Visigoth! Soft-shelled crab, done right, is the food of the Gods! The GODS!
(done wrong, it can be damned nasty, I admit)
Only two things.
In college I took a Buddhism class and in the course of learning about Buddhist monasticism it came up that at a certain monestary the monks for one or two of their meal each day ate only steamed rice and a salted plum. Someone in the class obligingly procured some salted plums so we could see what they ate. I can understand why Buddhists see the annihilation of the self as the goal of existance. The memory of that taste could haunt you even in heaven!
The other was “drop” or Dutch salted licorice, about which I believe there is already a thread. I think eating that stuff would make any country turn to drugs!
Truely, truely vile substances. Next time just step on my tongue, please.
Should’ve had it with cream cheese and crackers. It’s delish. Mmmmm!
Pickled eggs. I mean, hey, they’re purple. What could go wrong?
Blech.
I was disappointed to find that Turkish Delight was a food.
Not quite in the category of “lusted after” but I moved to the South and decided to see what the hype was about chitlins. I figured, hey my family is from a country that eats tripe. Couldn’t possibly be too bad, right?
Wrong. Even though I ate it from a restaurant supposedly reputable in the Southern Culinary Arts, it was even more vile than I could have given it credit to.
Relatedly, my friend ordered haggis from Scotland for our annual Robert Burns party (good reason as any to drink and read poetry). I was game. And then I was throwing up. And this was before I had anything to drink. I had to imbibe doubly hard to erase the memory of it from my tongue, stomach and mind.
I always imagined Turkish Delight was some kind of chocolate toffee akin to a Heath or Skor. I used to eat those bars sometimes because of the literary association. The funny thing is I didn’t even like Heath and Skor (stuck in my teeth and far too sweet!). So I didn’t even like my misconceived, imaginary, Turkish Delight. Doubt I’d like the real thing much either now that I realize it is congealed rosewater.
Oh, andIdlewild, you have given me a jones for a Hostess Lemon Fruit Pie. The Hostess pies were like kiddie crack in the lunchrooms of my youth. Those things had hella streetvalue… kids would trade their souls for its sugary goodness.
IMO, drop is great stuff. There are many different varieties; you may have sampled the “dubbel zout” which translates as “double salt” and it is indeed very salty. Try some of the sweeter stuff and you may never go back to lame, flavorless American licorice again!
Salted plum?
You mean ume?
YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM ;j
Yes! Double yum! You are not supposed to eat them in cold blood (though I do and I like them that way too) but break them up and eat a bit at a time with a bite of the rice. It makes the rice taste sweet.
My favourite quick lunch is sesame stewed seaweed with a couple of ume and a couple of sausages broken up into a bowl of rice.
Vegemite. Uuurrggh.
Vile doesn’t begin to describe this stuff.
Well, it’s just marmite’s poor cousin, right? Never going to be as good. The trick to it is to spread it v-e-r-y thinly. Scrape it across your hot buttered toast, and mmmmm.
I grew up with The Babysitters Club as my guide to America. Like Idlewild, I thought that American candy must indeed be the food of the gods. One twinky later, and that illusion was shattered.
My flatmate’s father used to send her Dutch Licorice. We used to bribe her something chronic for just a tiny bit. I’m sure there’s somewhere in Auckland I can find it, but I’m worried it won’t be as good.
Oh I would have given a lot more than my soul to get my hands on that mythical food product when I was a child. I suppose it’s best that it stays on the theoretical plane for me!
By ‘salted plum’, is everyone talking about umeboshi (pickled ume)? God, how I hate those. They’re one of Wakayama’s specialties, and I just can’t stand them.
Oh no, don’t try Hostess fruit pies - let those remain mythical delights. Eat a regular fruit-filled pie if they’re made in your area and dream of Hostess pies instead. And I’d like to add that after reading this thread, I’m glad I never found any Turkish delight to sample.
As I grew up in the US, I can affirm that they are overly sweet, mostly filled with a sticky gel-like substance claiming to be “pie filling”, and the pieces of fruit are small and far from juicy or delicious. Every now and then, that old ad programming from comic books takes over, and I try another one. Bleh.
For all the Hostess Fruit Pie lovers and fantasizers, here’s an archive of all the Hostess ads from '70s comics books:
http://www.seanbaby.com/hostess.htm
Warning: not work safe. There’s a banner linking to an adult sex site at the bottom of the page. – CKDH
I was severely disappointed with Twinkies. They looked so good in the ads, but they ended up tasting like pure preservative with a creamed-preservative filling. I felt like my GI tract had stopped aging.
I bought a jar of kimchi based on an SDMB thread where everyone was raving about it. It was… interesting… but I can only eat one little piece at a time because it’s so intensely vinegary and garlicky. I bought a jar from the supermarket, though, not a Korean market. However, I love sauerkraut and I can eat that right out of the jar with a fork, so go figure.
I also went crazy at the Asian market buying all kinds of exotic and interesting-looking ramen and other noodles. Most were great, but one brand of noodle turned out to be made from sweet potato starch. They looked normal enough before I boiled them, but they ended up swelling up to a huge quantity, and turned darkly translucent. The broth, made from a packet of powder and a little tube of flavored oil, was mysteriously referred to on the package as something like “Bumbu sauce.” That should have been a warning sign right there. The combined smell, taste, look, and consistency of everything was just disgusting, and even I couldn’t eat it. I also made the mistake of preparing two packets at once (as I often do with ramen), and it was just out of control and gross.
The only foods I regularly encounter that I don’t really care for are olives and pickles. I like almost everything else.
Turkish delight sounds like badami halwa-is it a gummy sweet sticky glop (cut into rectangles) with rosewater in different colours and almonds or pistachios embedded on top and in the middle? I love that stuff!
Musty is the best word I can think of for the smell.
Perhaps it’s just a really bad brand. Lemme describe the label.
Extra Pistachio Halva, AO Ghandour Sons SAL.
Made in Lebanon.
Ingredients: Sugar, tahini, vanilla, citric acid, pistachio. (With those ingredients, it should be ideal for me.)
It’s off-white with a large number of pistachios. Not having any idea what it was like, I took a spoon and scooped out a chunk. It was indescribably awful. Bitter and old tasting. I took it to my husband to get him to sniff it and he thought it smelled terrible. I don’t think it smells like food.
I don’t think I could bring myself to try halva again. I know this stuff might not be representative, but lordy, it’s bad.
Of course, if anyone would like a 16 oz tub of halva with one tiny scoop out of it, let me know. I’d be delighted to ship it to you!