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Post by chicchantal on Sept 6, 2008 6:36:02 GMT -5
We all know French food is wonderful though I have to admit I think the Italians have the edge even over the French. I actually like English food too - done properly it's up there with the best of them. Honest! However what DON'T you all eat? Here's my list:
Tofu (I think this is putty by another name)
Pastrami (bleugh)
Marmalade (bleugh bleugh and spit!)
Offal (unless it's liver in a pate. But no hearts, brains, tripe, kidneys or liver with tubes please)
Parsnips (horrible texture)
Sweet potatoes (see parsnips)
Trifle (gloop, if I'm gonna consume that many calories, I'd rather have a tarte au citron)
Salmon (rank, unless smoked)
Pork fat (gives me blinding headaches)
I can proudly say I'll eat just about anything else!
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Post by geordy on Sept 6, 2008 7:55:58 GMT -5
Italian food is wonderful..but I'll still take French! I'm with you on brains, tripe, and hearts for the most part(have chopped a few for giblet gravy!) and tofu. You can't ask a New Yorker to disown pastrami..but truth be told I generally would get the corned beef if going that route! Then there is the distinction between what I might eat if presented at a tasting menu..but would never order myself....rabbit, venison(surprise! ;D)fall into that camp. Not crazy about orange marmalade solo..but maybe in a sauce??? Then again I'm a peanut butter..not a P.B. and jelly gal for the most part! I've no desire to eat the things we generally abhor and do everything possible to prevent/get rid of ...insects, rodents, poisonous fish(esp. since Anthony Bourdain among others say it really doesn't have much taste..just the thrill/cocktail party tale?)..though they are delicacies /special foods in some parts! Many sweets I wouldn't waste the calories on....but if presented with could manage a few bites! Most things like small fishes and birds that you are supposed to devour whole don't do it for me either! Will eat most fruits/vegs.(though a lot of folks fav asparagus I can pass on usually) Heard of some particularly stinky veg/fruit that is supposed to be an acquired taste ..no thanks! Oh feet...chicken, cows, pigs..though with the latter if the meat were pulled off the bone?  And horsemeat....not necessary so why??? |
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Post by mossie on Sept 6, 2008 9:05:09 GMT -5
Chicchantal you don't know what you're missing. Marmalade on toast is an excellent breakfast and I insist on roast parsnips at Chrismas dinner.
As for trifle, I cannot get enough. Can see I couldn't take you to a Las Vegas buffet I used once, where a notice on the dessert counter stated that each plate contained 1000 calories, and people went back for more!
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Post by Jody on Sept 6, 2008 9:21:15 GMT -5
Mossie, you and my husband would make a good fit. He always asks for a trifle instead of a birthday cake!
I love roasted parsnips. We had a very good English friend , who announced, while eating lunch he loved all vegetables except parsnips. Then he asked for another bowl of soup and just what kind of soup it was. Parsnip, of course!!
I love a good English marmalade but really can't abide the American sweet version, it's got to be a bit bitter to be good.
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Post by Shoesy on Sept 6, 2008 9:35:44 GMT -5
Chicchantal - I adore sweet potatoes, and parsnips are a MUST for making chicken soup.
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Post by chicchantal on Sept 6, 2008 10:47:44 GMT -5
I'd actually be sick if I had to eat marmalade on toast. that's how much I hate it. Feet from things go under the offal heading for me.
So isn't there anything else that everyone hates that's considered a delicacy? I've actually had horsemeat, when I was working in France. It's OK, but what a waste of a horse!
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Post by Anne on Sept 6, 2008 11:50:02 GMT -5
Offal (except for foie gras  ), meat's grease (except the one on magrets, because it tastes a bit like foie gras ;D), horsemeat, anything with tentacles, Grand-Marnier or any other orange liqueur, English jelly, and I guess many other things that I forget . I have never had parsnips . I don't think that I ever saw any being sold in France |
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Post by Laidback on Sept 6, 2008 12:13:47 GMT -5
I have never had parsnips . I don't think that I ever saw any being sold in France Anne, this must be one of those cases where you just looked right over them, because they are very common in the markets in France; they look like a pale, almost white, carrot. Try Googling "parsnip Alsace", and I bet you will start finding them all around Alsace-Lorraine |
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Post by Shoesy on Sept 6, 2008 12:49:26 GMT -5
One fruit that I find disgusting is the guava.  My husband, on the other hand, loves them and buys them when they're in season. We have an agreement, though, whereby he keeps them in the garden so that they don't smell up the house. I always feel sorry for our poor kitties outside. |
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Post by mossie on Sept 6, 2008 13:36:29 GMT -5
Regarding horsemeat, there are still I believe horsemeat butchers in Paris. Anywhere in N France and Belgium it was the case that if you ordered steak, you got Cheval. It was necessary to ask for biftek (spelling?).
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Post by Anne on Sept 6, 2008 13:51:51 GMT -5
Jim, I had looked at the French translation ("panais", which name is vaguely familiar) and then on Wikipedia to see what it looks like, and I assure you that I never saw any Wikipedia says that it used to be a very popular vegetable and cattle food, but that it has been somehow forsaken nowadays except in the UK and Nordic countries . From what I read on Google, it is widely described as one of those "légumes oubliés" which are now beginning to come back (I guess like rutabagas or topinambours, which I never ate either) . |
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Post by Jody on Sept 6, 2008 15:04:35 GMT -5
Shoesy, I feel the same way about papaya. To me they taste like cat's piddle, not that I've ever tasted that, but it's they way I imagine .
Anne, we were driving thru Belgium with a Belgian friend and saw great stacks of rutabaga along the roadsides. She was amazed that we ate them as they are considered cattle feed there. In fact, it's one of my favorites.
David loves horsemeat. He says it is "beefy" but sweet. I don't think they serve it as beef anymore as it's more expensive than beef. I have seen chevaleries at various markets. I don't think that's the right word!
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Post by denise on Sept 6, 2008 15:58:41 GMT -5
Chicchantal - I adore sweet potatoes, and parsnips are a MUST for making chicken soup. I also love sweet potatoes and parsnips, especially roasted. I'm fascinated how Shoesy uses them in chicken soup?. As for things I don't like, that is difficult............................ Mostly anything smoked. ........ And I don't like fish with any sort of herb or other flavouring that spoils the wonderful delicate flavour....... And Figs, because I was once violently ill after eating them requiring hospitalisation. Anything else I will have a go. I suppose it depends how hungry I am. At the moment we seem to be living on salmon and avocados in various interesting guises..... I think Michael has found a inexpensive supply as he does all the shopping and a lot of the cooking. They are meant to be good for your skin so I must look about twelve by now.  Chichantal...I don't like Tofu either, I keep trying it different ways because I like the name...sound really wonderful, but I am disappointed every time. I never learn!!!  Denise love from England  |
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Post by geordy on Sept 6, 2008 17:41:17 GMT -5
Love rutabaga..Mother always referred to it as turnip..had it mashed with butter,,YUM...at Thanksgiving and Christmas! Basically like all root veggies!
This is for a different thread but spent part of the day ironing!!!!!!!
Thank you...NOT...Gitte!!!! For some reason the things I am taking this time.....were wrinkly....probably will be again when I take them out of the bag!
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Post by Laidback on Sept 6, 2008 18:03:01 GMT -5
Thanks Anne, panais is the word I was groping for. I was introduced to them by a friend originally from Utz(near you I think). I have had them in France boiled, puréed and in soup and found them by themself to be bland and tasteless, but I have never had them roasted in the English style. Ms. L. and I go to the different neighborhood markets regularly so I will start specifically looking for panais.
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Post by Shoesy on Sept 6, 2008 22:02:14 GMT -5
O.K. I have to make sure if I got this right. I assumed that parsnip was the same thing as parsley root. Was I wrong? If so, it is parsley root that I use when I make chicken soup. That, along with celery root, adds a lot of flavoring and makes the soup what Jewish chicken soup is supposed to be. However, that's just about it for my culinary skills. ;D |
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Post by Anne on Sept 7, 2008 1:59:04 GMT -5
Demarais, the places to buy horsemeat are called "boucherie chevaline" . There are less and less of them . They were very popular at a time when horse was a cheaper alternative to beef when people wanted red meat . And I am sure that your husband is right about it tasting good, but many of my (and our here) dislikes are purely psychological . Jim, I am impressed that you had panais several times in France . My village's market is a very small one so one mustn't expect anything unusual here, but I am sure that they never sold any at my huge Carrefour supermarket, while I (very)occasionally saw rutabaga and topinambours there ... |
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Post by denise on Sept 7, 2008 3:03:14 GMT -5
. I have had them in France boiled, puréed and in soup and found them by themself to be bland and tasteless, but I have never had them roasted in the English style.. YUK! boiled or pureed parsnips! no wonder people do not like them. You have to have them roasted or in chips to taste the sweetness. Shoesy...parsley root makes more sense. When you've time do you have a recipe for chicken soup? Denise Love from England |
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Post by chicchantal on Sept 7, 2008 6:25:57 GMT -5
Interestnigly one of my recipe books, think it's Elizabeth David, says parsnips are eaten very little in France, though a bit in Belgium and Holland. They are popular in the UK though I grew up in a non parsnip eating household as my parents don't like them. However I don't think I've been influenced unduly by ma and pa in this as I love spinach and asparagus which I never ate till I had my own place.
Agree re guava and papaya: I am not keen on most exotic fruit actually, though I'll eat it, eg mango, passionfruit, custard apple, star fruit. Most of it seems to be sweet and sticky without much flavour. Except mango which tastes carroty to me.
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Post by mossie on Sept 7, 2008 13:45:48 GMT -5
Re rutabaga, not too sure exactly what that is, but there is a range of root vegetables which look similar. Gitte's next door neighbour the Swede, which is a yellowish colour and is good boiled and or mashed with butter. Turnips, neeps to our scottish friends, which can be very tasty but hard. I remember as a child scouring a field of swedes to find the odd white turnip which could get mixed in with them. Having yanked it out of the ground, it would have the mud cleaned off with the fingers and then cut up and eaten raw there and then. Well it was wartime and rationing was tight, poor little kids . Piled up at the roadside were possibly sugar beet, which are boiled to produce sugar, a large part of the sugar we eat in UK comes this way. And last, Mangold wurzels, which are fed to cattle. Wurzel is a nickname for a country yokel, but you don't want to know that. |
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), meat's grease (except the one on magrets, because it tastes a bit like foie gras ;D), horsemeat, anything with tentacles, Grand-Marnier or any other orange liqueur, English jelly, and I guess many other things that I forget .
My husband, on the other hand, loves them and buys them when they're in season. We have an agreement, though, whereby he keeps them in the garden so that they don't smell up the house. I always feel sorry for our poor kitties outside. 
Let the riot begin! LOL - 
hahahha