The Food Thread

turbo

My father and the other male adults would "stake claim" to those mincemeat pies ASAP. His baby sister played along because she was so flattered by the attention. If you were a kid, you were out of luck.

lisab

Oooo, I'd like to try that. Here in the US we have a lot of adulterated Mexican recipes. One of my favorites is Arroz con Pollo. The veggies are carrots, celery, onion, and chilies. And lots of cheese! Does Arroz con Pato have cheese? I've never heard of duck with cheese, now that I think about it.

Astronuc

There is still time to make "Arroz con Turquía"! or Rice with Turkey!

Hygeio

it does not have cheese. it uses onion, garlic, 'aji amarillo' and cilantro as its base. then 'chicha de jora' and a black lager beer as the 'water'. as for vegetables it uses green peas, shredded carrots, red pepper.

-hygeio.

fluidistic

My current favorite food are sorrentinos (Argentine pasta, similar to ravioli but bigger) filled with butternut squash and mozzarella. A pure pleasure.
Back in 2005 I made a trip to Peru and I've eaten so much and so many things (including a Guinea Pig). Gastronomically it's an unbelievable country, very rich if not the richest by far. I ate a lot of rice (arroz) as it seems to be popular. May I mention the famous ceviche. I'll never forget that day when we (the people I was living in their house and I) went to the restaurant and ordered ceviche; I started it by eating the red chili on the top of the raw fish. I've got "burned" so badly that I could not eat anything for some hours so I did not eat the ceviche that day.

Ivan Seeking

I spent a couple of weeks in Peru and it was amazing! What I left with most of all was a sense of music. Hard to describe, but it was something I felt the entire time I was there... this constant sense of music. The place can really get under your skin.

One day I was served what I thought was cake for dessert. It looked just like a white cake with white icing and sprinkles on top. Much to my surprise, it was made of potatoes!

I was there for work and spent a lot of time in a factory. I was treated as a special guest and sat with the president and upper management for lunch. We got meat for lunch, but only our table got meat. No one else did. And what we got was terrible! Then I made the mistake of inviting a mid-level manager to eat with us one day. BIG mistake. When he sat down the entire table fell silent and no one would speak until he got up and left the table. Whoops! I didn't realize until that moment just how class-based the culture is.

But eating at the hotel at night was a gastronomical delight to be sure. What a wonderful trip that was! Of the 300K airmiles I traveled over a period of a few years, that trip was the best. Less the part where upon landing we were held hostage at gunpoint at a miltary base for eight hours, with no food, water, or toilets, it was a great trip!

On another note, yesterday a friend informed me that he likes to make chocolate-covered bacon.

fluidistic

I also had an amazing trip. When I was in Lima I stayed in a very poor house near Pachacamac's ruins (quite far from the center of the city). This is where I've been introduced to salsa music (all day and night long, everywhere). Very special experience yes.

Wow. I really liked what they call "camote" which is a potato with a sweet taste.
Also I've eaten some cucumber salad that was astonishing, it was watered with the juice of small lemons.

That is funny!
Wow, how did the landing happen that way?!

Ivan Seeking

IIRC I was about 30 miles outside of Lima. But I didn't mean that I always heard music... lot of that too though. And earthquakes almost every day. Funny thing too, it rained while I was there. They only get about a half to two inches a year. Us Oregonian just can't escape the rain no matter where we go!!!

On the flight down, Lima was fogged in. So we circled until we were low on fuel. Finally we had to fly about 500 miles North to a military base for refueling. When we landed, we were surrounded by soldiers with automatic weapons and forced to sit in the 100 degree heat with no ac, and as I said, with no other ammenities. We were not allowed to deplane. Before long the toilets were full and the the plane started to smell. We were all tired, hungry, thirsty, and some people started threatening violence. Worst of all, for the longest time we didn't know what the heck was going on. Turns out we were being held as long as Delta could stand it [joke]. The Peruvians were basically extorting Delta for some outrageous price for fuel. So they all let us sit there for about eight hours... like I said, as long as THEY could stand it.

In total we were on that plane for something like 24 hours. Long flight!

fluidistic

Ah, I did not notice the earthquakes. About the rain, I only remember a very very thin "rain" and that they told me that that's basically the most rain they usuall get which is indeed quite funny.


Wow, not a good experience for sure. About the fog, did you go there in their winter (i.e. summer in the USA)? I think Lima is permanently fogged in winter.

Ivan Seeking

It must have been the end of March because I remember running into a bunch of physicists in Atlanta who had just attended the APS meeting that year; the one where the accelerating expansion [dark energy] of the universe was the hot topic. I found out about this while waiting for my connecting flight from Lima heading home. I heard two of them talking and joined in the conversation. Funny huh! I was also on Atlanta TV News that night talking about Bosnia as a man on the street. A very strange trip...

Evo

You were in Bosnia? Bosnia via Lima to Oregon?

Ivan Seeking

Haha, no. At the time, the war in Bosnia was just starting... I think, anyway, the issue was the pending mass exodus of something like 100,000+ people due to ethnic cleansing, and I was asked what I think we should do about it. There was a news crew working the Atlanta airport. The timing was incredible because I had hardly slept in two or three days and suddenly I'm being video taped. But he said it was great and to watch the news at 5, or whatever it was. Never did get to see it though.

turbo

Seat of the Pants Soup. If you want to make an incredible soup and don't mind working without a detailed recipe, here you go.

Cube-cut a decent steak, and mince some yellow onions and garlic. Put the steak, onions, and garlic in the bottom of a hot soup-pot with peanut oil, and sear everything. Add a large can of ground sauce tomatoes ( I like Contadina) and a little water, plus the drained contents of a medium-sized can of black beans.

Now is the time to add barley, chopped carrots, frozen string beans and frozen whole-kernel corn. For a hearty soup, cumin and some cayenne should be in the mix, too. If the soup is a bit too runny, consider adding a small can of tomato paste and simmering longer, but consider that the barley will thicken the soup. I don't like to salt soups, because once the salt is in, you can't take it out. Ground celery seed can be a good addition.

Hygeio

im so happy you guys had an extraordinary experience food wise in Peru. i will share you how to make ceviche. It is one of the easiest dishes you will ever make.

INGREDIENTS:

1. Freshness. THIS is the most important thing for a ceviche. The fish needs to be day caught and never frozen. The best fish to use for ceviche is pacific ocean flounder. 2nd alternative is 'corvina' or white sea bass.

2.The limes should be key west lime, since we are in the US, or try finding Mexican lemons that are really small about 2 inches. *Edit. if you are able to find, for some miracle, peruvian 'piura' lemons, those are the lemons you should use for ceviche. *

3. Red Onion. 1 per fish will do.

4. kosher salt, white pepper (or black).

5. OPTIONAL: 'Rocoto' or 'aji amarillo' if you cant find any of these, you can try using jalapenos.

Thats it...

Steps.

1. you'll need ~7-10 lemons per fish. (This is where you have to experiment, since fishes vary in size and lemons vary in liquid.)

1a. Squeeze lemons into bowl.Dont squeeze the lemons fully, because when you do, the outer shell *the rind*, which is bitter, also gets squeezed into the bowl.

1b. set aside.

1c. Cut the onions as thinly as you can. put into some kind of strainer. Add lots of salt on top of it and mix well. Leave in sink.

2. Cut the fish in cubes approx. 1/2 - 1 inch cubes. uniformity is key.

2a. place into a bowl. big enough bowl to move the fish freely for tossing.

3. OPTIONAL: if you're going to use any of the chili peppers I posted. Cut the chili in the middle and just rub the cut portion along the wall of the bowl. Make circles along the bowl to get the spiciness. (the longer you do this, the spicier it will get. adjust accordingly.)

3a. after 10-15 minutes water the salt away from the onions. use your hand to squeeze the onions' water. or you can use a salad spinner.

3b. add onions to where fish is.

4. splash in some lemon juice and use a wooden spoon to fold the fish over the liquid.

4a. add your salt and pepper to taste.

4b. continue to add lemon juice until the fish can no longer soak up the liquid. you can still add more lemon juice it will not 'destroy' the dish but the fish will no longer absorb more lemon juice. you can use the rest of the lemon, if there's any left over, to make a 'salsa criolla'. (ill post later if people are interested).

5. SERVE IMMEDIATELY. Some recipes will tell you to cook the fish in lemon 30 minutes. but dont. you want the fish taste and not the overpowering of lemon 'cooking' the fish.

Super Easy. Told ya. Hopefully, this makes sense. I'll answer any questions.

Evo

And to guarantee that you don't ingest live parasites from the fish, make sure the fish was frozen first.

http://seafoodhealthfacts.org/seafoo.../parasites.php

Hygeio

If you are weary about parasites, I guess go for frozen. I will never do that. Been eating ceviche for 25 years the same way and im still ticking. :)

Evo

So was the person on tv last week, until the worm made it into their brain.

Here's a nice video about worms from raw fish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKM7LacSfBQ