Ackee - I had ackee and saltfish at a restaurant in Houston where I could not see or taste the ackee, if there was indeed any in there. I figured out why when I saw that ackee is $10 USD per can and up :eek: No wonder they wanted to stretch it out!
Anyway I bought a can for myself and made saltfish buljol
and when it was done I took off the heat and then added drained ackee from the can and mixed it around lightly not wanting the ackee to disintegrate, I wanted to actually taste it this time. Aaaaaaaaand it tasted like buljol with scrambled eggs in it.
Trying some ackee straight from the can…scrambled eggs with a slight nutty flavor and very slight bitter aftertaste(nothing offensive).
Not bad per se but not very interesting either, I can see now why this is limited to expat places as its certainly nothing that will become the new taste sensation.
I had the kopi lowak when I lived in Aceh Indonesia. It tasted like coffee, certainly not good enough that it was worth sifting through civet poop to get the beans.
I’d seen countless people online raving about it. On a different board, just the mere mention of Phở could drag a thread off topic with people talking about how much they love Phở, what place makes the best Phở, and so on. I tried it at a couple of different places, and I just don’t get the hype. It’s soup. I thought it was good, mind you, but nothing I would go out of my way for.
The cynical side of me tends to think the hype comes from internet snobs who just want to show off.
I’m really not all that interested in foie gras. I’ve tried it now, twice, and it’s just not really for me. I’m glad I’ve tried it, and glad that I know what it’s all about, but I doubt I’d order it again.
Also on board with the caviar, although I wouldn’t mind having a bite of one of the sandwiches Bobby Flay made for his crew during ICA: Battle Caviar. Those looked good.
I think caviar is okay, but not something I’d go out of my way for. That’s probably the most disappointing of the fancy-pants foods I’ve had. Also, I didn’t quite get the surge of popularity of bubble tea years ago. I mean, it’s okay, but I just don’t quite get its popularity.
I had always wanted to try Turkish Delight, since it’s what leads Edmund to his doom. I tried some last week. Blech. It must have been that WWII rationing warping Edmund’s mind, because I would have gone for a Cadbury bar any day.
The same thing happened when I was a kid on a trip to New York. I had read books that mentioned egg creams, especially chocolate ones, and I just had to try one. It was horrible, but that may have been because we were in a cafe in a subway station, I don’t know.
Sweet things like Ho-Hos, Ding Dongs, most Little Debbie cakes, most packaged cookies, those gluey frozen fruit pies on sale before holidays, and box cakes. They’re made for kids and people who just adore anything convenient and sweet. I mean, if I’m hungry enough, if there’s nothing good around, I might have one; I can stop at just one. But I don’t ‘like’ them. They all have that artificial taste, that weird waxy coating and that filling made from Crisco. Uck. I can take them or leave them, and I’ll usually leave them.
Morels. I love mushrooms, and morels have this mystique about them; you have to go out and find them yourself, and thousands of people traipse through the woods every spring because they’re so awesome, and they have their secret hunting grounds that they reveal to nobody, etc., and I was amazed to find a few growing in the backyard at the in-laws’ house! Oh yeah, a few pop up there every year. Sweetie’s dad loves 'em. We brought them in, and cooked them up, and…hmm. They smell just like spooge. That was disappointing.
To me caviar is always about the accoutrements that you get with it. Diced hard-cooked egg, onions, winter savory, etc with a demitasse spoonful of osetra or beluga caviar heaped onto a brioche slice is really, really good. But just caviar by itself? Meh. Awfully fishy and salty. It needs to go with something else. That said, its way too expensive for what it is.
Another one for Caviar. Pretty sure I’ve had the good stuff, too. Not that I dislike it - it’s OK - but I can think of about a gazillion other things I’d rather have.
