This made zero sense to me until I realised I had somehow managed to confuse balut with bagoong, which was why the recommendation surprised me, to say the least. Balut is great the Flip way, or at least the way my lolo partook of it - knocked back like a shot. Balut is also not at all as bad as it sounds, whilst bagoong is every bit as bad as it sounds. :eek: (in all seriousness though, stupendous with rice and kare-kare.)
See, this is the problem with a lot of Asian food ingredients. We call them by their English names, so they sound gross.
If we called it “calimari”, no one would be the wiser.
Scablet, your post makes a little more sense now too. 
I was wondering about the “little goes a long way” part, because although balut grosses many people out, it has quite a mild taste. I’ve not tried bagoong yet. I’ll have to give it a go. I suspect I may just like it.
Aah, the curse of monosodium glutamate, which I believe has a quite prosaic, everyday monosyballic name in Chinese. Then again, we might have a healthier population in the West if we said, “Pass the sodium chloride please.” 
Monosyballic? Ballicks t’ that.
My all-time favorite which I get in the Korean grocery down the hill is simply called “Korean Barbeque Sauce” I’m not sure what brand name (in English) or Korean name it has but, man it’s good. I put it on fish, steak, chicken, whatever. Damn fine marinade as well as a great “brushing” sauce.
I’m still working on perfecting a peanut-sauce recipe for noodles (but I think I’m getting closer). Just have to keep trying till I get it right, I guess. (have to keep eating nummy peanut sauce too )
…and msg is always next in line :eek:
funny poster!
i like this:
“Years ago, the most popular cooking fat of Emilia-Romagna was chemical-free, sweet lard. I still remember my mother"s potatoes cooked in a large black skillet with lard. They were awesome. While some traditional cooks, such as Ivan and Barbara of Hostaria da Ivan in Parma’s countryside, still make their own lard and use it in many of their dishes, the majority of people have replaced lard with olive oil.”
-Biba’s Taste of Italy
Avoid bitter melon. Trust me.
Try fresh lychee (not the canned ones), Pocky, and mochi. Yum.
Try brands of rice until you find one you like, they all taste different. I’m not happy unless it’s Nishiki.
Fish sauce, sesame oil, lemongrass, and chili are all things no kitchen should be without (yes, fish sauce is gross, no you can’t make good Thai curry without it)
Another name for that is long rice. It’s pretty good with hamburger or chicken, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger.
I myself prefer to eat Asian stuff in restaurants - not only is it very yummy, but almost ALL the ingredients are foreign enough to me that I’m nervous about trying them out (I like to experiment a little when I cook, but I have a basic idea of how my “standard” ingredients work). I’ve limited my attempts at Asian cooking to stir-fries and egg rolls, although I got really ballsy once and made some glass noodles - that was cool!
There’s a site I like to surf for recipes - I’m not good at making links, but here’s the URL: http://www.recipesource.com/
You might find some good ideas there.
Proceed with caution. If you see something four-footed in the meat department, it is not a rabbit.