Coleslaw is a great comfort food of mine. I often order it in place of the mounds of fried potatoes that I really don’t need. There are two, and only two, ways to prepare it. One is with a mayonaisse base, and the other is a vinegary base with celery seeds (as perfected by the Avenue Bar in Madison, WI). Both are great.
Lately, restaurants have taken it upon themselves to “get creative” with the standard, and bring you something resembling, but definately not, cole slaw. Get your sliced green and red bell peppers out of there, Old Chicago! Boston Market, quit trying to blend the two bases together! Just give my old cole slaw back.
When you order french fries, you know you are going to get sliced potatoes, fried. They may be different sizes and shapes, but they taste the same. When you order a dry martini, they’ll ask you if you want gin or vodka, they don’t don’t serve you up an appletini without you requesting it. When you order a burger, it is beef on a bun, not a gardenburger with arugula.
If you are going to mess with a standard, please describe how you decided to make it suck before serving it to me.
Hear, hear! Well-ranted. “Fancy” coleslaw is like “fancy” mac & cheese…not the same thing at all. I like both of the basic styles, and will tolerate the inclusion of golden raisins if the rest of the dinner excels. But other than that, the classic recipe became a classic for a reason. 86.5: It has a good beat and I can dance to it.
Actually, I love the cole slaw variant that comes with the delicious Baja fish tacos at Cheesecake Factory. It is either called “island slaw” or “citrus slaw,” I forget which, but it has little mandarin orange sections mixed in, and a dash of something tangier too. It goes perfectly with the fish tacos, to the point where when I buy a bag of dry broccoli slaw to prepare at home with Miracle Whip Light, I also add mandarin orange sections now!
Whoa whoa whoa… I love me some mac and cheese, but I’ve NEVER heard of adding golden raisins! Where did you have it this way? And by two styles, do you mean the “box” kind with the orange neon powder-based cheese and the “real” kind with shredded cheese and bread crumbs on top, and then baked as a casserole? I love both styles, but I tend to add things like diced onions, tomatos, or jalapeno peppers, or canned tuna to make it a little more nutritious.
No, no…you misunderstand my reference. I was speaking of coleslaw, not the creamy goodness of mac & cheese (to which I usually 4 kings of cheese, onions, peppers, and various meats.
KFC had really damn good barbecue baked beans, too. They were just the right blend of sweet, tangy, tomatoey, and smoky, with actual little pieces of bacon – none of that nasty white fat cube from canned beans. I loved those beans more than their actual chicken, so of course they pulled the dish off the menu. Now I get my rare fried chicken fix from Albertson’s (cheaper, fresher, and juicier), so I don’t even go to KFC anymore.
Cheap Oil. I’ve been noticing more and more places are using cheap oil; it has a peculiar wang to it that I cannot stand. Unfortunately, it’s becoming more widespread. Tostitos now use it, and they have that cheap oil wang, rendering them inedible.
It’s really hard to describe, but I’ve been tasting it in more and more things over the past couple of years. I seem to recall oil not having this (or any) taste in the past. I taste it in Tostitos now, where I didn’t before. It’s even worse in store-brand tortilla chips; hence my cheap oil theory. Could it be Canola or something?
I avoid canola and cottonseed oil when it is used for purposes other than cooking.
Salad dressing, if I must have it from a bottle, should be made with olive oil.
The taste you mention seems to me to be stale or bitter.
For those of us jonesing for some KFC slaw right now:
KFC Coleslaw
Recipe By : Copy Cat Web Site
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:20
Categories : Coleslaw
Amount Measure Ingredient – Preparation Method
1 head cabbage -- finely chopped
1 medium carrot -- shredded
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 tablespoon pepper
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
Be sure the cabbage and carrots are chopped up into very fine pieces about the
size of rice kernels. Combine the sugar, salt, pepper, milk, mayonnaise, butte
rmilk, vinegar and lemon juice and beat until smooth. Add the cabbage and carr
ots and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
