s simple treats.
“…just a plate of prosciutto, and some fresh baked bread and olive oil, along with a glass of wine. The stuff is just so divine and buttery soft. Melts in your mouth with a beautiful, almost parmesan-like nutty flavor to it. One of life’s simple treats.”
There you go – BEST way to enjoy prosciutto. Or Spanish Serrano ham. Or the version they make in Germany…Westphalian?
Blueberry haters: try picking your own in a sunny field in rural Maine in late July. Just don’t let the bears get your baby.
Yes, I certainly love the prosciutto which has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force in a defined geographic region. That is some politically stable lunchmeat all ready to encourage the growth of complex, technological societies based on the rule of law.