Ugh–caviar. Yucko.
The Turkish Delight in my imagination had nothing in common with the Turkish Delight I tried some years ago. When I first discovered seafoam, however, my tastebuds shrieked eureka! That’s what my imagination thought Turkish Delight must taste like, so whenever I read those books, I get a piece or two of seafoam.
Amen! Boiled peanuts are nifty. Here in FL you buy them from carts on the side of the road on the way to the beach.
Speaking of Beverly, I have warning for anyone going to Epcot this summer: they have it there, too. To me it tasted just like carbonated bile, or maybe aspirin in seltzer. Yechhh. Everyone who tried it got this “sweet merciful Og, what is this crap??” look on their face. Very funny to watch if you are pure evil.
The melon soda from (I think) China was my favorite.
I love sushi. I love calamari. I love potato chips.
So a bag of japanese fried squid looked like a winner for a tasty snacky treat. The happy squid on the outside of the bag beckoned me to rescue him from the endless rows of giant sized stuff on the shelves at Costco.
Urgh. Deep fried inner tube rubber infused with the foulness of a pile of dead (probably murdered, likely in a foul manner) fish left lying on concrete in the sun all afternoon. Or like what you’d get if you raked up a Lake Michigan beach after a particularly bad alewife die-off and deep fried it. I couldn’t even finish one bite.
Also put me in the TLW&W turkish delight disappointment camp.
Assuming you like boiled peanuts, believe me, the sentiment is mutual 
Daniel
Are you sure? Wikipedia’s occasionally wrong about that sort of thing, and although I don’t have the book, I’m pretty sure I remember Edmund eating, not drinking, the Turkish Delight. I’ve never actually heard of salep before. Was it common in war-era Britain?
For the record, the folks who make Aplets and Cotlets (mmmmmmm…) also make a version of lokum. I’ve never tried it, but I love their other candies, and if it’s the same texture as Aplets but with rosewater and pistachio, it sounds pretty good to me.
Indeed–a bit of googling turns up the following passage from TLtWatW:
One doesn’t shovel down a drink, nor does one eat it. I think Wikipedia is wrong on this front. (The Queen also gives Edmund hot chocolate, which may have confused them.)
Daniel
Told this story before, but what the heck:
I honeymooned in Fiji. The proximity to Australia and New Zealand meant we Americans were outnumbered by Downunder-ers. I spotted the little packets of vegemite at breakfast, and was intensely curious: partly because of the Men at Work song, and partly because I like trying new things.
Of course, I had no experience with it, so I grabbed a packet, sat at my table, and carefully watched the neighboring Aussies to see how this was done. Toast, okay. Butter is… optional? Some are putting it on first, some aren’t. I didn’t. Okay, spread the vegemite thin. Very thin. Knife scrapes the toast. Okay, got it. Now, take a bite…
The flavor of vegemite, for the record, is equal parts getting hit in the face with a large salt lick and enthusiastically rimming a horse.
One bite was enough. The rest of the triangle of toast went untouched.
You can have it.
German hand cheese handkäse. It looked interesting but it was just not nice at all.
… and then there are the elusive and rarely spotted Blackberry, Pineapple, and Peach Hostess Fruit pies.
I have actually had both Blackberry and Peach pie sightings, but alas, failed to snatch them up… one of many regrets in my life. For twenty minutes in the late eighties I savored what many claim is but a mirage, figmented imagination… the mythological, but in truth, only extinct Hostess Chocolate Pudding Pie… a glazed chocolate pastry encrusting luscious chocolate pudding. It had a counterpart, the yin to its yang, the vanilla pudding pie. I however, hate vanilla… the vile pod that nauseates.
Me, I love other rosewater-flavored things. It wasn’t the flavor, but the fact there was hardly any of it (the flavor, that is) in just a sweetened jelly blob. Blech! It’s possible I just had a crappy brand.
Could well be. If you’re ever willing to give it another try, I’d recommend finding a restaurant with good Middle Eastern food and trying theirs.
Daniel
GODDAMMIT, EVERYONE! Now I’m gonna have to get some Hostess Pies. And I had Hostess Chocolate Pudding Pies quite often in the 80s and 90s. I’ll see what kind of selection my Krogers (or Meijers, wherever I go) has and get back to you.
Hostess Pies aren’t anything like real pies, but it’s just like how sometimes you want home-baked macaroni and cheese, with four kinds of cheese and a nice browned crunchy top… and sometimes you want the powdered cheese “mac and cheese”. You don’t want the real food, you want the crap!
And as for Turkish Delight, since I live in Metro Detroit, I’ll be able to find a metric ass-ton of different brands, so I’ll give it another shot.
:eek:
This is perhaps the funniest thing I have read in a long time. Thank you Cervaise, thank you.
[QUOTE=Susie Derkins]
Amen! Boiled peanuts are nifty. Here in FL you buy them from carts on the side of the road on the way to the beach.
[QUOTE]
You must be in North Florida, because that’s not true for SE FL. Anyway, boiled peanuts are vile. See, peanuts are supposed to be crunchy, not all soft and mushy.
::shudder::
Oooh, how about the Hershey’s Chocolate Mint Candy Canes? I had been wanting to try these for ages, but just never got around to it. Then my sister brought home a box from school this year and I nicked on. Bleh. It was like sucking on a stick of air freshener.
Oh, man, I haven’t seen the blackberry Hostess fruit pie in years. I’ve been hoping it’s a regional thing. Can anybody confirm the continued availability of blackberry pies anywhere in the country?
I had roasted chestnuts for the first time at an outdoor market in Germany about six months ago. Eh. Not as awful as what some of the folks here are describing, but there’s no lingering desire to ever try them again, either.
Ah, grass jelly drink. I had a friend who brought some home, just for me to try. I was instantly suspicious, but I decided to try just a little and violate the personal rule of “don’t drink liquids with gelatinous chunks”. I found out that some rules were just not made to be broken.
Sugar cane juice, though vile, wasn’t as bad.
Sugar cane juice freshly extracted from a chilled green stalk of cane, called guarapo, is a common refreshing drink at Latin restaurants throughout Miami. It’s delicious over ice on a hot summer day, and even better when blended with Gosling dark run, fresh mint, and lime wedges to make a mojito, one of the most perfect mixed drinks ever.
A cursory glance of the Roadfood forum confirms that most of the flavors are still available, including the pudding pies (the last one of which I had in 1994). I would venture to guess that the bakery thrift shops are the place to go, since the stores seem to order little more than apple and cherry (rarely, blueberry).
B&M Brown Bread (canned). I had gotten some to go with the beans. Oh, the picture looks much better than the taste. Like raw, vaguely-sweet flour.
Shasta Diet Chocolate soda. I had gotten this in 1990, shortly after they introduced the white can. It looked like it would be good; it tasted like Coke to which dark chocolate syrup was added—in other words, simply awful.
Clamato. Menses. 'Nuff said.
Yep, I’m in Tallahassee.
And I’m ignoring the rest of what you said. 